ANSWERS: 12
  • It should be a mandatory requirement.
  • Very important especially when his/her predecessor was a war monger
  • That shouldnt be the most important but at the sametime that would be nice to know that he has served our country as well. But it wouldnt be the factor that decides for me that he should be president.
  • Very important...How can he be the commander-in-chief of the armed forces with no military experience whatsoever !!! *not even junior ROTC !!!
  • It's high on my list of things it's "good" for a President to have, but not an absolute "must have."
  • You dont have to have served in a war or the military in order to understand it as a process. Im certain that many of the people that actually serve in the military know little to nothing about the way things above them actually come into play or work as a whole institution that effects us globally.
  • It should be a requirement.
  • To me, it isn't important at all. While the POTUS is commander-in-chief, I don't think that is a primary concern. I would rather have a president who is skilled at working with people rather than fighting them. BTW, if anyone thinks my opinion is the result of a lack of military experience, I served four years in the USMC and five years in the US Army.
  • I think it can be helpful, but not essential. Serving in the military does not seem to have made people like Don Rumsfeld and John McCain less reluctant to employ military force, or more expert in its use. Conversely, Franklin D. Roosevelt never served in the Armed Forces and he navigated the US through almost all of WW II. I think it's more important that the President have a sense of empathy for the horrors that war brings, and only use it as a last resort. Sadly, most modern US Presidents have been very willing to send the military on missions that are more about maintaining the Corpratocracy and American imperial interests, rather than genuine threats to United States. . . .
  • That depends on how important you think war is. If you take it as a given that America is going to be at war, then experience in the armed forces would definitely be a big plus. But if you're open to the idea that the military might not be the best/only way of solving international problems, then not only is military experience not necessarily a necessity, but depending on what sort of outlook a candidate's military experience has left them with, could actually be a bad thing in that it could make them that much more trigger happy.
  • Not important at all, having served in the Armed Forces does not make a candidate a better future president, we need a brilliant mind to take us out of this horrible situation we are in. For further information check the enclosed link and watch the videos on Milton Friedman a brilliant mind and a Nobel Price on Economics. http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/995914
  • It's not a must, however people who brag about it just to say they did it (John McCain) and who tell their story as a way to get sympathy (also John McCain) are not fit to be president.

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