Paul, Obama collect most military donations to run

[Geee]

Washington Times:

Enlisted personnel and civilian military employees are donating more to presidential campaigns than in previous elections, and they overwhelmingly prefer two candidates: Ron Paul, the long-shot Republican presidential contender opposed to using U.S. forces as the “world’s police,” and President Obama.

Mr. Paul and Mr. Obama, who’s slashing the Pentagon’s budget, have received nearly the same number of donations of at least $200 from military voters, but the GOP candidate’s haul adds up to $100,000 more than the president’s, a Washington Times analysis of publicly available Federal Election Commission records showed.

Each has lapped the rest of the GOP field several times, taking in 20 times as many military donations as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and more money than all their rivals combined. Mr. Paul took in $300,588 to Mr. Romney’s $30,293.

“If we’re going to go to war, and there’s a good reason, then we shouldn’t be fighting with two hands behind our back because we’re doing peacekeeping,” said Jordan Whitson, a soldier in the Army National Guard in Alabama who has written three checks to the Paul campaign. “Germany, South Korea and Japan — there’s a lot of money wasted over there.”

It makes for a curious juxtaposition: As candidates appear with veterans groups to seek one of the most coveted informal endorsements in politics — pledging support for the military with veterans’ benefits but also budgets that would increase the size of the active forces — troops are speaking out in favor a limited role for the armed forces.

Some said their views on war evolved after seeing the horrors of battle firsthand.