The truth about John McCain's POW experience

[Onlooker]

Fred Thompson tried to make John McCain sound like the second coming of Christ, by exaggerating McCain's POW service. But, the truth is that McCain volunteered to give up military secrets in exchange for medical attention. I don't fault him for that -- he did what any ordinary human being would do. But, it's not necessarily, as Thompson put it, "the kind of character that civilizations from the beginning of history have sought in their leaders.

In John McCain's own words:

http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/2008/01/28/john-mccain-prisoner-of-war-a-first-person-account.html?PageNr=2

I think it was on the fourth day that two guards came in, instead of one. One of them pulled back the blanket to show the other guard my injury. I looked at my knee. It was about the size, shape and color of a football. I remembered that when I was a flying instructor a fellow had ejected from his plane and broken his thigh. He had gone into shock, the blood had pooled in his leg, and he died, which came as quite a surprise to us—a man dying of a broken leg. Then I realized that a very similar thing was happening to me.

When I saw it, I said to the guard, "O.K., get the officer." An officer came in after a few minutes. It was the man that we came to know very well as "The Bug." He was a psychotic torturer, one of the worst fiends that we had to deal with. I said, "O.K., I'll give you military information if you will take me to the hospital."

[zanne]

1. We shouldn't ever bring this up. nt

[ProgressiveEconomist]

2. K&R. IMO OBAMA must never bring this up, but SOMEBODY has to check the "facts"

and denounce every lie and every coverup from the Republicans.

McCain screams "POW" as his major qualification for office and his mantra for silencing every embarrasing policy question. If the FACTS are different from what McCain says every day, why should he get a "free ride" from all Obama supporters as well as from the media?

See also http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=6879910&mesg_id=6879910 .

[zanne]

4. Only Republicans get away with that kind of thing.

I'm sure you've noticed by now that there's a huge difference between Democratic heroism (John Kerry's Purple Heart) and Republican heroism (McCain's POW status).

It's absolutely ridiculous, but it's true and there's no way we can change that in two months. Let's just leave it alone. People like Karl Rove have been salivating over the idea of Democrats questioning McCain's POW years. It would have the biggest backlash in political history.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

10. One entirely legitimate election issue here is public access to relevant documents.

McCain's Navy records still are secret

In more than six hundred pages of this file that never have been released may reside evidence of untreated PTSD, five aircraft entrusted to McCain that were destroyed on his watch, reasons McCain never got the promotions other ex-POWs got routinely, etc.

Do you regard public access to documentation of McCain's daily POW claims on the Presidency as "off-limits" too? Do you think that NO Democrat should demand McCain sign Standard Form 190, authorizing release of his entire unredacted Navy record file to the media? Why would McCain be exempt from such openness, while John Kerry was forced to release every page of HIS file to the media?

[zanne]

12. No, I think his navy documents should be made public.

In fact, only under those conditions would Democratic criticism be considered legitimate and not campaign fodder. Unless we have proof, we can be said to be smearing his military record. If his documents were made public and not redacted and they revealed something unsavory then I think we could go for it.

[Demit]

3. US News & World Report is bringing it up. And they're quoting the man himself,

who never fails to bring it up. How are we (and who is 'we'?) bringing it up?

[zbdent]

5. but didn't John McCain, in his "memoirs", all but name a fellow POW as

having been a traitor and a snitch?

And here it is, documented that John McCain did exactly that ...

[zanne]

7. It's kryptonite for Democrats. nt

[Ian David]

6. This is out of bounds. However, if you can prove he received a blow-job in his office, that's okay.

[zbdent]

8. Don't even have to prove it, for the media ...

[MagickMuffin]

9. Another misinfo from Fred's speech

McCain could have been released early but chose to stay behind with his other inmates. I think that is part of their military code.

Also, there are hundreds of other POW's besides John McCain.

Why is he the only one who earns the title "hero" when there are so many others?.?.?

What makes him SO damn special?.?.?

[ProgressiveEconomist]

11. McCain's behavior may be symptoms of untreated PTSD, raising issues of unfitness

to be Commander-in-Chief. IMO, it is entirely legitimate for Democrats and the media to compare McCain's behavior to these symtptoms of untreated PTSD, which fit like a glove:

From http://www.traumaweb.org/content.asp?pageid=42 :

"Israel Center for the Treatment of Psychotrauma - Symptoms of PTSD

Re-experiencing: Invasive memories of the trauma: pictures and thoughts related to the event, which come up again and again and cause great distress...

Hyper-arousal: Problems sleeping; Short-tempered and fits of anger; Compulsive dealing with the event; Repeated feelings of guilt connected to the results of the trauma or the behavior of the victim during the event...

Dissociation Forgetting significant portions of the event"

Keith Olberman pointed out last night that important details of McCain's self-serving account of the Hanoi Hilton keep changing. For instance, the football team whose members McCain says he named instead of actual military personnel shifts whimsically from the Steelers to the Packers and back.