In this election we have heard that John McCain is a war hero and that his military service gives him credibility on foreign policy and patriotism. We’ve heard this so much so that when he’s caught on tape saying that it’s tough to be proud of America and he didn’t love America until he was deprived of it’s company, that most people seem to give him a pass and shrug it off. Only the Dan Abram’s show on MSNBC has seemed to even pick up the story, despite the media’s 5 month obsession over Michelle Obama’s remarks. McCain also said that it isn’t important when our troops come home from Iraq as long as they don’t die. This comes after his “100 years in Iraq” comment and his refusal to back the new GI Bill. Many who aren’t offended by McCain appear to be saying that “of course he loves America and is proud of this country. He served, didn’t he? Who would go through that if they didn’t love America? You’re taking his words out of context.”
Really?
Ok, so in the case of John McCain, service matters.
Now let’s examine some other people who have also served America and see if their service also gets them the benefit of the doubt.
Rev. Wright also served America.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremiah_Wright#Education_and_military_service
From 1959 to 1961, Wright attended Virginia Union University,[2] in Richmond. In 1961 Wright left college and joined the United States Marine Corps and became part of the 2nd Marine Division attaining the rank of private first class. In 1963, after two years of service, Wright joined the United States Navy and entered the Corpsman School at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center.[11][7] Wright was then trained as a cardiopulmonary technician at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Wright was assigned as part of the medical team charged with care of President Lyndon B. Johnson (see photo of Wright caring for Johnson after his 1966 surgery). Before leaving the position in 1967, the White House Physician, Vice Admiral Burkley, personally wrote Wright a letter of thanks on behalf of the United States President.[12][13][14]
This came at a time in which racism and race discrimination was still very high in America. MLK was shot in 1968, and the US Army didn’t formally desegregate until 1951 (exactly three years after Truman issued Executive Order 9981.). So Wright enrolled right in the middle of that. Yet he served, and served well enough to be honored for it.
However, when his comments (not actions but comments) from a church pulpit in a predominantly black neighborhood surfaced to the mainstream media out of context (even “G*ddamn America as long as she thinks she’s God…” was taken out of context. And Wright has repeatedly said he’s not talking about Americans the citizens or nation, but American policies) people DESTROYED him as anti-American, unpatriotic, hateful, and a hater of America.
Military service be damned.
Who gave a care that HE SERVED America? Who gave a care that he served EVEN while America was oppressive and racist towards him and his people? Who stopped and thought that, despite these justifiably angry feelings that Wright has actually done something positive with his life by improving torn down communities, as opposed to blowing up federal buildings like the Oklahoma City boimber did? (who also served in US Armed forces)
No one cared.
It is universally acceptable to bash him relentlessly. And this type of behavior is not unique towards Wright for his angry rants from the pulpit. Watch a documentary on the treatment of black US Soldiers, and you’ll learn that despite fighting for this country, black soldiers returned to a nation that still saw them as less than human. No parades. No cheering. No appreciation for protecting our nation. Little to no acknowledgment of bravery. And the same discrimination applied as if they were just another n-word. Again, military service be damned.
This stupidity is so outrageous it’s almost unreal. I still remember an ABC reporter asking Obama if blacks love America, as if blacks didn’t help build America? As if blacks hadn’t died for this country and fought to make it better for everyone, whether they were black or not. As if African Americans had not developed their own identity and culture within America, that is uniquely different from Africa (ie: Jazz music, Blues, hip hop, rock n’ roll, etc.). He had to remind them that blacks can express great anger about injustices in America, and deeply love America all the same.
But why is this news? No one is shocked if Jesse Ventura compares America to Nazi Germany. No one gets offended if Ron Paul says America brought 9/11 upon itself. No one questions the patriotism of the George W. Bush White House, even as they spit on our Constitution.
So getting back to the point, does service matter? I say, like with almost everything else, not really. Who you are matters. What you do only somewhat matters. And what you say only somewhat matters.
I’ll end by also throwing in that “US soldier throws puppy off a cliff” also shows how service can get trumped. While this in no way compares to Wright or other black military vets & servicemen, and the soldier was wrong for his actions, the response from many Americans was ruthless. No one cared that he’s a 22 year old who’s probably seen a friend or two killed, and many wounded, might be facing his own psychological instability and the medical service is so poor that he doesn’t get the help he needs so he takes it out elsewhere. Idk, that’s possible. I’m against what he did, but the lynch mob that came after him over that was ridiculous. Proving once again that service didn’t matter.
EDIT: As posted here yesterday, an article from the BBC yesterday suggests that John McCain might not have been tortured after all. As I posted, I’m not sure what the truth is in this case. John McCain doesn’t have a whole loft of credibility given his many flip flops, abandonment of his first wife for his mistress, etc.
EDIT: Did John McCain’s injuries come about from him allegedly being tortured, or from all of the planes he’s crashed? (Some sources say he’s crashed anywhere from 3 to 5 to 7 US aircrafts)
From the BBC’s website. Here’s the original article:
‘When John McCain was my captive’
By Andrew Harding
BBC News in Haiphong, Vietnam
Tran Trong Duyet
Tran Trong Duyet claims no torture was carried out at Hoa Lo
Tran Trong Duyet – a sprightly retiree and amateur ballroom dancer – must rank as one of John McCain’s more unlikely supporters.
Four decades ago, during the Vietnam war, Mr Duyet was in charge of the notorious Hoa Lo prison – the place where Mr McCain says he was brutally beaten and tortured during five-and-a-half years as an American prisoner of war.
“McCain is my friend,” said 75-year-old Mr Duyet as he feeds the caged birds he now keeps in his garden in this coastal city.
“If I was American, I would vote for him.”
Informal chats
Navy pilot John McCain was shot down during a bombing raid over the North Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, in 1967.
He ejected from his aircraft and parachuted into a city lake – only to be dragged out by an angry crowd, barely conscious, and with two broken arms and a broken leg.
From there he was taken to Hoa Lo prison, known to its American military inmates as the “Hanoi Hilton.”
John McCain is captured in Hanoi
McCain was captured after his plane was shot down in 1967
McCain has since described enduring months of solitary confinement and systematic torture which drove him to try to kill himself.
“I don’t know how he’d react if he met me again,” said Mr Duyet, flicking through old black and white photographs of himself and his American prisoners at Hua Lo.
“But I can confirm to you that we never tortured him. We never tortured any prisoners.”
Mr Duyet reminisces instead about how he often summoned the future US presidential candidate to his private office for informal chats.
“We used to argue about the war – about whether it was right or wrong,” he says.
“He is a very frank man – very conservative, and very loyal to his country and the American ideal.
“He had a very interesting accent and sometimes he taught me words in English and corrected my accent. I have followed his career since he left prison.”
Rapprochement
So is Mr Duyet implying that that Senator McCain lied about his treatment at the Hanoi Hilton?
“He did not tell the truth,” he says.
“But I can somehow sympathise with him. He lies to American voters in order to get their support for his presidential election.”
John McCain’s air force suit at the “Hanoi Hilton”
The “Hanoi Hilton” is now a museum – containing McCain’s air force suit
But Mr Duyet’s propaganda-perfect version of events is impossible to verify – and should be treated with caution in a country where the Communist authorities still keep a tight control over the media.
Relations between Vietnam and the United States have improved dramatically in recent years, following the normalisation of ties between the former enemies in 1995.
Mr McCain played a crucial role in bringing about that initial rapprochement – a fact which helps explain Mr Duyet’s enthusiastic support for the McCain presidential campaign.
“I wish him success in the presidential election,” he says.
“Of course the Americans started the war in Vietnam and killed so many people – but now we want to leave the past behind.
“So now I consider John McCain my friend because he did much to mend relations between our two countries. And if he becomes president he will do more to improve those ties.”
Someone’s baby mama is an urban term that refers to a woman whom you never married although you had children by her and you are no longer involved with her. By labeling Michelle as Obama’s baby mama, they are calling her a whore and calling their two children bastards. This is the likely next first lady and first family of the United States. This wasn’t just a comment that might have slipped out of someone’s mouth. This was a chiron that was preplanned to go with the picture of the likely next first lady. What would the Right do if a major media outlet had a picture of Laura Bush and a chiron calling her a whore and calling her two daughters bastards? Seriously how do you think they would react?
This type of behavior should not be tolerated! FOX News is spitting on our Declaration of Independence which states that “All men are created equal”, and fanning the flames of racism that is the shame of America since it was founded. This comes on the heels of the Obama/Osama gaffe by a Fox reporter who then joked of assassinating Obama. Then, another Fox News anchor called Obama’s fist pound a “terrorist fist jab”, again referencing Osama Bin Laden. If there aren’t consequences for this behavio, then it will continue.
…in the minds and imaginations of racist, stupid, ignorant morons who hate our Declaration of Independence which states that “All men are created equal”. So they cling to antipathy towards those who aren’t like them, and invent lies and believe lies and garbage to justify, in their own puny minds, their racism.
Unfortunately for Obama, these nutcases are not all in mental institutions or jail, so some of them can and do actually vote. They do not love America, they love themselves and anything that physically resembles themselves, that’s all. So to overcome them, Obama will have to work harder, and he’s begun with the link posted above, to bring truth to the fence riders who have yet to fall into the self-destructive pit of racism.
I am proud as an American to see not only the tremendous record breaking campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, but also the progressive, fair-minded and objective patriotic spirit Americans in every state. This was not just a win for Obama or for African Americans, it was a win for America. It shows that our ideals and values are not merely expressed in writing, but lived out in the lives of people in every state in our nation.
NFC Championship
Chicago Obamas vs. New York Clintons
4th Quarter
0:18 seconds to play
Team Obama 31
Team Clinton 21
Team Obama has the ball at the 35 yard line and it’s 2nd down.
Marv Albert declares this is over.
Team Clinton has called a time out and is raising hell to the refs, Clinton fans are blaming the announcers, crying foul against the Obama Team and they insist that they will be the NFC Champions and face Team McCain in the SuperBowl because they are winning in net yards and have fewer total turnovers.
Reasonable viewers are puzzled that team Clinton would think they should go on to the SuperBowl based off of net yards and turnovers, because games are decided based off of points. Yet the Clintons believe they are the strongest team in the NFC to challenge Team McCain at the SuperBowl (I know Arizona is in the NFC, but play along like it’s AFC or McCain is from Denver or something).
It doesn’t matter how many yards were rushed if you don’t score.
It doesn’t matter how few turnovers you have if you don’t score
And it doesn’t matter how you split up the popular vote using Hillary math if you don’t have the delegates.
Since the media isn’t saying it, I’ll say it. I think Americans (reasonable, non-partisan Americans) are proud of Scott McClellan. He stood up for what he believes is right against the biggest, most powerful boss in the world (literally). Sure, you can criticize his timing, but the alternative would have been to remain silent. How is that any better? Someone has to speak up for the troops. Someone has to speak up for America. We’ve been engaged in a War for more than 5 years now that has cost us:
4,000+ American lives and counting
billions of dollars
valuable time and resources that could have been used in catching Osama and al Qaeda
a worsening reputation around the world
a strengthened and more hostile Iran
an increase in suicides amongst our troops
great fatigue amongst families of our troops, and those who have served in multiple tours
And for what? Why did we go over there? If you had information that shows we went over there for reasons not expressed to the American public nor the congressmen who voted on it, then how could you not come forward? That kind of “loyalty” has no place in politics. Politicians are here to serve our country, not themselves. This is not the mafia, or at least it’s not supposed to be. Scott McClellan did the noble thing, the American thing. He stood up for the truth and spoke out sacrificially to America about how and why our government failed us so as to prevent it from ever happening again.
I’m glad he did it when he did, because it’s not too close to November for the Republicans to cry “foul” on Obama’s campaign, and yet it’s here just in time for Americans to let the tragic truth as seen by a long time Bush aide and White House insider resonate with their minds and pressure the GOP to consider a fundamental change in their practices.
