Mike Gravel Answers YouTube Question: Were All The Vietnam Deaths In Vain?

During the Democratic YouTube debate, Mike Gravel fielded a question from John Cantees, who asked the former Senator whether he wished to defend his statement to the effect that all the American soldiers who died in Vietnam died in vain. Regarding the video, John Cantees writes:

This is former senator Mike Gravel responding to my YouTube debate submission with Barak Obama and John Edwards putting in their two cents as well.

And, just to be clear, I actually support Mike Gravel 100% and I personally agree with his statement. However, I was concerned about how other Americans with different views might take it.

So don't think that I'm just trying to poke holes in Mike's views. I was just trying to set him up for an opportunity to give a very passionate and straight-forward answer which is something that the other candidates don't always do.

You can watch the video here.

Mike Gravel's "passionate and straight-forward answer" includes the line: "The only thing worse than a soldier dying in vain is more soldiers dying in vain."

That's probably too radical to get Mike Gravel elected -- or even nominated -- but it doesn't go far enough for me.

Where does he rate killing defenseless, innocent people -- en masse, and for profit? Does that rank third on his list? Or lower still?

I hope he didn't mean it the way he said it, because I don't remember seeing "Thou Shalt Not Die" among the ten commandments, and in my opinion it takes a perverse sense of "morality" to see dying as worse than killing.

On the other hand, Mike Gravel is on the verge of being thrown out of the debates already, after speaking freely about the damage our troops have suffered. Imagine the flak that would fly if he spoke freely about the damage they have caused!