McCain's POW Defense: Devaluing Our Service and His Own
The McCain campaign has spent weeks trying to portray Obama as out of touch with the concerns of ordinary Americans. Today, an interviewer at Politico.com asked McCain how many homes he and his wife owned, to which he responded that he was not sure but would get someone from his staff to answer.
Contrary to what many will tell you, this does not make McCain out of touch with ordinary Americans, as many families today are in trouble with their banks and trying to figure out how many homes they have - zero or one.
Still, it's the campaign's defense we find deeply troubling:
"This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years -- in prison."
We obviously honor and respect McCain's service and the five-and-a-half years of horror that he went through at the hands of the North Vietnamese; but it's not an excuse for everything. He has already used it to explain away his infidelities in his first marriage. He's used it to defend his healthcare plan. He just the other day used it to deflect accusations of having skirted the rules of the Saddleback forum.
It's time for the Senator to stop cheapening the war experiences of thousands of vets and his fellow POWs, and his own as well, by stretching the boundaries of logic to make his POW status a wild-card rebuttal to all accusations or an answer to all difficult questions.
We are veterans who like John McCain, who served honorably, but and we continue to serve our country honorably by not using our military experiences as unjustifiable necessary shields or stepping stones. John McCain has faced and will continue to face many difficult questions that he does not have an answer for, and problems to which that he will provide no solutions to, in the 70 days between now and the election. When he uses his status as a veteran to deflect legitimate questions and concerns, it devalues not just his service to our country but ours as well.
So today, we ask not as Veterans for Obama, but as Veterans of America that Sen. McCain respect the service of his fellow POWs and combat veterans, and stop cheapening their service by hiding behind his own.
Lt. General Robert G. Gard Jr. (USA, Ret.) is the steering committee chairman of Vets for Obama. Visit their official site or join them on Facebook.
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Thanks General, as a veteran I appreciate the blog. If I hear the Vietnam prison story and the cross in the dirt line (didn't I read that in a book somewhere), one more time I'll scream. My concerns are more about the boys who didn't come back because of another worthless war. Also, If I hear that line "MY FRIENDS" in front of every speech, that will create my second scream, LOUD. Pathetic.
Let me first state that my father was in special forces so i am not anti military. McCain was bombing North Vietnam, and there were many civilian casualties of the bombing campaign, when he was shot down. How would you (Americans) feel is someone were bombing your city and was shot down. Would you try to care for his wounds and treat him well? I think most Americans would want to kill him. Why is it so difficult to see things from the others perspective? Being shot down does not make you a hero, acting commendiblly while in prison is what you are supposed to do (it is doing your duty). Many many men suffered in all wars (and women too) but do not use their service as their personal "get out of jail free" pass. Me thinks McCain protests a bit too much.
Gen. Wesley Clark was right when he observed that being a POW does not qualify one for the presidency. John McCain was a hostage, not a hero in Vietnam. He did endure horrific conditions as a hostage, but that experience more likely damaged him than made him somehow more experienced to be Commander in Chief. If McCain's recent statements and campaign are any indication, the damage was significant and should serve to disqualify him to be President of these United States. He should actually not be at "work" at all since he is collecting full disability and retirement social security benefits from the Government. As I understand it, when one is on full disability, then you generally are unable to work at all because of that disabling condition. It is time for change and I believe that Obama embodies that message and plan the best of anyone who applied for the job. Obama '08
Right on with your comment.. Wish someone (Obama) can exploit this durring a speech or debate. I would love to see the Mcain camp try to combat that topic!!
yes, I hope Obama exploits this too. I love the smell of backlash in the morning.
"He should actually not be at "work" at all since he is collecting full disability and retirement social security benefits from the Government. As I understand it, when one is on full disability, then you generally are unable to work at all because of that disabling condition."
You don't understand it. His disability payment is 100% tax exempt as compensation for what he endured. It does not mean he's 100% disabled.
Why is he collecting full disability? It can't all be physical. There are veterans with amputated limbs that have less than full.
Thanks and I hope you continue to speak out. Pretty much no one wants to disrespect McCain's sacrifice but that doesn't qualify McCain or anyone else to hold so many millions of lives in his hand.
I said it once, I'll say it again. As a POW Officer Lt. Col. McCain did what he was trained to do; no more or less. It is lamentable but understandable that he finally 'broke' and provided an obviously insincere 'confession' similar to our troops in Japanese POW camps during WWII.
To avoid similar situations in the future, this country should recall most of its troops from abroad, strengthen our defense systems, including a massive rapid response military force, and go to war ONLY with a Declaration of War. Currently we are looking a lot like the American Global Empire. Empire and Democracy don't work well together. Ask the Brits.
Remember Pearl Harbor was a surprise attack. It came out of the blue (literally) and we still had time to call Congress together, debate the issue, issue a Declaration of War, respond and beat the sox off of a major industrial power with a militaristic government in about 2 years. Now we are talking competency and ability. Compare to Iraq, where we continue to slog along after 6 years with no real outcome.
Tell me, what is so hard about issuing a Declaration of War, as set up by our Constitution, that a President needs "special powers'? He/She already has enough.
BO: Sen. McCain has forgotten how many houses he owns.
JM: So, I was a POW
BO: Sen. McCain was affiliated with the Keating 5
JM: So, I was a POW
BO: Sen. McCain and his wife have fabricated the 'Mother Theresa herself' story
JM: So, I was a POW
BO: Sen. McCain is out of touch with regular folk, to the tone of $5million per year
JM: So, I was a POW
Wes Clark: Sen McCain was a POW, which does not specifically qualify him to be president alone
JM: I...uh...stop bringing that up!!!
I guess it amuses me that John McCain... "doesn't like to talk about that part of his past"... yet in almost every Political TV ad or Interview he manages to interject that POW fact as if it were news. I guess he's going to milk that cow till it's dry and kicks him in the head. I also wonder how Admiral Stockdale, who was there in the Hanoi Hilton when McCain was, feels bout all this pandering. Maybe someone should ask him.
I think Stockdale is no longer with the living??
I want to know just HOW does being in bed in a prison camp for 5 and a half years qualify one to be President and how it makes one know how to WIN WARS???
If McCain really learned anything from being a POW it should have been that there is NO VICTORY in Guerrilla WAR - there is just endless war - so there CAN BE NO victory in Iraq - there will just be better days sometimes - but then he does want that war to go on forever so maybe his concept of WINNING WAR is ENDLESS WAR like for the next 100 years!
If he was not so stuck in HIS PAST, he'd know America does not want wars! Especially wars waged under false pretenses!
The only victory America wants now is over poverty and economic oppression here at home!
And to bring our troops home! They all have been POW's for too long!!!
Thank you for your service and thank you for speaking out on this political opportunism.
Bravo!
McCain is to POW as Giuliani is to 9/11.
Based on McCain's apparent "election model" -that is I was a PoW elect me!!!, Audie Murphy and Sargent York would have been shoo ins for President.. Thankfully, they were honorable veterans who ,unlike John McCain, did not use their military experiences as unjustifiable necessary shields or stepping stones to some political office. Hell, with McCain's focus on "Celebrities" maybe even Gary Cooper, after his celebrity portrayal of Sargent York , should have run for political office.
It is not just that he is cheapening our service, he uses his status as if in a sense of entitlement. I am sorry he was shot down, captured and had to serve 5.5 years as a POW. But I want to ask this, how does his sacrifice stand over the sacrifices of those that were captured and did not return, or those that served and did not return. Yes McCain paid a price for his service, we all paid some price or the other for our servicer. However there are hundreds of thousands of Brave Americans that throught out the years who paid the unltimate price, they gave up their lives in service of this country. McCains continued reference to his POW status as a gounds of entitlement not only cheapens the service of other veterans of wars, but the deaths of those that paid that sad but very high price. McCain should stop using his POW excuse, it no longer flies.
Finally...its been said...out loud and publicly.
Good on ya, sir for having the courage to speak out. V.
McCain is engaging in a fallacy by using his service and his experience as a POW in order to dodge a serious discussion of the issues confronting this nation which he can't win otherwise.
Indeed, just like Elie Wiesel utilizes his status as a holocaust survivor as an excuse to assuage his decision to become a vindictive and hateful individual, McCain has been routinely playing the POW card
in effort to explain away every single one of his flaws, as if effectively asking for the presidency as a consolation prize for all his years of torture.
But, as the saying goes:
"What you suffer does not defile you. What you do does."
Please quantify Elie Wiesel as a vindictive and hateful individual. Otherwise you're just being annoying.
Why do you bring Wiesel in from left field here?
Did you read Night??? If not, go read it.
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