Some of my favorite politicians love to repeat that John McCain is a hero. But in an election that so often turns on candidates' honesty and credibility, somebody please tell me - how is McCain a hero?
Please show me any real threat to my country from Vietnam that McCain ever fought to save us from.
- If being captured and tortured makes a hero, then the captives at Guantanamo are heroes.
- If following orders without question makes a hero, then Adolph Eichmann was a hero.
- If killing without regard to whether your target is a threat to the USA makes a hero, then Lieutenant William Calley of the My Lai massacre is a hero.
There are plenty of genuine heroes among our veterans from both Vietnam and Iraq. We denigrate their service when we claim John McCain is a hero.
Ron Kovic, Kevin Benderman, Pablo Parides and Lt. Ehren Watada - who saved lives, by questioning their commanders and encouraging their comrades to resist immoral attacks on innocents who acted in self defense - they're all heroes. John Kerry was once a hero - for speaking out on what was really happening in Vietnam.
We denigrate their courage and their service when we claim that obedience and unquestioning willingness to kill, or the misfortune of being captured, make a hero.
Dozens of nuns saved my Jewish relatives from certain death in Hungary by lying and secretly refusing to cooperate with unquestioning soldiers who were certain of their own patriotism - soldiers like McCain, who even today has no remorse for his attacks.
What values are served by confusing whether the soldiers, or the nuns who thwarted them, were heroes? Does it really depend on whether you're a bigger fan of Germans or Americans? Does it depend on who won? Is that what our candidates are teaching our children?
Someone may brand me a "concern troll" for contradicting our best candidate on this. But if we don't question this now, by November it can come back to bite us. Unquestioned hero McCain is being relatively consistent, and using much the same logic to define heroism in Iraq.
Please help me understand this fucking thing. Take the poll.
Results
Most Kossacks polled consider McCain's 'heroism' a result of "mandatory military pandering", or him "being tortured" or "obediently killing".
Most comments were another story. They treat any discussion of McCain's Vietnam service as a political tactic - something to avoid or use in a campaign, rather than having its own moral dimensions or lessons. To me this is a perfect reflection of what Obama calls the "smallness" of our politics.
Only one commenter actually knew/cared/pointed out that McCain had done anything heroic aside from enlisting and being captured and tortured. He turned down a chance to be released as a POW, hoping to help other soldiers.
Others pointed out that McCain actually served only 26 hours in combat and crashed 5 planes.
Many insist enlisting itself is heroic. Few were bothered that this makes heroes of Nazi soldiers, war criminals, and people who enlisted to avoid criminal prosecution.
Not one commenter seemed aware of the Nuremberg precedents that require each soldier to question whether they're participating in a defensive act or an aggressive, illegal attack that might subject them to war crimes prosecution.
But McCain knows better. He lived through the Nuremberg trials and comes from a military family. More than anyone, he should understand the difference between military defense and aggressive, illegal, immoral attacks. As of 1945, he had an obligation to consider which of these he was volunteering and carrying out deadly orders for -- just like any Nazi would be accountable. But instead McCain has never questioned what he was doing in Vietnam.
Liberals' achilles heel is exposed here. So many are so afraid of being called cowards - so eager to prove we'd applaud killing for America - we're happy to set back military justice 60 years and make "I vas following orders" a valid defense again. Or as Hermann Goring put it at Nuremberg:
Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.
If we insist that participation in pre-emptive attacks is heroic, we're handing the Iraq issue to McCain and neutering the peaceful, law-abiding majority Obama represents.
Let's not do that now, only to whine or wonder why it was a close race later.