My letter to SC-4 US House Democratic candidate Wm. "Griff" Griffith.

[DemoTex]

Dear Mr. Griffith,

On the advice of my friend ____ _____, I have checked out your website. I am very excited to have a Democrat running for the seat of Mr. Inglis. I wish you the best of luck in this campaign.

I, like _____, am a long-time Democratic activist. To that end, I have a couple of comments on my first visit to your website:

1. Other than the one link to the SC Democratic Party (on a back page), I see no mention of your party affiliation. I want my candidates to differentiate themselves from the party that has run this country into the ground over the course of their control of the government. Democrat Michelle Shain, in her failed bid for a seat in the SC Legislature last year, certainly minimized any mention of her affiliation with the Democratic Party. Big mistake, in my opinion. Follow the example of Jeff Hubbard, Democratic candidate for sheriff in Transylvania County, NC. Jeff's signs and bumper-stickers proudly proclaim Democrat Jeff Hubbard for Sheriff.

2. Your list of five issues conspicuously omits the main issue that has put Mr. Bush's poll numbers on par with his waist size and Mr. Cheney's polls closer to his hat size: Iraq. As a veteran of over 250 air combat missions in Vietnam, I am appalled at the treatment of active service men and women, retirees, and veterans by the Bush administration. I am frightened that the Bush regime could lie to Congress and the world to get us into Iraq in the first place. I am ashamed that the Bush regime has tortured and "rendered" in my name, all with due process totally suspended. And I fear Mr. Bush's irresponsible saber rattling at Iran (a rogue state, indeed, but far from a member of the nuclear community).

As a former military man, and a student of history, I see parallels between any attack on Iran (nuke or conventional) and the French fiasco at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. Iran controls the high ground above the Persian Gulf .. miles and miles and miles of high ground, including the Straits of Hormuz. The relatively small, shallow Persian Gulf could very well become Mr. Bush's Dien Bien Phu when, after the first bomb is dropped in Iran, that state unleashes the hell-fire of its many batteries of Russian-built Sunburn cruise missiles (2.1 Mach!) against the US Navy fleet in the Persian Gulf. The fleet would be ducks in a bathtub, and any help from the Navy's Indian Ocean fleets would be in air support only. Thousands of US sailors could perish in one bloody barrage. Like Col. Pirouth proved at Dien Bien Phu, counter-battery fire would be essentially useless against Iran's dug-in mountain missile sites.

I would like to see you address the issue of Iraq and Iran from the get-go. Mr. Bush and his administration have put us squarely in harms way ("Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind." Hosea 8), and that fact needs to be driven home. Please don't wait until these issues pop up in a debate. They must be part of the campaign discourse now. I will support you financially and in any other ways I can, but I will also ask the hard questions of my candidate(s) in public forums.

Thank you sir, for entering the political fray. That takes more guts than night missions over Laos. Thank you, too, for your service to our country.

(DemoTex)
Greenville, SC

http://www.votegriff.com/index.php

[DemoTex]

1. Kick for the evening shift.

Know what I mean?

[DemoTex]

2. Griff just called and talked almost 60 minutes.

He is a good guy. I opened his eyes on Democratic Party affiliation and other demo-stories. Know what I mean, Vern?