War Hero?

By Ron Beasley

The logic of those who claim suicide bombers who kill people are cowards but those who drop bombs on people from several thousand feet are heros has always escaped me.  That brings us to John McCain. Sully quotes Gore Vidal:

"Who started this rumor that [John McCain] was a war hero? Where does that come from, aside from himself? About his suffering in the prison war camp?"

John Cole chimes in:

McCain gets a pass because is supposedly “a hero.” I’ve never been sure why he is a hero. He graduated 4th or 5th from the bottom of his class. He wrecked three of his own aircraft (if I remember correctly) and he was captured in Viet Nam. Unless I missed the part where he jumped on a grenade to save the lives of his fellow servicemen, I don’t know where the hero part comes in.

John McCain claims he knows war.  He certainly knows about the prisoner of war part but what about the rest?  Chuck Hagel knows war from his time wading through rice paddies and jungles and seeing the soldiers around him wounded and killed.  And yes, in spite of what the swift boaters may say John Kerry knows war.  And Bob Dole is a hero who knows war.  But can you really see war from 10,000 feet?

  But what about his military career?    Over at the Huffington Post Jeffrey Klein gives us some information on McCain's Naval record.  For starters it looks like McCain would never have seen the inside of a cock pit if he hadn't been the son and grandson of admirals.

Some of the unreleased pages in McCain's Navy file may not reflect well upon his qualifications for the presidency. From day one in the Navy, McCain screwed-up again and again, only to be forgiven because his father and grandfather were four-star admirals. McCain's sense of entitlement to privileged treatment bears an eerie resemblance to George W. Bush's.

Despite graduating in the bottom 1 percent of his Annapolis class, McCain was offered the most sought-after Navy assignment -- to become an aircraft carrier pilot. According to military historian John Karaagac, "'the Airdales,' the air wing of the Navy, acted and still do, as if unrivaled atop the naval pyramid. They acted as if they owned, not only the Navy, but the entire swath of blue water on the earth's surface." The most accomplished midshipmen compete furiously for the few carrier pilot openings. After four abysmal academic years at Annapolis distinguished only by his misdeeds and malfeasance, no one with a record resembling McCain's would have been offered such a prized career path.

As Klein points out only 17 pages of McCain's 636 page Naval record has been released.  Since he wants to be Commander in Chief should the American people be able to see the rest?

Comments

[dougie smooth]

"But can you really see war from 10,000 feet?"

Ugh. This smacks of the "is Obama black enough" tripe. I'm interested in his academic and naval record, but this defining down of a what constitutes a hero sounds a bit like wingerdom, imo.

[Ron Beasley]

I disagree doughie; from 10,000 feet war is a puff of smoke - on the ground it's burnt and dismembered bodies. Think about it.

[Mark]

Ron:
This way lies madness. This is uncomfortably close to what the Republicans did with the Swift Boat campaign against John Kerry. The big difference is that McCain's status in the public eye as a war hero is much better cemented (not a knock at Kerry - just pointing out that a lot more people know or think they know McCain's story than knew Kerry's story prior to the Swift Boat ads); I not only view this line of questioning to be borderline inappropriate, but I also think it will backfire since there are plenty of people who respect McCain as a person but won't vote for him on policy grounds. A line of attack like this will push a lot of those voters to McCain. It will also only harden preconceived notions about McCain's hero status.

[Ron]

Mark
Sadly you may be right but my right is the truth. I am a Vietnam era vet and I knew a hero or two and John McCain would not qualify. It might backfire but it's not inappropiate - people deserve the truth.

[Earl]

Agree with you 100%, Ron. Trouble is the hero propaganda has been catapulted repeatedly since 1999.

The trouble being that people will see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear.

The truth, sadly, lies just beyond what a lot of people want to see or hear.

[Bill H.]

Not to pick nits, but, "...information on McCain's Navel record." I doubt McCain spends much time contemplating his navel, which may be part of the problem. If my Naval record were as shabby as McCain's, I probably wouldn't campaign on it.