A sad day for Salon: their hit piece on McCain was a hit on JK & all the work they did for POW/MIA

[beachmom]

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/01/29/mccain/index.html

How is John McCain like John Kerry?

Hint: Members of the POW community -- ex-prisoners, their families and the families of those still unaccounted for -- have issues with him.

...

That panel was chaired by Massachusetts Democrat Sen. John Kerry, a Vietnam veteran who already had a troubled relationship with his fellow veterans because of his outspoken opposition to the war after his tours of duty. It was while serving on the panel together that McCain and Kerry solidified a friendship. In addition to their experience in Vietnam, the two men shared the belief that the United States would be more likely to get information about Americans unaccounted for after the war by normalizing relations with Vietnam.

In the spring of 1993, the two men traveled to Vietnam together. On their return, Kerry reported "very special efforts" by the Vietnamese to help the United States get more information on missing Americans. But some experts in the field didn't see any substantive progress by the Vietnamese. " were coming back and making pronouncements of great progress," said Childress, the Reagan administration official. "And those of us who dealt with the Vietnamese for many years know progress when we see it."

Normalization of relations with Vietnam went into high gear during the Clinton administration, with the full support of McCain, a process that is now complete. But many observers believe that President Clinton -- who did not serve in Vietnam -- could not have moved aggressively to normalize relations without the political cover provided by McCain, the war hero. Among the POW/MIA community and some veterans, McCain is referred to as a "cardboard cutout" for Clinton during this period on this issue. It did not further endear the Arizona senator to some veterans.

All these things accumulated over time. "A lot of people thought he moved too fast and too far with normalization, probably in good faith," Childress explained. "And then when he joined with Clinton, he identified himself with that. And when he and Kerry became good friends, and with everything he had said about Vietnam veterans, all that added up in people's minds." Kiley's campaign against McCain is, in a sense, just a continuation of his work against McCain's Senate colleague during the last presidential election. He and Ted Sampley, organizers of Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain, also formed Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry and worked to discredit Kerry's record in 2004.

Unfortunately, it is possible that the normalization route favored by McCain and Kerry did come at a cost to some of the families of missing Americans. There are still 1,763 Americans missing and unaccounted for from the Vietnam conflict. Based on U.S. government information, the National League of Families, an advocacy group for the families of those Americans, estimates that with full cooperation from the Vietnamese, remains or proof of death could likely be ascertained for half of that number. The United States has formally asked the government in Vietnam for a raft of specific documents -- like results of Vietnamese crash site investigations -- that might shed some light on these. The documents have not been forthcoming. Some experts think this is because there is little upside for the Vietnamese to go out of their way now.

There are many legitimate concerns to go after McCain on. THIS is not one of them.

[dwahzon]

1. you said it.

What were they thinking?

[karynnj]

2. this is despicable

[MBS]

3. this is sad

It's also bizarre, and despicable, the way people continue to dishonor the real heroes from the Vietnam disaster. It's as if we STILL can't cope with what happened in Vietnam, even more than 30 years after we left. . . I think the key sentence is this:

Kiley's campaign against McCain is, in a sense, just a continuation of his work against McCain's Senate colleague during the last presidential election. He and Ted Sampley, organizers of Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain, also formed Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry and worked to discredit Kerry's record in 2004.

. .except that it's not just "in a sense": Kiley's campaign is in every way a continuation of all the damage he's tried to inflict on both Kerry and McCain.
Why did Salon buy this garbage????? Why do we still go around and around with these lies and psychological headcases?

[blm]

4. Who wrote this piece of crap that gives Sampley any credibility?

.

[beachmom]

5. Mark Benjamin. He's done some good expose stuff on Abu Ghraib

I am puzzled by why he would want to write something that goes against not only Kerry but President Clinton, in addition to McCain.

[blm]

6. Who did he talk to that spun him into this storyline?

.

[beachmom]

7. Somebody from our side, no doubt.

I guess we have to acknowledge that we have conspiracy theorists on our side, too, who fall for the POW/MIA conspiracy stuff.

But it makes you wonder ....

[karynnj]

8. There are several good responses

debunking it - containing all the points I can think of. I had looked for things before writing a response -but found they were mentioned. (There were many defenses of Kerry protesting as well.)

But in case this comes back, here's one link to numbers in an unrelated 2005 article - the number of missing is now even lower.
"An estimated 88,000 military personnel remain unaccounted for, a vast majority, 78,000, from World War II, and most of those are believed to be lost at sea. About 8,100 service members remain missing from the Korean War; from Vietnam, 1,807. There are 126 military or intelligence officers missing from the cold war, mostly in spy planes that crashed. Some of the missing are civilians like Red Cross workers and C.I.A. agents."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/24/national/24frozen.html?scp=3&sq=+Vietnam+unaccounted+&st=nyt

[sandnsea]

9. Oh god this is such bullshit as Howard Dean would tell anyone

What the hell is wrong with people. The only reason we have any remains back is because of normalization. How can the same people who beat JK up for not fighting back, turn around and print the exact same shit he was fighting.

Stupid fucking people what the hell is wrong with people's heads.

:argh:

[wisteria]

10. I saw that and thought it was sad that the personal commitment and hard work that went into the MIA

mission was handled in such a callous way.
I would like to know why they felt it was necessary now, to trash the efforts of Senator Kerry and Senator McCain.