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Muslims Say They'll 'Kill Us,' McCain Supporter Says

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By WILLIAM MARCH The Tampa Tribune

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 19, 2008

TAMPA - In a Republican Party news conference call Friday to introduce a new John McCain campaign video, retired Col. Bud Day, a friend and occasional political spokesman for McCain, said the Iraq war is a repeat of Vietnam, and that Muslims "have said either we kneel or they're going to kill us."

Day, who shared a cell with McCain when both were prisoners of war in North Vietnam, said America's war effort in Vietnam "was working wonderfully until the Democrats and the foreign relations committee cut off the funds to our loyal allies" in South Vietnam, he said.

"There's a very strong comparison" to Iraq, he said. "Democrats have tried to cut the money off in Iraq, force us to end the war - an ongoing surrender policy.

"People forget we're at war," he added. "The Muslims have said either we kneel or they're going to kill us." Day said he and McCain are "not going to kneel."

McCain, he said, "is not a pacifist, which many Democrats are."

Day, who was part of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth committee that attacked John Kerry in 2004, also defended that committee's work, which has been denounced by McCain and others.

Day has campaigned with McCain and acted as a campaign surrogate, but Florida Republican Party officials said after the call that Day was speaking for the Republican Party, not for the McCain campaign.

The purpose of the call, they said, was to introduce a McCain campaign video criticizing Barack Obama's stance on the war. Obama, the video says, initially opposed the troop surge in Iraq, although he now says it has succeeded in cutting the violence there.

'Misremembering History'
Political scientist Stephen Craig at the University of Florida said Day's comments about Vietnam are a mistake, politically and historically.

Day, he said, is "misremembering history."

In the Vietnam era, "the biggest thing that happened was that public opinion turned against the war, and opinion leaders turned against the war, most significantly in the wake of the Tet offensive" of 1968, Craig said.

He said Muslims are likely to find Day's comment offensive, and that McCain appears to be having a problem with "surrogates" - friends and allies who speak for the campaign.

He mentioned the gaffe of former Sen. Phil Gramm, once McCain's top economic adviser, who recently said in reference to national economic problems that the United States is "a nation of whiners."

"If McCain is relying on this kind of person to win the White House, he ought to make other plans for January," Craig said.

'He's Got The Right Stuff'

Day, 83, was imprisoned in North Vietnam along with McCain from 1967-70, and the two shared a cell for much of that time.

Day said they met when McCain was brought, seriously wounded, to his cell.

"I sensed instantly how absolutely bright he was," Day said. "He's one of the three or four most intelligent people on the planet."

He recounted the story of how their North Vietnamese captors, having learned that McCain's father was an important admiral, sought to score propaganda points by getting McCain to leave his captivity early, and how McCain refused to cooperate and was tortured as a result.

He said McCain demonstrated intense courage and loyalty to fellow captors.

Asked whether that qualifies him to be president, Day said, "It indicates that you have the right foundation. You understand it's the duty of each citizen to go fight for his country.

"He is obviously not a pacifist, which many of the Democrats are ... It tells you he's got the right stuff."

Day defended the Swift Boat Veterans' 2004 TV ads, which criticized John Kerry's military service and have been widely called distorted and at times false by independent analysts.

In 2004, McCain called the ads, which suggested that Kerry didn't legitimately earn the decorations for bravery he received in Vietnam, "dishonest and dishonorable."

But Day said the attack "was totally truthful."

Day, a Medal of Honor winner who lives in Shalimar, became a POW when his plane was shot down, like McCain. He has been described as the nation's most-decorated living veteran.
McCain campaign spokesmen could not be reached for comment Friday about the call.

Reporter William March can be reached at (813) 259-7761 or wmarch@tampatrib.com.

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