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Edited on Fri Oct-31-08 11:20 AM by Essene
John McCain Sr was one of the most historic US Navy men.
John McCain Jr was one of the most powerful US military men at the time.
John McCain III had something to prove...
People do make mistakes. His mistakes are forgivable.
His war experience involved roughly 20 hours in the air and then getting shot down by not following orders. John McCain III told the Vietcong himself that his father was the commander of the pacific fleet. That's after having only some 20 missions or so.
It's hard to forgive somebody for something they lie about... and cover up.
McCain apparently participated in 32 propaganda films for the Vietcong, having become their star captive. While other POWs would try to escape, never break, or simply do what they must to survive... McCain went a bit farther than just surviving. My understanding is that almost all the POWs were automatically promoted at least 1 rank after returning. McCain was not. Why?
Let me be clear.
I can't fathom how rough being a POW must be. Even though McCain may have been irresponsible in his military service, he still served our nation. All of those mistakes I can forgive. What i cannot forgive is both his lying about his story and his exploitation of the POW status. But the entire reality makes me realize something else is relevant in this.
"McCain 2000" is fundamentally the opposite of "McCain 2008."
How does a man so obsessed with his own honor, integrity and image come to behave like this?
I sometimes argue that McCain must have flipped out when told he can't pick Lieberman or run the campaign he really wanted to run. I think this guy is a hot-head who becomes hostile when his ego and image is threatened. I think on some level that the night he was forced to pick Sarah Palin, he just sat back in his chair and effectively gave up in the back of his mind. I think that since that moment, he's just played his part. He's taken no real leadership in the campaign. He has no respect for this woman. We can all see the insincerity in him. I think he's a torn man, lost again... imprisoned by his own ego on the one hand and his indignation on the other.
His behavior manifests a certain Stockholm Syndrome.
Just like the 32 propaganda films he did for the Vietcong, he's embracing all the worst tactics used against him in 2000. He has become everything that he lashed out against just a few years ago. In fact, his campaign has expressed a more cynical, more fascist version of the Rove-style culture war politics of fear and division. The Bush admin seemed to think that repeating a distortion and attacking the media was a legitimate means of leading the nation.
McCain has taken this cynical approach to its next logical step. We shouldn't be surprised to find folks like Ashley Todd picking up the message and acting on it. We shouldn't be surprised to find Sarah Palin flying in from her provincial "microcosm" and engaging in the most fascist rhetoric America has heard in 2 generations.
Most of us won't be sleeping very well in the coming 4 nights
John McCain won't be sleeping well for the rest of his life. He's going to be haunted in ways none of us can imagine.
John McCain III has become his own enemy. Most military leaders tend to come out of wars much more humble and cautious about war. The Colin Powell and Wesley Clark types of leaders express real sobriety and deep reflection on matters of conflict. Most of the videos I've ever seen of POWs show truly traumatized men who are very guarded and have withdrawn in many ways. Somehow it was McCain who most vigorously fought against ongoing investigations into what happened to missing POWs. He was hostile to POW families who wanted simple answers.
Yet the war lives on inside McCain. He's still being reckless. He's not even sure what side he is on... and he no longer cares.
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