Op-Ed: Who and What is John McCain?

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Now that the Democrats have sorted out their runner for American Presidency, attention is turning to the GOP’s John McCain.

American voters, and the world’s casual political observers, have a vague idea he is a war hero; a one-time prisoner of war of Vietnam, who somehow survived. Evidence of tenacity and character, they muse.

Then they hear him make statements such as, effectively, we will stick it out in Iraq for a hundred years if necessary. To most, this does not hold together well, revealing little evidence of an integrated personality let alone qualities of humanity and vision.

A closer examination does nothing to erase this dawning perception. For someone who could conceivably be President of the most aggressive and powerful nation on earth, the following history is downright worrying.

John McCain III is the product of a prestigious US Navy family; with a destroyer named after his father and grandfather, both full Admirals with the name John McCain. His career path was made obstacle-free and in 1967 he was comfortably flying bombing raids over Hanoi; launched from an aircraft carrier stationed in the South China Sea. His 22nd sortie targeted a power plant in a heavily populated area, and as usual his casualties were largely civilian, mostly old people, women and children.

A GTA missile took his plane’s wing off. One can only presume that, in comedic parody of a Hollywood hero in action, he panicked and released his parachute before departing the plane, and crashed with it into Truc Bach Lake. He survived only because a Vietnamese citizen dived down and cut him free from the tangled chute and swam him to shore. This extraordinary gesture of humanity that saved his life hasn’t stopped John McCain III stating that he will hate Vietnamese for as long as he lives. As we move closer, we begin to suspect it is really something much closer he hates.

Within three days of capture McCain was singing like a canary to his interrogators; even providing the location of rescue ships. By his own admission, and claiming he was tortured, McCain told the Vietnamese “I’ll give you military information if you will take me to the hospital”. Fellow POWs, Ted Guy and Gordon ‘Swede’ Larson say torture is most unlikely. In a description of the event published in CounterPunch (Vol.15, No.7), writer Douglas Valentine quotes Larson ...to the best of our knowledge “he was not physically abused in any way”.

Unlike other POWs, McCain was treated for his crash injuries by a Soviet doctor and in a hospital reserved for Vietnamese officers; yet he claims he received no special treatment.

McCain; now utterly out of his league, assisted North Vietnamese supreme commander General Giap, who had earlier defeated the French in the 20th century’s greatest battle, Dien Bien Phu; make demoralising radio broadcasts targeting active American servicemen. This was psywar at its best, and McCain’s voice became so well known that a US wire service referred to him as ‘PW Songbird’. For North Vietnam, this was a propaganda coup.

McCain’s reputation is unenviable in other respects. Reportedly, in high school he was known as ‘McNasty’; and former fellow Senator Bob Smith described his behaviour when he disagreed with someone as ‘irrational’. “We’ve all had incidents where we have got angry” he said, “but I’ve never seen anyone act like that”.

This Viet Cong collaborator with the short fuse is the man who would be Republican President of America; an unstable figure with his finger on the nuclear trigger. McCain, plus his closest global ally, Israel’s sociopathic leader Olmert; who yearns to unleash a volley of nuclear bombs on Iran, is undoubtedly the formula for this planet’s last war.

With Obama’s sudden and unexpected lurch to the ultra-right, committing America to unreserved support for Israel; therein strategically capturing McCain’s support base, Republicans would be well advised to swing to Ron Paul, the only pro-peace pro-prosperity candidate who could also win the hearts of even rusted-on Democrats and win back international respect for America. The rest of the world has been wondering why it is taking Americans so long to see the obvious.