Former Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Merrill "Tony" McPeak doesn’t take any political prisoners.

"I’m an anybody-but-Bush-guy," he told about 150 people attending a Veterans for John Kerry rally in Medford early Friday afternoon. "I’d vote for Grandma Moses and she’s been dead for two decades."

Actually, she died in 1961, more than three decades ago, but McPeak made his point.

The four-star general who led the air war during Desert Storm when George H.W. Bush was in the White House is definitely not impressed with the younger Bush.

"We are in a very deep hole in Iraq," McPeak said. "The first rule holds: When you are in one, stop digging.

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"The man does not know that we’re in a hole over there," he added. "... The worst mistake a statesman can make is not to be in touch with the real world because that sin is paid for by our sons and our money. We simply have to get rid of this guy."

McPeak, who retired to Oregon in 1995, served four years on the Joint Chiefs of Staff advising Bush’s father, flew 269 combat missions in Vietnam as a fighter pilot and in 1967-68 was a solo pilot for the Thunderbirds, the Air Force’s elite aerobatics demonstration team.

In an interview before his remarks, McPeak, 68, a Lake Oswego resident and a 1953 graduate of Grants Pass High School, acknowledged he had campaigned for George W. Bush in 2000.

"I really didn’t know George W. Bush but I knew his parents," he said. "It came clear very quickly that I had made a mistake."

A former longtime Republican who became an independent two years ago, McPeak said he made his discontent known before the start of the current Iraq war.

"Before the combat started in Iraq II, I was writing op-ed pieces and giving speeches against going into Iraq," he said. "I said there were no weapons of mass destruction. I said there was no connection between Saddam and the attack of 9/11.

"I said the occupation was going to be very, very tough unless we went in with a U.N. mandate and a big alliance," he added, noting even then it would be a difficult battle for the peace.

McPeak stressed he wasn’t the only military expert warning the administration.

"It didn’t take a genius to figure it out," he said. "But, unhappily, these predictions turned out to be true. We are in a mess now."

McPeak’s visit came on the military heels of retired four-star Army Gen. Tommy Franks, who stumped for Bush in Medford on Monday. Franks disagrees with McPeak’s assessment on the Bush administration, although both describe each other as a good friend.

"I’m not a politician — I’ve never been a politician," Franks told a larger rally of Veterans for Bush on Monday. "But I know a commander in chief when I see one and there’s only one on the ballot this year — that’s George W. Bush."

A registered independent in Florida who has voted for both Republican and Democratic presidential candidates, Franks said he was campaigning for Bush because of his handling of the war against terrorism.

Describing himself as a conservative who hasn’t changed his values or direction, McPeak said he periodically visits old friends in Grants Pass.

"Many of them regard me as a lost cause, a black sheep kind of guy," he said. "But it’s my conservatism that causes me to oppose Bush.

"It’s not that I’m a left-wing, raving lunatic liberal Democrat," he added. "I am not. I’m just a conservative guy who doesn’t like to see somebody waste our sons and daughters or our money, and our allies, by the way."

During his speech, McPeak, who served 37 years in the Air Force, said those in charge of foreign affairs aren’t conservatives.

"They call themselves ‘neo-cons’ (new conservatives) and they may well be ‘neo’ but they are not cons," he said.

He called them radicals who alienated countries that could have aided in the war on terror. The world community stood solidly behind the United States immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he said.

"And we parlayed that popularity into what I think was a righteous action in Afghanistan," he said.

He noted the global community, including France and Germany, was involved in the Afghanistan effort.

"But that wasn’t good enough for the neo-cons," he said. "They don’t live in the real world. These are Utopian thinkers, idealists. They have no calluses on their hands. ... Not a single one of them have ever seen the inside of a uniform."

McPeak said he was impressed with Kerry.

"As I’ve gotten to know him, I’ve discovered the guy has everything we want in the presidency: intelligence, curiosity, imagination," he said. "He is in all respects 180 degrees opposite the guy now in the White House.

"He’s the kind of guy who won’t be careless with our sons and daughters," he added. "He won’t be careless with our money. ... He has what we need to be a commander in chief."

Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at pfattig@mailtribune.com