A couple of days ago, a Bosnian veteran who actually met Hillary Clinton that fateful day wrote a letter to a Pennsylvania blogger explaining her version of what happened that day. This is what she had to say about Senator Clinton's story:

To trivialize the atrocities suffered by the real people I met in that country for political gain is beyond my ability to comprehend.  I met mothers who had lost their children and children who had lost their parents. The sheer leap of credibility that the First Lady would have brought her daughter into an active war zone is an insult to the people there who suffered more than real risk, they suffered real loss.

She even included a copy of her commendation for service in Bosnia so that people could verify that she was actually there (no misremembering for her, eh?).

This general, who is calling on military service persons to withdraw support for Senator Clinton, says that her misremembering sniper fire would make her ineligible for promotion in the Army:

as to Senator Clinton, were she a sergeant seeking promotion, her known fabrication of battle facts would disqualify her. I have been under fire many times, so much so that the incidents run together, but you can bet I remember the first time.

This kind of false public statement would probably preclude a military service person from promotion. I will vote for the DEM nominee in the GE, but many of my fellow soldiers feel strongly that we should not have a Commander in Chief who would lie (their words) about being shot at in a war zone. It was interesting that two of my Army buddies hadn't spoke with each other but had almost exactly the same things to say. Neither talked much about the valor theft, although what little they did say about it was not nice. Rather, they were more concerned with the diplomatic aspects of the episode. They both pointed out that if she was a sitting president and made up a story like this that it could get us into another war. A stretch? Maybe... but you can bet there are more service persons who feel just like they do.

One last note, you should know that the general who wrote the letter is an Obama supporter:

I proudly acknowledge that I changed voter registration so I could vote for Senator Obama in Pennsylvania's presidential primary. With 4000 dead in the supra-strategic national tragedy that is Iraq I could not but do otherwise.

You can read the rest of his letter here and Tammi Hetherington's letter here (also linked above.

One thing is for sure, there are some strong feelings on this from some of our military men and women. You can bet we haven't heard the last of this, and I anticipate this dogging Clinton in her Senate re-election too.

I just hope she fires Mark Penn, and gives a public apology to the troops she may lead next year. That would look much better than chalking multiple sniper misspokes to "sleep deprivation" . . . and TRUST ME . . . EVERY soldier has performed fire watch, so we know what REAL sleep deprivation feels like!