“A proven leader, and a man of integrity,” the New York Post called John McCain in its editorial endorsement. “A naval aviator shot down over North Vietnam and held as a POW, McCain knew that freedom was his for the taking. All he had to do was denounce his country. He refused–and, as a consequence, suffered years of unrelenting torture.”
This standard summary of McCain’s five and a half years in the Hanoi Hilton, repeated in thousands of media accounts during his 2000 campaign and again this election year, is the founding myth of his political career. The tale of John McCain, War Hero prompts a lot of people turned off by his politics–liberals and traditional conservatives alike–to support him. Who cares that he “doesn’t really understand economics”? He’s got a great story to tell.
Scratch the surface of McCain’s captivity narrative, however, and a funny thing happens: his heroism blows away like the rust from a vintage POW bracelet.
In the fall of 1967 McCain was flying bombing runs over North Vietnam from the U.S.S. Oriskany, an aircraft carrier in the South China Sea. On October 26, the 31-year-old pilot was part of a 20-plane squadron assigned to destroy infrastructure in the North Vietnamese capital. He flew his A-4 Skyhawk over downtown Hanoi toward his target, a power plant. As he pulled up after releasing his bombs, his fighter jet was hit by a surface-to-air missile. A wing came off. McCain’s plane plunged into Truc Bach Lake.
Mai Van On, a 50-year-old resident of Hanoi, watched the crash and left the safety of his air-raid shelter to rescue him. Other Vietnamese tried to stop him. “Why do you want to go out and rescue our enemy?” they yelled. Ignoring his countrymen, On grabbed a pole and swam to the spot where McCain’s plane had gone down in 16 feet of water. McCain had managed to free himself from the wrecked plane but was stuck underwater, ensnared by his parachute. On used his pole to untangle the ropes and pull the semi-conscious pilot to the surface. McCain was in bad shape, having broken his arm and a leg in several places.
McCain is lucky the locals didn’t finish him off. U.S. bombs had killed hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese civilians, many in Hanoi. Ultimately between one and two million innocents would be shredded, impaled, blown to bits and dissolved by American bombs. Now that one of their tormentors had fallen into their hands, they had a rare chance to get even. “About 40 people were standing there,” On later recalled. “They were about to rush him with their fists and stones. I asked them not to kill him. He was beaten for a while before I could stop them.” He was turned over to local policemen, who transferred him to the military.
What if one of the hijackers who destroyed the World Trade Center had somehow crash-landed in the Hudson River? How long would he have lasted? Would anyone have risked his life to rescue him?
An impolite question: If a war is immoral, can those who fight in it–even those who demonstrate courage–be heroes? If the answer is yes, was Reagan wrong to honor the SS buried at Bitburg? No less than Iraq, Vietnam was an undeclared, illegal war of aggression that did nothing to keep America safe. Tens of millions of Americans felt that way. Millions marched against the war; tens of thousands of young men fled the country to avoid the draft. McCain, on the other hand, volunteered.
McCain knew that what he was doing was wrong. Three months before he fell into that Hanoi lake, he barely survived when his fellow sailors accidentally fired a missile at his plane while it was getting ready to take off from his ship. The blast set off bombs and ordnance across the deck of the aircraft carrier. The conflagration, which took 24 hours to bring under control, killed 132 sailors. A few days later, a shaken McCain told a New York Times reporter in Saigon: “Now that I’ve seen what the bombs and the napalm did to the people on our ship, I’m not so sure that I want to drop any more of that stuff on North Vietnam.”
Yet he did.
“I am a war criminal,” McCain said on “60 Minutes” in 1997. “I bombed innocent women and children.” Although it came too late to save the Vietnamese he’d killed 30 years earlier, it was a brave statement. Nevertheless, he smiles agreeably as he hears himself described as a “war hero” as he arrives at rallies in a bus marked “No Surrender.”
McCain’s tragic flaw: He knows the right thing. He often sets out to do the right thing. But he doesn’t follow through. We saw McCain’s weak character in 2000, when the Bush campaign defeated him in the crucial South Carolina primary by smearing his family. Placing his presidential ambitions first, he swallowed his pride, set aside his honor, and campaigned for Bush against Al Gore. It came up again in 2005, when McCain used his POW experience as a POW to convince Congress to pass, and Bush to sign, a law outlawing torture of detainees at Guantánamo and other camps. But when Bush issued one of his infamous “signing statements” giving himself the right to continue torturing–in effect, negating McCain’s law–he remained silent, sucking up to Bush again.
McCain’s North Vietnamese captors demanded that he confess to war crimes. “Every two hours,” according to a 2007 profile in the Arizona Republic, “one guard would hold McCain while two others beat him. They kept it up for four days…His right leg, injured when he was shot down, was horribly swollen. A guard yanked him to his feet and threw him down. His left arm smashed against a bucket and broke again.”
McCain later recalled that he was at the point of suicide. But he was no Jean Moulin, the French Resistance leader who refused to talk under torture, and killed himself. According to “The Nightingale’s Song,” a book by Robert Timberg, “[McCain] looked at the louvered cell window high above his head, then at the small stool in the room.” He took off his dark blue prison shirt, rolled it like a rope, draped one end over his shoulder near his neck, began feeding the other end through the louvers.” He was too slow. A guard entered and pulled him away from the window.
I’ve never been tortured. I have no idea what I’d do. Of course, I’d like to think that I could resist or at least commit suicide before giving up information. Odds are, however, that I’d crack. Most people do. And so did McCain. “I am a black criminal and I have performed the deeds of an air pirate,” McCain wrote in his confession. “I almost died and the Vietnamese people saved my life, thanks to the doctors.”
It wasn’t the first time McCain broke under pressure. After his capture, wrote the Republic, “He was placed in a cell and told he would not receive any medical treatment until he gave military information. McCain refused and was beaten unconscious. On the fourth day, two guards entered McCain’s cell. One pulled back the blanket to reveal McCain’s injured knee. ‘It was about the size, shape and color of a football,’ McCain recalled. Fearful of blood poisoning that would lead to death, McCain told his captors he would talk if they took him to a hospital.”
McCain has always been truthful about his behavior as a POW, but he has been more than willing to allow others to lie on his behalf. “A proven leader, and a man of integrity,” The New York Post says, and he’s happy to take it. “All he had to do was denounce his country. He refused…” Not really. He did denounce his country. But he didn’t demand a retraction.
It’s the old tragic flaw: McCain knows what he ought to do. He starts to do the right thing. But John McCain is a weak man who puts his career goals first.
Ted Rall is the author of the new book “Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia the New Middle East?,” an in-depth prose and graphic novel analysis of America’s next big foreign policy challenge.
© 2008 Ted Rall
Can’t find any proof, but didn’t McCain lose his dick in Hanoi?
That videotape of McCain confessing to being a war criminal should be circulated as widely as possible this fall.
“But John McCain is a weak man who puts his career goals first.”
This article’s a little too Swift-Boaty. The above quote in particular stinks of a hit, not an analysis. I find McCain’s views on Iraq to be somewhat eccentric (to say the least), but attempting to brand him as a psychopath (which is essentially what the article’s doing) is the wrong approach.
The Dems only need to repeat one thing to crush McCain: 100 more years! 100 more years! Make it into a big joke.
I don’t see where this article brands McCain as a psychopath. It simply deconstructs the “war hero” meme and demonstrates that McCain isn’t the ‘maverick’ he is widely regarded to be.
Rall rightly questions McCain’s integrity, particularly in the light of his behavior subsequent to the vile smear campaign of 2000.
Mr. Rall, this is a really bad article, and you should be ashamed of yourself for writing it the way you did. I’m far from being a McCain supporter, but you’ve written an article that a child could rip to pieces.
First, you outline how severely injured McCain was because of his crash, including pointing out that his leg and arm were broken in several places. Then you point out that he was beaten severely. Then you point out that he contemplated suicide. Then you point out that he talked under the stress of what happened to him. Then you point out that most people would probably talk under such situations, including yourself.
Then you point out that McCain is a weak person. Get real. Using this stuff to point out McCain’s weakness is ridiculous. As Stilba already said, the only thing you needed to say to point out the problems with McCain’s candidacy is that he has said he wants to stay in Iraq for 100 more years. So why didn’t you say that?
Putting his so-called “hero” status aside, all the media would have to do is reprint that photo of him hugging Bush and his coronation would be over. Unfortunately, we don’t see that anywhere except in the liberal blogs.
McCain was in solitary too long as a POW. He is a nut case who contradicts himself regularly. Of course, so was Reagan — the media defines the image and idiot Amerika buys what’s sold . . .
I totally agree that this is a cheap hit piece. This is “Swift Boat Lite”. I am all about Common Dreams and this does not fit in. There is this fear that we have to become like Karl Rove in order to win the election. Knocking down a guy for cracking under torture is really blaming the victim. Who do you think you are convincing with this article?
Stay focused on his recent mistakes. Don’t try to rewrite history. The public already has a good conception of who McCain is. This kind of hit cheapens legitimate attacks on his current war positions.
Mr Rall.. this article smacks of ”what the left accuses the right of doing” namely ”when out of reasoned and defensible arguments to support a position, it invariably ends in swearing and name calling.
as the above poster says” starts out ok..then turns into a pile of reeking shite”.
I don’t get the negative reaction to this article.
McCain is a confessed war criminal (and would still be a war criminal even if he hadn’t confessed). His only accomplishment is having survived his ordeal. Survival and heroism are not the same things.
Rall’s point is that McCain continues to be primarily a survivor who actively eschews heroism. He has had numerous opportunities as a soldier and as an elected representative to choose heroism over survival and Rall quite rightly points out the consistency in McCain’s choices.
The story Rall has assembled is extremely important information in a media environment that will marshall its considerable resources to distort McCain’s story for its own purposes. Consider that, regardless of whether he wins the presidency, the established order is heavily invested in the heroic fiction of John McCain, which embodies many of the rhetorical pillars of the corporate-military state.
If our society valued truth first and foremost, McCain would either have to tell the truth or would be out of the picture.
If our society valued truth, Hillary would be out of the presidential race.
The truth is that we value money more than truth, fame more than integrity, and promises more than principles.
so it goes…
Ted Rall, you make me want to puke. I am almost ashamed to even belong to a forum like this after reading that article. Talk about Swift-boating. You also failed to mention that McCain had a chance to be released after a year because of some string pulling by his father but chose to stay because others had been there longer. And I fail to see the relevance of McCain being less of a hero because the N. Vietnamese didn’t tear him apart with their bare hands. I may not agree on most of his policies aside from his anti-torture stance but there is no denying he is a brave man. You, on the other hand are an a$$hole.
I agree with the other readers above who said this is just more Swift-Boat style garbage. It doesn’t fit in at all with the quality I’d expect and hope for from Common Dreams. It’s shameful and despicable. There are many good reasons to oppose McCain’s candidacy, chief among them his war mongering hawkishness, but this kind of garbage is completely out-of-bounds. The author should seek to redeem himself and apologize personally to John McCain. Let’s all unite to defeat McCain in November, but let’s do it honorably. We don’t have to sink to the tactics of the Bushies. We don’t want to become like them. You can’t win by becoming the enemy. After all, isn’t that the way Bush, himself is. He proclaims to fight terrorism, but in fact is probably the greatest terrorist of all. Embrace your enemy for demonstrating how not to behave, then honor yourself by remaining a good person.
sorry , i forgot to add this line in my previous post..
attack the issue and the ideas, not the person
Vietnam was a sad chapter for this country. Due to McCain’s efforts we are doing it again in Iraq and Afghanistan. These are not qualities of leadership I want in a President. He’s unfit for the job, just plain too stupid to speak frankly. Retire McCain, go away. If you don’t bother us we won’t bother you.
“The reason” for not electing John McCain is that his presidency would amount to a third term of the policies of George W. Bush. “The reason” has nothing to do with his military life, and we’d all be better off not hearing this type of stuff.
I don’t know whether to believe this story or not, and frankly, what happened in Southeast Asia 40 years ago matters a bit less than what is going to happen in Iraq-Nam in a year. Yes, McCain was probably a war criminal in the strictest sense of the word, but we can undo that. What we can do is make damn sure he isn’t in the Oval Office to keep our troops in Iraq-Nam killing and being killed for 100 years (His figure).
How exactly is telling the truth like swift boating?? It appears to me to be the opposite of swift boating. But then again I don’t instantly give heroes status to known and self-acknowledged war criminals.
This is quit possibly the most dishonest article that I have ever read on Common Dreams.
I am no fan of Mccain, but to treat outright lies as facts is the lowest of the lows.
McCain’s comments have been taken totally out of context. Mike Wallace was questioning McCain about being tortured by the NVA.
McCain replied, in a choked voice, that he had done things as a prisoner that he shouldn’t have done. When Wallace asked what he had done, McCain replied ” I signed a confession that I was a war criminal and that I targeted women and children”. This was after they had almost beat him to death.
Rall knows damn well what the truth is. He just doesn’t let it get in the way with his little vendetta against people who served in the military. What a scumbag.
John McCain is a war criminal pure and simple. His enthusiastic dropping of napalm and cluster bombs on the Vietnamese people was only brought up short by his capture. His stories of his imprisonment are highly suspect since there are no witnesses other than himself. Discussion about the war was rife at the time and many people (including myself) opted not to take part in this disgusting, murderous, genocidal (at least according to David Shoup who resigned in protest as Commandant of the Marine Corps) war that the Republican front-runner actively and without hesitation participated. I don’t want to hear any bullshit about “Swift boating.” John McCain is a piece of human filth and he always will be.
MkCain saying he doesn’t care if the US military is in Iraq another century is very very clever rhetoric that should be challenged. The lying implication is that the invincible US can afford to keep the US military in Iraq for another century.
But another ten years is beyond its fiscal capacity. We could say “MkCane will crash into a ten year fiscal wall aiming for a one hundred year occupation, then blame it on Social Security.”
I find it difficult to believe that nobody has yet found the untold story here: torture doesn’t work. It does not produce “truth.” McCain signed a statement revealing that he had “targeted” women and children. I am sure that is untrue. I am sure that he accepted the fact that civilian deaths were inevitable given the location of his target, but I am equally sure that he was not “ordered” to target civilian populations nor did he do so on his own initiative. Sadly, he broke under torture. It is neither surprising, nor particularly useful in the context of 2008. What is important, is that he allowed the Shrub (bless Molly’s memory) to have his signing statement without protesting it. How could someone who viewed himself as a war criminal for accepting the inevitable slaughter of innocents, who himself was tortured until he broke and lied to make the pain go away do that? He certainly is not a hero because of this, and he should renounce those who glorify his non-existent heroism every time it appears in the MSM or in the right-wing blogosphere. Rall may be wrong about much, but he is right about this: he knows it’s wrong, but he can’t really talk the talk of the straight talker he wants so badly to be. He wants something else more. Once upon a time it was called Greek tragedy.
Republican trolls chill out! It is an important and legitimate question to ask if you can bring honor upon yourself by “following orders” in a dishonorable campaign. We belived the Nuremberg trials answered that.
Where is the Swift-Boating? What is being Swift-Boated is unapologetic U.S. militarism. And full speed ahead on that course.
But John McCain is psychotic if he thinks his vision of America is shared by anything close to a majority. Please let the sun set on this shell of a man.
“I am a war criminal,” McCain said on “60 Minutes” in 1997. “I bombed innocent women and children.” A repentence that hasn’t lasted. McCain can hardly wait to start bomb, bomb, bombing more women and children, in Iran.
Rall’s lying about the nature of John McCain’s “confession” on 60 minutes is the point. You cannot accuse someone else of lying if you are an enthusiastic participant in spreading what you know to be lies.
As far as Rall wondering how he would do under torture. I know how he would do. He’d fold up like a two dollar tent the minute they walked in the cell.
When McCain saw what the fire on the ship did to all those men, he should have done the right thing and resigned.
Now his memory of innocent people being killed every day in Iraq based on the same lies as in Vietnam has been erased. He is willing to have the murder go on for a century if need be.
We need a leader with fortitude, not bravado. A leader who will think in a humanitarian way, not a militaristic one.
McCain is not that leader.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but…
Started visiting CD before we launched our illegal invasion. Nothing has changed. We brought war, death, and destruction to a place where it was not. There was no moral, legal, ethical, or prctical justification for doing so.
And after this has become damnably obvious to all but the most xenophobic and greedy, the apparent conservative Republican candidate believes is to be a just cause.
Enough said, end of story. Only the Democrats can now lose the general election.
Sorry, I just have to cut someone like McCain a little slack considering the time and the place. I was around them, it was a different world. On the other hand, someone like Hillary, in this day and age, authorizing the war in Iraq knowing innocent people would get blown to bits, sorry sister, you don’t get a pass on that one, not with me anyway.
McCain is probably more than a little damaged in the head. He is loud and proud about calling Asians “G**KS”. We all did back then is the argument.
It is no surprise that he did and still does use that epithet, but it is a little strange to beat ones breast and brag about it publicly.
This article is not good, it’s definitely a Swift Boat kind of attack. like the other posters said, there’s enough to call mccain out for, but not for his POW time.
as for “Republican trolls chill out!”…valid criticism of an article doesn’t make someone a “Republican troll”. it’s our right to disagree with the article.
I agree that McCain lacks the character and intellect to be an effective president. He could be a new version of Bush, which is terrible. But I also think Ted, that calling him a “weak man” is the wrong choice of words. Though it is true enough. He is muddle headed and blown by the wind of circumstantial opportuniy. That makes him an opportunist and a fox. What is unforgiveable is not that he is a liar, all politicians are. What is unforgiveable is that he is an incredibly STUPID git, in the leagues of the present Bush in terms of IQ and capacity to grasp what is happening or what is important. Look at a smooth and capable liar like Clinton (B) then look at rock head McCain. The man is a danger to himself and all of us! I think you need a more eloquent and descriptive set of words to nail the character flaws. The focus need not be on his always sneaking away from true principle, but the bigger danger that he doesn’t actually understand true principle and is another puppet coached on what to think…..
I have to chime in with the others here who disagree with the tone of this article. Like you, I do not want to see someone with John McCain’s political viewpoints at the helm of the country. Yet I find it extremely distasteful to see the horrific abuse suffered by Mr. McCain during his imprisonment artfully spun into an indictment of his character. I find this kind of political tactic repulsive, no matter how much I agree or disagree with the person being targeted.
More distasteful still is this kind of attack when it comes from the same folks who, quite rightfully, protest the endless imprisonment and torture of prisoners at Guantanamo and elsewhere. McCain has vigorously fought against this disasterous policy, probably the only issue on which he and I see eye to eye.
ddell413,
“When McCain saw what the fire on the ship did to all those men, he should have done the right thing and resigned.”
If resigning was an option, the Vietnam War would have never gotten off the ground. The majority of the soldiers would have “resigned” and came home.
McCain was a young man when he went to war. Jet Jocks were gods of the military, it would be hard not to go with the flow in that time and place. My point is that to call him a “war criminal” is meaningless. To imply he was less than human to do what was necessary to survive while being tortured, probably starved, etc. is meaningless. The only meaningful idea of this article was the last sentence: “It’s the old tragic flaw: McCain knows what he ought to do. He starts to do the right thing. But John McCain is a weak man who puts his career goals first.” Too bad Rall felt it necessary to drag McCains POW years through the mud to prove his point.
McCain. This wounded dinosaur, a key father of today’s catastrophes, is in contention for the Presidency. I’d say I can hardly believe it except that my brain is gone from W’s time in office. That America is still capable of making the same mistakes over and over at this point simply defies all conception of rationality. But even there McCain has helped us not to learn. My favorite John-Boy moment is the 2000 campaign when he said in front of my eyes that ‘the wrong people won the Vietnam War.’ And he’s had his fuckin’ war on his sleeve ever since. I am amazed to learn that he briefly saw himself as a war criminal or at least as part of another of our criminal wars. Still I want to punch his face in when he puts “our young men and women in uniform” all around anything he wants to lie about….
What is with all this sympathy for a self-admitted war criminal? Are you people insane? Equating John McCain’s disgusting war record with “war hero” is like saying “I didn’t approve of Adolph Hitler but I always stood solidly behind the S.S.” To anyone supporting this piece of human garbage, a hearty “Fuck you!”
EYOR said, “How could someone who viewed himself as a war criminal for accepting the inevitable slaughter of innocents, who himself was tortured until he broke and lied to make the pain go away do that? He certainly is not a hero because of this.” I fully agree. OLD BADGER TOO & VINCE LAWRENCE get it! The whole basis for life on earth is a plan for spiritual evolution. It’s been said that “only the enlightened soldier recognizes the benefits of avoiding war.” For McCain to have endured the worst of war–both as perpetrator of killing and as the victim of torture–and still advocate FOR war shows a precious lack of learning anything remotely of use to human beings or humanity. Human evolution has been virtually retarded in the face of a dazzling evolution of technology; and no where is that tech moving faster than in the laboratory equivalent of “killing fields.” We do not need another warrior = he man = leader as archetype of American presidential material. It’s outright disgusting! You’d think for witnessing the mercy of an “enemy” saving his life, McCain might have developed a morsel of empathy for all those human targets America’s many wars redundantly aim at. From my 30 years of studying varied schools of spiritual and esoteric thought, it seems to me McCain is failing the quintessential test. Like Ebineezer Scrooge, his salvation was given to him, and instead of embracing it to become a person who advocates FOR life, he identifies with the empty sarcophogus of the “right to life” movement (they are mostly Republican) while advocating for the greatest (in terms of efficiency) death machine in the history of the world: the US military and its varied and obscenely well-armed branches. NO MORE of this! If America elects this man it’s a death warrant and insures the heavy toll of karmic blowback on a massive scale. The world is waiting, I would say praying for justice from the menace our nation under dark lords has become.
I am amused that some would call Rall’s article a “swift boating”. Exposing criminal behavior at war is not swift boating as I understand the term. The original “swift boating” of Kerry, consisting of right wing debunking of Kerry’s claim of “heroism” when he commanded a swift boat in the Mekong Delta.
But, of course no one mentioned the real outrage was that Kerry’s claims of heroism largely consisted slaughtering civilians on shore and their sampans from his swift boat. In fact the sampan-massacre-puppy scene in “Apocalypse Now” was an adaptation of one of his crimes.
Of course, in McCains case, since when is the targeting of a municipal power plant, with full knowledge that civilians inside will be killed NOT a war crime???
But Daniel David should be happy to know that in ‘04 I swallowed hard and for the first time in three elections, voted for the democrat war-thug instead of Nader.
NEVER AGAIN!
> To anyone supporting this piece of human garbage, a hearty “F*ck you!”
Ohh, scary.
I get that from pro-Bush, pro-torture supporters.
And of course it convinces me I MUST be wrong. Well OK, it doesn’t really convince me.
Whatever McCain’s position on war, I believe he is sincere in his opposition to torture.
Rall is wrong to try to twist McCain’s torture into a claim that he is weak. Mr. On’s heroism doesn’t negate McCain’s courage or anyone else’s. McCain did refuse to denounce America - that’s why they tortured him. He could have just tossed the towel in early and saved everyone the trouble. But he didn’t and they crippled him for life. They’d break him. He’d refuse again. They’d break him again. Or as another who was at Hanoi Hilton put it, “I wasn’t as strong as I thought I was. But I was far more resilient then I thought I ever could be”
Courage in the face of torture is knowing that they’re gonna break you. And they do. And knowing they have, and knowing they will again, you scrape enough together and refuse again.
I don’t have to like a person to recognize that.
Have to agree with those finding the tone of this article distasteful, though learning more of the details of McCain’s military career was interesting. That 60 Minutes clip should be circulated far and wide. He also appears in the movie “Why We Fight”.
It does seem a bit hypocritical that he could speak out against the Bush administration’s torture policy, but still be gung ho for the war, in light of the up to one million civilian dead thus far. And the beat goes on…
Is no one paying attention? Over and over on these boards the comment “an admitted war criminal” appear, as they do in the article. McCain never said he was a war criminal. McCain was stating on 60 minutes that, under torture, he signed a statement written by the NVA to the affect that he was “a war criminal who targeted women and children”. He also said he deeply regretted signing that statement.
I imagine most of these posters get the “vapors” over waterboarding by the U.S. ( a wrong and discredited method to obtain a confession.) and would rightly think that any confession so obtained was suspect. They have no problem, however, with believing as absolute truth a statement signed by John Mccain under horrific torture that makes waterboarding look like a day at Disneyworld.
Moral relativism at its worst. Don’t vote for McCain for his views, not some made up rage over a coerced propaganda statement.
And Purvis, right back at you buddy. You didn’t make the debate team in high school did you?
Before the 2000 elections (political views aside), I actually thought McCain might be an honest and sincere person. However, after the war began my opinion changed. I think he’ll do anything he’s told to do in order to win this election. He has been quiet and supportive of shrub during times when he should have spoke out and maybe would have in the past. I think he was promised this election if he “behaved” and was supportive. I’m sure he thinks that when he is elected (which is being pushed hard to happen whether we want it to or not) he can run things as he likes. I’m not sure he knows that he was chosen because he is easily manipulated.
McCain is a full fledged hereditary member of the empire building elite. His father and grandfather were the highest-ranking admirals of the US empire. He is like the Bush progeny in his life-long open access to the institutions of power and advancement in this country. He entered Anapolis only because of his father and graduated at the very bottom of his class. Still - despite his lack of academic competence, he became a pilot and participated in the carpet bombing of civilian targets in North Vietnam. After his release he slid into a cushy naval liason job until he dumped his dumpy, long suffering Navy wife with 4 kids…for a blonde Arizona trophy with a very rich daddy willing to finance his political ambitions - his birth-right.
I grew up in a military family with generations of officers among my father, uncles and grandfathers. After each war they re-entered the real econonmy - as farmers or ranchers, civil engineers or civil servants. In my childhood experience, survivors of prisoner of war camps do no parade their experience as proof of some great heroism or credential for a position of responsibility. My uncle was a fighter pilot - facing Nazis…not a bomber carpeting peasant villages in SouthEast Asia. His release as a skeletal survival from a Nazi war camp was thanks to the Russians. A brilliant man, he would never flaunt his background in any context.
McCain, on the other hand, is a shameless self-promoter who might personally condemn torture (due to his experience) but would ultimately do nothing to stop it because he knows torture and repression are instruments of empire-building. McCain has never worked in the real economy. He has no clue about the real-life suffering of others. He is no different from the old British elite who formed their officer class in wars past - personally courageous in certain circumstances, clearly brutal and homicidal in their actions, and completely contemptuous of the real world of working men and women. I just wish that Vietnamese citizen had let War-criminal McCain chock longer on the mud and pond weeds of the land he so enthusiastically poisoned and burned.
Rall is not ’swift-boating’ - he is very mild in his discussion of a repulsive phenomenon in our political life where criminals and scoundrels are elevated to the highest positions without question.
Wow reading these posts, I didn’t know that Common Dreams readers were so much in love with McCain? I bet many Common Dream readers are closeted Bush lovers too!!!McCain is a war criminal, by his own admission. End of story!I’m just sorry that the North Vietnamese didn’t finish him off!!
What is heroic about John McCain? The fact that as a bomber pilot he delivered death and destruction indiscriminately and on a mass scale? That he was tortured? That he succumbed to torture? That he denounced the religious right? That he sought out the blessing of the religious right? That the religious right that blessed him now condemns him?
Why is this site suddenly inundated with far right wing trolls? John McCain is a war criminal no matter what he says. Even Robert McNamara, one of the prime architects of the war in Vietnam has recanted his position. To unkanny and Bligh 2: Do you work by the hour or do they pay you off in Young Republican girls?
The fact that John McCain was a POW should count against him. The USA had no business in Vietnam, neither had John McCain. Vietnam should be given reparations for the crimes visited on that country first by the Frenchy and then by the USA.
T’IS THE SEASON OF THE CREEPS
“McCain was asked when he thought the US Military might “send an air mail message to Tehran.”
“‘Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran,’ he sang to the tune of Barbara Ann,” the paper [The Georgetown Times] notes.”
Not one of Ted’s best articles perhaps, as the method used might have been sharper and more effective, but certainly not in what motivates it. Read Rall’s adventures in the ‘Stans, especially Afghanistan, before you indict his method too keenly is my advice–he has my full respect.
That McCain can talk publicly about bombing Iran, given his history, clearly demonstrates to the rest of us out here in the world (remember us?) that he has a serious screw loose. That he is even on the American political radar screen anywhere, let alone a serious presidential candidate, tells us much of the country is comprised of loose screws.
Hell, we already knew that when Bush got in twice.
It is the creepiness of McCain that draws Rall’s ire. T’is the Season of the Creeps, and McCain exemplifies the aura of war crimes that hangs over the US and its proxies, as he indicates his willingness to commit more if elected without immediately being publically pilloried.
Other notable creeps: the nauseating Blair, thankfully flushed out of the news, Stephen Harper conservative PM of Canada who would have joined Bush in invading Iraq had he had the position back then, Sarkozy in France who is also on record favouring a “bombing of Iran”, Rice, Hillary, Powell, on and on…
CD should have a vote Top 50 List–all those who are so keen to use bullets and bombs in the New Great Game that uses the cover of “combating terrorism” to obscure a buzzard squabble for resources, tearing at entire countries rendered carrion in the Middle East and Asia. The West has picked up where the colonialists of the last centuries left off and it is a repellent display of racism and avarice, with the usual self-righteous justifications, whether it be a bogus “war on terror”, or hypocritical calls to “bring democracy” to the poor natives. The same old lies then as now–mendacious palliatives served up by a whorish media to consumer zombies and jingoists who could care less about a million dead Iraqis anyway.
“bomb bomb bomb” indeed. What a sorry start to a new century of grief and shame.
DR
Montreal
Purvis, neither. My reward is attempting to bring balance and fairness to close-minded idealogues such as yourself. To point out the patent unfairness of an untrue charge, even if you personally do not like the person that it is directed against, is just being a fair minded person who uses their brain.
Hell, My 7 year old knows the morality of that. Maybe I should have him call and explain the concept to you
Let’s try this again, McCain has plenty to recommend himself against voting for him. To excuse his torturers, and to hold up as true a statement signed under deadly beatings, is wrong wrong wrong. No matter if you hate the guy.
DR-Montreal: Now that’s what I’m talking about.
Bligh 2
“Balance and fairness.” Hmm, haven’t I heard that somewhere before? Perhaps it was a Rupert Murdoch “news” organization.
Purvis You accuse me of watching Fox News? Is that the best you’ve got? Go read a book or something.
I don’t want to see McCain in the White House. But this attack on him for what transpired while he was held prisoner is about as unfair a shit slinging as I’ve ever seen anyplace.
At one time the North Vietnamese offered to release McCain and he refused his freedom, unless all the rest of the prioners were released also. He therefore spent several more years at the Hanoi Hilton. The men who were in prison with McCain and had daily contact with him had nothing bad to say about him. This article is full of bullshit assumptions and is a disgraceful piece of shit.
Ah, swift-boating is making up things to deface somebody. Telling the truth about somebody is not.
This is actually an excellent article which provides crucial information not otherwise easily available.
Glad to know you think so SSSNAKE. About the only thing I read in this shit article that isn’t already public knowledge is, the author Ted Rall writes, that McCain broke under severe torture and he didn’t manage to hang himself, therefore and he betrayed his country. It’s easy to sit with a lap top and write such crap about someone else. Guess it’s probably more easy if they are getting paid to do it. Ya think he’d tell that to McCain’s face?
He napalmed women and children, then became notorious for referring to them as ‘gooks’ years later.
What is left to question.
Nice Article. Bah-bah-bah, ba bomb Iran. A true Killer For The Empire. He burned babies. **** him forever. As the article pointed out, he volunteered to Kill kids and moms.
Whether a person is a ‘war criminal’ or not is irrelevant, torture is still wrong.
This is a concept that McCain understands which some posters in this thread do not. It seems they agree with the neocons, that torture is a good thing, it is merely a disagreement over which group is morally blessed enough to righteously torture.
If you believe, as I do, that torture is wrong no matter who does it then you’re a; “closeted Bush lover”, “right wing troll” - and at the same time - “Bush hater”, “al Qaida supporter”, “fanatical extreme left-wing fringe”. Or so people tell me.
Rall comparing McCain against Moulin is laughable.
It says more about the incompetency of Moulin’s guards then McCain being ‘weak’.
“…see what real courage is…It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway…”. - Atticus, To Kill a Mockingbird.
Dubose was a racist old woman. Atticus still recognized her as the “bravest” woman he had ever known for overcoming a drug addiction that she didn’t have to overcome. That doesn’t make Dubose Presidential material anymore then it makes Atticus a Grand Whizzer of the Triple K.
Courage is not a beauty contest. I don’t need to like or agree with a person to recognize their courage. I don’t need to demonize people to fight against them. I reject the idea that because a person broke under torture they are “weak”. What’s next, mocking rape victims because obviously they must be weak bad people because they got raped?
Here, Here Kem and Uncanny. Couldn’t put it better
didn’t i just read somewhere that the fire on the ship was caused by McCain’s “wet start” of his jet, which was what the hot pilots would sometimes do. as it was explained, the pilot would cause a large flame to shoot out before takeoff. his doing this ignited some 1000# unstable bombs that were stored, and caused the deaths of the men on deck. he was supposedly transferred off the ship immediately. his father was a high ranking officer in the navy at the time, also.
No, the fire was caused by another pilot accidently firing a Zuni rocket into McCain’s Phantom Jet while McCain sat on the flight deck. McCain escaped by climbing out on the nose of his plane, then dropping down to the flight deck. His father was an Admiral.
WET START??? There is such a thing as a hot refuel, where they load ammo, bombs, and also re-fuel the aircraft while the engine is running, which can be hazardous if a fuel line should break and fuel sprayed down the engine intake.
Anyway Bligh gave the correct answer to what happened to McCain. He had done nothing wrong and pilots and crews do ECACTLY what they are told to do when on a carrier deck, or when taking off or landing on one. And th eengine on the aricraft McCain was in is powered by a P and W J-52 or J-58 engine and has no afterburner.
The first comment on this article asks whether McCain lost his dick in Hanoi? He certainly did, it was called Dick Nixon.
I am late to this comment. First, I can tell that most of those commenting have not be in combat. It is easy to forget that wars are fought by young men (and women, now) taking orders from above. A little empathy might temper your harsh treatment of McCain. And, Second, many of you talk about McCain being against Bush vis a vis the torture issue. Guess again. Yes he was, once, but he flip-flopped and voted against a measure that would have strengthened ‘no torture’ laws/regulations already in place. Even though McCain confesses that he broke to make the torture stop and/or to get medical treatment, that does not make him a bad person. His problem, and the point of the article is he continually allows his proxies to lie about what really happened. There is no honor in that. And there is no honor in allowing your campaign to have a right-wing shock-jock thug, a guy named Cunningham, introduce you at a campaign event where he makes comments about Senator Barack Obama that borders on hate-speech. And, there is no honor in laughing at one of your supporter’s comments that Senator Hillary Clinton is a bitch. And he should be the leader of the United States? Please.
I would like to know, with respect to McCain’s service to our country, when someone is going to have the guts to question why people think it’s a good idea that a P.O.W. should be president? If you don’t think that, that is going to affect his judgment on the issue of our national security, your fooling yourself! I don’t want to be misunderstood, I do respect his service. I live in a military town, I have had friends and people in my own family who have been to war. All the way back to WW2, till now. I have seen firsthand how going to war can affect you. I just don’t think that it would be a good idea to have someone who was tortured for 6 years, in charge of whether we stay in this war for another 100 years or start a new one. Bob Dole stated on Larry King, that McCain was locked up in a space no bigger than a table and has had anger issues,as well as other health concerns. We just don’t really know his mental state. It has been proven that even a short time spent in solitary confinement in prison, that people are never the same. Anyone who has been to war, even behind the scenes, comes back a different person. Don’t you think that if you were imprisoned and tortured for 6 years, you would have some issues? I do not feel he should not be allowed to live a normal life and have a normal job. I also know it has been a long time since he came home from Vietnam, but if you put him in a situation where he has to make those kinds of decisions for the United States, what do you think he’s going to do? How do you think he’s going to react? I just don’t feel very secure with someone with his past, being in control of our national security. Someone in the media needs to bring this to our country’s attention!