January 19, 2008
The purpose of this column is not to encourage voters to necessarily support John McCain. I have great faith in the moxie and good judgment of our citizens to smell out a rat when confronted with one. My purpose is to refute the sickened kings of dirty tricks involved in the recent sneak attack on John McCain by a so-called veteran's group. Given the treatment that he received during the 2000 primary, I believe that Sen. McCain deserves better from our citizens than that which appeared in the S.C. mail this week.
I can say without doubt, backed up by those who were imprisoned with him from 1968 until 1973, that John McCain was and remains a true American hero today. This is not to say that we should vote for him because of his service in what became a very unpopular war, nor should we not vote for him based on the propaganda of a few misguided sunshine patriots.
I believe that John McCain is a true American hero for the following crosschecked and documented reasons. John McCain became a naval aviator after graduating from the Naval Academy in 1958. In Vietnam he flew attack aircraft off American carriers located in the Gulf of Tonkin.
As the son of the commander-in-chief of the Pacific Fleet, John McCain could have easily avoided combat assignments in order to deny the enemy propaganda ammunition should he be captured. In true hero fashion, John McCain would not consider such a proposition -- no red-blooded American fighting man or woman would do otherwise.
He chose to fly the most dangerous military missions because he was an American Naval aviator, seeking to fulfill and his Annapolis pledge of duty, honor and country. He was shot down on his 23rd mission by a Russian built SA-2 missile while on a mission over Hanoi, the North Vietnamese capitol that had previously been off-limits to allied planes due to international concerns. In bailing out of his crippled A-4 Skyhawk, and landing near a hostile village, John McCain was seriously injured and subsequently spent five-and-one half years as a prisoner of war. After capture, he spent six weeks in the hospital and probably would have died given the seriousness of his wounds, had it not been for the intervention of his POW comrades who took it upon themselves to nurse him back to some basic level of health
Once it was discovered who he was and what propaganda could be potentially made of his confessions, he endured heavy pressure to denounce his country and to escape the torture that he was systematically administered to him on a daily basis. He was the special target of his tormentors because of who he was perceived to be -- a member of America's military-political elite.
In August 1968 the agonizing torture was ratcheted-up with the knowledge that his torturers only needed to find his breaking point. In one well-used exercise his arms were pulled up to the point that they came out of their sockets, and today John McCain cannot raise his arms over his head. McCain later said, " I had learned what we all learned ... every man has his breaking point. I had reached mine."
American hero John McCain performed in the manner expected of all American fighting men and women. He bent but he did not break. He finally signed an anti-American statement confessing to a "black criminal" and "an air pirate" only as an alternative to taking his own life. Today he is clearly out of step with those who would sanction torture to gain information of dubious value.
Four years ago in the presidential race, a group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ran ads that challenged Democratic nominee John Kerry's service in Vietnam. The Boston Globe and CBS ran a series of ill-advised attacks on President George W. Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard. Surely these attacks ought to contain a richness of documented and crosschecked evidence.
A man's service to his country must be perceived to be honorable unless documented to the contrary. For any candidate running in any election and especially those running today, validated evidence exists to help us make up our minds. We only need to seek and verify truth, for as Congressman Grassley of Iowa recently said, "Truth is a great disinfectant."
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