Fighter Pilot Morality

Apparently, McCain's supporters are willing to lose their
jobs and homes, if that gives them the opportunity to crush Muslims.

A few generations ago they sacrificed their right to form
labor unions to preserve the ability to lynch blacks.

The children don't need schools to absorb right wing ideals.
They are everywhere.

The true patriot does not die for his country. He makes the
enemy die for his nation.

McCain Made Communist Propaganda Video

By Joan Walsh, Salon
Politico built a whole nasty story about Obama's left flank
around a regrettable Aravosis post titled "Honestly, besides
being tortured, what did McCain do to excel in the military?"
"A lot of people don't know ... that McCain made a propaganda video for
the enemy while he was in captivity," Aravosis wrote. "Putting that
bit of disloyalty aside, what exactly is McCain's military experience that
prepares him for being commander in chief … Getting shot down, tortured and
then doing propaganda for the enemy is not command experience."
By Col. David Hackworth
John McCain is being hailed by the press as a "genuine war hero."
But is he a war hero in the conventional sense like Audie Murphy and John
Glenn?
Or is his "war hero" status the creation of a very slick publicity
campaign that plays on flag, duty, honor and country?
For sure, McCain has the fruit-salad -- a Silver Star, a Legion of Merit for
Valor, a Distinguished Flying Cross, three Bronze Stars , two Commendation
medals plus two Purple Hearts and a dozen service gongs.
On a purely medal count basis, he out-weighs Murphy and Glenn, who both for
years repeatedly performed extraordinary deeds on the ground or in the air
against an armed enemy.
McCain's valor awards are based on what happened in 1967, when during his
23d mission over Vietnam,
he was shot down, seriously injured, captured and then spent 5 1/2 brutal years
as a POW.
In an attempt to find out exactly what the man did to earn these many hero
awards, I asked his Senate office three times to provide copies of the
narratives for each medal. I'm still waiting.
I next went to the Pentagon. Within a week, I received a recap of his medals
and many of the narratives that give the details of what he did.
None of the awards, less the DFC, were for heroism over the battlefield --
where he spent no more than 20 hours. Two Naval officers described the awards
as "boilerplate" and "part of an SOP medal package given to
repatriated (Vietnam-era) POWs."
McCain's Silver Star narrative for the period 27 October 1967 -- the day
after he was shot down -- to 8 December 1968 reads: "His captors… subjected
him to extreme mental and physical cruelties in an attempt to obtain military
information and false confessions for propaganda purposes. Through his
resistance to those brutalities, he contributed significantly towards the
eventual abandonment…" of such harsh treatment by the North Vietnamese.
Yet in McCain's own words just four days after being captured, he admits he
violated the U.S. Code of Conduct by telling his captors "O.K, I'll give
you military information if you will take me to the hospital."
A Vietnam
vet detractor says, "He received the nation's third highest award, the
Silver Star, for treason. He provided aid and comfort to the enemy!"
The rest of his valor awards -- issued automatically every year while he was
a POW -- read much like the Silver Star. More boilerplate often repeating the
exact same words. An example: "By his heroic endeavors, exceptional skill,
and devotion to duty, he reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the
highest traditions of the Naval Service and the United States Armed
Forces."
Yet McCain's conduct while a POW negates these glowing comments. The facts
are that he signed a confession and declared himself a "black criminal who
performed deeds of an air pirate." This statement and other interviews he
gave to the Communist press were used as propaganda to fan the flames of the
anti-war movement.
Accounts by McCain and other writers tell of the horror he endured:
relentlessly beatings, torture, broken limbs. All inflicted during savage
interrogations. Yet no other POW was a witness to these accounts.
A former POW says "No man witnessed another man during interrogations…
We relied on each other to tell the truth when a man was returned to his
cell."
The U.S. Navy says two eye-witnesses are required for any award of heroism.
But for the valor awards McCain received, there are no eye-witnesses, less
himself and his captors.
And they're not talking.
Our POWs in Vietnam
were treated appallingly. The Viets would either break a POW or kill him. POWs
provided info beyond name, rank and serial number or they didn't come back.
Based on these stalwart men's horrific experiences, the Code of Conduct has
been changed. A POW says, "Now the training is to give them something…
don't risk permanent damage to health, mind or body."
McCain refused an early release. An act of valor? Three former POWs told me
he was ordered to turn it down by his U.S. POW commander and he "just
followed orders."
McCain certainly doesn't appear to be a war hero by conventional standards,
but rather a tough survivor whose handlers are overplaying the war hero card.