A Noun, A Verb and POW

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08/22/2008 05:01:01 AM EST Google Technorati del.icio.us digg reddit

McCain has jumped the POW shark. As Rudy Giuliani is to 9/11, John McCain is to POW. To paraphrase Joe Biden, "There's only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun, and a verb and POW."

As Sam Stein has already pointed on Huffington Post, McCain has gone to the POW well over and over. His healthcare plan is challenged - POW! Cheated at Saddleback Forum - POW! Woodstock Museum - POW! Can't remember how many houses he has - POW!

But this isn't the first campaign that McCain has played the POW card. He used it masterfully when he was accused of carpetbagging in his first run for Congress in Arizona (he's not originally from Arizona, he moved there to run for Congress in his new wife's hometown). When his opponent asked him what was the longest he ever stayed in one place, he said, "The place I lived longest in my life was Hanoi." If he had left it there, it would have been perfect.

But the man who claims to be humble about his service in Vietnam has gone on to exploit his war record for the rest of his career. A Washington Post reporter once wrote that John McCain is so gracious in that he never mentions his service in the war, as he was quoting John McCain's book which revolves around his service in the war. Even the press didn't get the irony of all this - until now.

Now, he's jumped the shark and played the POW card one too many times. People are beginning to see through the false modesty and see how he uses this as an excuse whenever he gets into trouble. If you don't have an answer for something, just pull it out. If you're caught doing something wrong, pull it out. Well, this could only go on for so long. The media can't let McCain keep using this as a crutch anymore to avoid any topic he doesn't like.

Being a POW is a tough thing and it requires heroic perseverance. But it is not a substitute for having the right answers on all other issues. Just because you were a POW doesn't make you an expert on healthcare or beyond reproach on energy policy. Not every POW has a spotless record on ethics (as McCain's involvement in the Keating Five clearly demonstrates). And, as General Clark pointed out, not every POW is even an expert on war and national security. Some POWs are just average guys who happened to be captured by the enemy. They might be decent folks but they weren't all qualified to be president just because they were taken prisoner.

These things are logically easy to understand. But it's hard to get beyond the emotional pull of the POW status. You know logically that McCain being a POW has nothing to do with his nine houses (or whatever the number is today). But every time he pulls out that card, you can't help but back away a little bit. It's time to get beyond that. And McCain has helped to get past this issue with the way he has overused this play to our emotions. Now, instead of seeming poignant, it feels cheap and exploitive.

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A Noun, A Verb and POW | 9 comments (9 topical, 0 hidden)
I was (none / 0)

just thinking of Biden's comments about Giuliani the other day, and how something similar could be said about McCain and his surrogates.

Unfortunately, I don't agree that people are starting to see through the POW references, and the Obama campaign has hamstrung itself by declaring that all references to this time in McCain's life must be spoken of in reverential tones. Thus, people have come to accept that McCain's POW status is a very good quality. Had the Obama campaign gone with Clark's contention, and started hammerng home the refrain that being a POW doesn't prepare you for the Presidency, then this positive association could have been weakened (insert mandatory clause about how we all value McCain's service here - or don't).

by Tullius on 08/22/2008 10:03:28 AM EST

The most strident fallacy (none / 0)

Is that, having been a POW, somehow enhances his ability to be Command-In-Chief (as Clark pointed out). The only thing his experiences can make him an expert on is POW treatment and torture. Unfortunately his stance on those issues have shown us just how much his experiences colours his judgements, namely, not at all.

As to "I was a POW" being a knee-jerk answer, consider if he becomes prez and bombs Iran. He'd probably use it as a justification for that as well. John McCains POW statements smells alot like Bush's "they are terrrrist. They hate our freedom"-spiel.

by whoosh on 08/22/2008 12:09:28 PM EST

What is a hero? (none / 0)
Being a POW during the Vietnam War was very unpleasant to say the least, but a Heroic endeavor?  To be heroic infers a choice of duty over self-interest.

Like turning down preferential medical care when his captors found out who his father was [He accepted that care in 1967].

Like refusing to talk to foreign journalists [He gave interviews to a French journalist François Chalais in 1967 and Spanish/Cuban psychiatrist Fernando Barral in 1970].

Like refusing to denounce your country on open broadcasts [He gave a broadcast in 1969].

Being a retired flight officer who was never captured by the enemy, I cannot say that I would not have done the same under the duress he was reported to have suffered.  But if I had, I would have seen it as a personal choice contrary to my duty and while not technically derelict, certainly neither noble nor heroic.


by mackayc on 08/22/2008 01:03:41 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Mackayc, Brilliant point. (none / 0)
Everybody argues that being a POW does not a keen military tactician make you. In my humble opinion, rightly so. However, I have to agree that flying a dangerous mission in which you are told there is a distinct possibility of death but you do it to save countless other lives qualifies as heroic, while being held against your will, beaten and tortured, and buckling under intense mental and physical duress qualifies as doing whatever you can to save your ass. Not necessarily heroic.

by satanisreal on 08/22/2008 02:46:29 PM EST

[ Parent ]
McCain --- is he smiling? He must be lying. (none / 0)
IS McCain a hero or Viet-cong collaborator? 
John McCain in Vietnam is a riddle wrapped in enigma. Republicans — especially evangelicals currently under the spell of anti-Romney hysteria — need to examine this part of McCain’s resume very closely before pulling the lever for Mike Huckabee. I think it’s likely that McCain’s “war hero” schtick is a king-sized Catch-Me-If-You-Can bluff. In Vietnam, who was he really? Why has he so ferociously guarded his military and medical records from his days in Hanoi? His behavior since his return is jarringly inconsistent the “war hero” image he’s been selling.


McCain Viet Trio

Take a close look at the above photos, circa 1992, of McCain enthusiastically embracing Vietnamese individuals allegedly responsible for torturing McCain and executing men that McCain claims as comrades in arms. Focus on the smiles and hugs in the center and right photos. Bui Tin, on the right, interrogated McCain during the war. Mai Van On, in the middle, was allegedly part of a Vietnamese gang that allegedly shattered McCain’s shoulder with a rifle butt and allegedly bayoneted his foot after his plane crash-landed in a lake.  For now, I’m not doubting that his shoulder was shattered or his foot stabbed.  I am questioning how those injuries were inflicted.

What kind of American war hero gives such a warm welcome to war criminals responsible for tormenting him and murdering his comrades? Something doesn’t add up. With the photos as a backdrop, consider these additional data points:

1. Accordingly to a 2000 article in Insight on the News, Bui Tin has told at least two former POWs, David Hackworth and Charles Bates, that McCain was not tortured in Vietnam. Bates told Insight:

[D]uring a three-day seminar on the Vietnam War at the Center for Vietnam War Studies at Texas Tech University, I and another POW activist, Joe Jordan, spoke to Bui Tin about McCain’s treatment in Hanoi. Tin said, “No, McCain was never tortured. He was too important. We called him the prince. He received special treatment.” . . .

When Tin testified at the 1992 hearings McCain ran down to the floor and threw his arms around this guy. Everyone knew that this was the guy that had reportedly tortured him. Try and imagine someone from the Bataan death march throwing his arms around his captor. You can’t. So this is why there is concern among veterans that he really may have collaborated with the enemy. . .

Today’s Veteran’s Dispatch suggests that McCain’s Viet Cong lovey-dovey may be a manifestation of Stockholm Syndrome a symptom of which is that the captive bonds to his captors. If other data supported the idea that McCain really was tortured, I might buy it. But the data points elsewhere. The Insight article notes that, in a May 14, 1973 article in U.S. News and World Report, McCain admitted giving military information to the Viet Cong. That report (according to Insight) quotes McCain as saying

“O.K., I’ll give you military information if you will take me to the hospital,” reported the then recently returned POW in that article in U.S. News.

Bates observes, “[Y]ou have to think that if he’s elected president and this did happen, he could be open to blackmail.” Duh. Imagine the foreign policy choices that would be totally off the table for a President McCain compromised by a collaborator past or the Stockholm Syndrome. Talk about a setup for Vlad Putin!

Even in domestic policy and Supreme Court appointments, McCain could be led by the nose to do whatever his Hanoi handlers (who likely still have a soft-spot for Vlad Putin) want. In this context, a blank-slate Obama or even a thoroughly cynical and corrupt Hillary would be preferable.

2. An article in today’s U.S. Veteran Dispatch — quoting McCain’s own 1999 campaign — seems to corroborate the idea that McCain wasn’t tortured:

The 1999 campaign released a statement by Dr. Michael M. Ambrose, director of the Robert E. Mitchell Center for Prisoner of War Studies, that said: ”Senator McCain has never been diagnosed with or treated at the center for a psychological or psychiatric disorder. He has been subject to an extensive battery of psychological tests and following his last examination in 1993, we judged him to be in good physical and mental health.”

McCain’s campaign made this statement in a effort to prove that McCain somehow miraculously escaped PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) which would manifestly render him unfit to command the nation’s military. I see it as additional evidence that McCain was never subjected to the torture he claims he was. The Dispatch article describes the trauma that McCain allegedly suffered. It’s hard to imagine anyone emerging from such a crucible without lasting psychological damage. I’m reaching the point where I don’t believe that it happened. I think McCain is lying when he says it did.

3 . McCain has publicly and brutally abused family members of other POWs and MIAs who have tried over the years to learn what happened to their loved ones. What would motivate this anti-social behavior? One explanation is that he wants to intimidate them into silence because he knows that if those men or their records are found, they will finger McCain as a fraud. Check out this segment of the Dispatch story:

Members of the two major POW/MIA family organizations know the “real” John McCain and they despise him. They have experienced firsthand his cruel, angry temperament.

In 1996, McCain encountered a group of POW/MIA family members outside a Senate hearing room. The family members were some of the same who worked tirelessly during the Vietnam War to make sure Hanoi released all U.S. POWs - including POW McCain.

McCain immediately began quarreling with the POW/MIA family members, who were eager to question him on the issue of what happened to their loved ones.

Instead showing courtesy and appropriate compassion by answering their questions, the Arizona senator pushed through the group, shoving them out of his way, nearly toppling the wheelchair of POW/MIA mother Jane Duke Gaylor. Her son, Charles Duke, a civilian worker in Vietnam, is among 2,300 American POWs and MIAs still unaccounted for by the communists.

The POW/MIA families, shocked at McCain’s overly aggressive behavior toward Mrs. Gaylor, registered complaints with senate officials.

In an earlier incident involving families of servicemen still MIA, McCain got so angry that he went ballistic.

McCain was advised (Nov. 11, 1992) that Dolores Apodaca Alfond, chairwoman of the National Alliance of POW/MIA Families (her pilot brother Capt. Victor J. Apodaca is missing in action in North Vietnam), was offering testimony critical of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs. He rushed into the hearing room to confront her.

Award winning journalist Sydney Schanberg described the scene. “His face [McCain] angry and his voice very loud, he accused her of making ‘allegations … that are patently and totally false and deceptive.’

“Making a fist, he shook his index finger at her and said she had insulted an emissary to Vietnam sent by President Bush. He said she had insulted other MIA families with her remarks. And then he said, through clenched teeth: ‘And I am sick and tired of you insulting mine and other people’s [patriotism] who happen to have different views than yours.’

“By this time, tears were running down Alfond’s cheeks. She reached into her handbag for a handkerchief. She tried to speak: ‘The family members have been waiting for years — years! And now you’re shutting down.’ He kept interrupting her. She tried to say, through tears, that she had issued no insults. He kept talking over her words. He said she was accusing him and others of ’some conspiracy without proof, and some cover-up.’ She said she was merely seeking ’some answers. That is what I am asking.’ He ripped into her for using the word ‘fiasco.’ She replied: ‘The fiasco was the people that stepped out and said we have written the end, the final chapter to Vietnam.’ ‘No one said that,’ he shouted. ‘No one said what you are saying they said, Ms. Alfond.’ And then, his face flaming pink, he stalked out of the room, to shouts of disfavor from members of the audience.”

4. Finally, McCain has done everything in his power to prevent the release of not only his post-POW debriefings but also the debriefings of other POWs. Because of McCain, none of those men are able to get access to their own debriefing files. The same goes for Vietnam’s files on former POWs. Insight reports:

According to one Capitol Hill insider, “The chances of anyone actually seeing these records is a million-to-one, but if John McCain requested his records I’m sure they’d release them to him.” To date that request has not been made. There also appears to be no chance of releasing any records held by the Vietnamese. According to Bill Bell, former chief of the U.S. Office for POW/MIA Affairs, “In May of 1993 I attended a meeting in Hanoi with John McCain, Pete Peterson, U.S. ambassador to Vietnam and ex-POW. McCain and Peterson were very interested in getting an agreement from the Vietnamese that the records of the former POWs would never be made public.”

Why? The only apparent explanation: The files — both Vietnamese and U.S. — contain damning evidence against John McCain. Tad Cochran’s “cold chill” may be for a reason much more serious than McCain’s bad temper.

Yesterday, some readers were horrified that I confessed a willingness to “be persuaded” to pull the lever for McCain in the general election. I am still willing to be persuaded. A necessary — though not sufficient — step will be for McCain to open his debriefing records all the way and give us some straight talk on his days in Hanoi. I would also expect a heartfelt McCain apology to Dolores Apodaca Alfond and other POW/MIA families whom McCain has abused over the years. When Johnny came marching home, he left some major baggage behind. Time to clean it up.

Plug in "John McCain" + "viet-cong collaborator" and check out the search results yourself.

by gatekeeper50 on 08/22/2008 12:42:37 PM EST

Have you guys noticed something? (none / 0)
All of the liberal attacks on the military service of John McCain bounce off like BBs hitting a battleship. By contrast, the allegations of the swiftboat vets who served with John Kerry destroyed his candidacy. The difference is credibility. The men who served with Kerry were believable. You liberal bloggers have zero credibility. Its not working.

by KenTX on 08/22/2008 04:03:55 PM EST

have not noticed! :=) (none / 1)

by desertpear on 08/23/2008 01:39:51 AM EST

[ Parent ]
POW the new 9-11!!! (none / 0)
...you guys think McCain has been playing out the whole POW angle? Just wait until the debates, when he drops gaff after laughable and nonsensical gaff! His staff is going to be throwing around POW like its going out of style. The guy is borderline senile and I wouldn't trust him at the job of Wal-Mart Greeter!

by AngryBlakGuy on 08/23/2008 01:21:19 PM EST

Pathetic Old Walmart-greeter, John McShame (none / 0)

Maybe you haven't heard but McCain was THE POW, so make that Pathetic Old Walmart-greeter.

We sent over a million heroes to Vietnam and there were over 600 heroes who were POWs.  How did McCain become the only one?   What an insult McCain has become to all the others.  Kind of like when he made anti-American statements.   Isn't it obvious that McCain is running away from the shame of breaking under interrogation and reading anti-American statements?  Is McShame's broken ego the reason why we can never leave Iraq?  Our current heroes and their families shouldn't have to suffer because of McCain's inability to deal with his personal failures.

 

by honest abe on 08/27/2008 01:31:04 AM EST

[ Parent ]
A Noun, A Verb and POW | 9 comments (9 topical, 0 hidden)
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