Letters to the Editor
kenkapkk
Published Letters: 131 Editor's Choice: 13
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War Hero?
[Read the article: Hillary's time of troubles]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Well, I'm going to be real contrarian and speak outside the box. Why is John McCain considered a "war hero'? Because he is an American? Because he was a prisoner of war?
Why was he a prisoner of war? Let's see. As I read his bio he flew twenty three, let's repeat that, twenty three BOMBING missions against the Vietnamese who we illegally and crininally made war on. How many innocent civilians ,maybe children and wommen, did John McCain kill (sic murder) as a willing agent of this criminal action on the part of his govenement? If I were Vietnamese I would not have treated him particularly well, although torture is abhorrent action on anyone's part.
Let's see. If someone bombed American cities and killed innocents, how would WE handle them? Oh, we already know the answer to that and that's due to ONE attack, not years and years of an enemy raining death and destruction on you. And WHY did we do this? Oh, because those awful Vietnamese, after throwing out the Colonial French, had the unbridled gall to seek self determination. But in our **zealous, quasi-religious, ideological** CRUSADE (sic jihad)against "communism" we mistook in our madness third world wars for self determimnation as some advance of "monolithic communism". Gee, looks like we taught Osama Bin Laden everything he needed to know. Now I know why Tuesday September 11 is such a familiar date. Because it was on Tuesday September 11, 1973 that the US aided and abetted the overthrow of the **democratically elected** (which we don't give a shit about unless it serves our interests) Allende regime in Chile and brought that great leader of Democracy, Pinochet to power.
Sorry to digress. But John McCain was a WAR CRIMINAL, NOT a "war hero". He was not drafted. He was part of an elite group of soldiers and pilots.(As was said of the fire bombing of Tokoyo, "if we don't win, we will be tried for crimes against humanity".) Now he wants to continue wrecking havoc on other nations.
When will Americans stop believing their own bull shit? Oh, the sacred cow of the military and our "heroes".
Look the soldiers individually have great intentions. But they are dupes.
We did put the Nazi (and Japanese) leaders on trial for "following orders", didn't we? We claimed it was not an excuse, didn't we? Do the 9/11 hijackers get a pass because they "followed orders". Hell, from their point of view, THEY are the heroes.
Bur when you're the biggest guy on the block, you can frame history any way you want. If you want to be compassionate and give McCain a break because he about as stupid as everyone else who enthusiastically drove off that cliff, (and the present one-little seems to have really fundamentally changed in the man's intelligence or character), go ahead.
But he was never, never a hero.
Wake up people.
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Ever read history?
[Read the article: John McCain is running for sissy in chief]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It astonishes me that people like this mouth off without ever really having regard for truth or facts. In this respect, Strausbaugh is just as bad as Jonah Goldberg or any other mindless "pundit" who churns out this nonsense.
Did the author ever read or study American History? Where exactly are these Presidents that are "larger than life?" Yes we've had a few, but the majority are the Hardings, Hoovers, Buchanan's, etc. And those "larger than life"? Harrison, for example, was a genocidal maniac, and Kennedy for all his oratory was basically a weak centrist who was on the verge of being outed as having had an affair with a spy before his assassination. (I'll give Kennedy a few moments and one great one, his spurning of nuclear war in 1962. Of course since Krushchev was a manic depressive on a manic high and Kennedy was a speed freak, its no wonder we came so close.)
And where is this great individualism of the past? Ever read the torrent of letters and editorials from common folk to leaders on why the Indians needed to be exterminated? Is this why H.L Mencken remarked "no one ever went broke under estimating the taste of the American public?" Where was the country's "great spine" in the red scares of the 20's and the McCarthy period of the 50's? For that matter, where was the war hero President who let McCarthy run amock?
One can craft a serious argument regarding the pendulum swing toward what one perceives as a lack of "outrageousness" or "spine"(although Bush, Rove et al displayed outrageousness to the nth degree and look where it got us), but this perspective does not take into account that cultural swings are exactly that. After a long history of intolerance in many areas, it is almost a force of nature, and to America's credit, to move toward a heightened sensitvity where one has to feel one's way through new ground. This certainly is the case in male-female relationships where old the rules are no longer in play and both genders are striving to figure it out as they go along.
It is very easy to quip about deficiencies in dealing with completely new territory, but imo it lacks perspective and compassion, and a certain arrogance. (The one area I would agree has been the falling apart of the American psyche and its exploitation following 9/11. However the full chapter of that process has not been fully written.)
Perhaps this arrogance is needed somewhat, certainly the author thinks so, but I believe his argument would be on far more solid ground if he had not also fallen prey to myths about our past that just aren't true. Ironically, in buying the conventional "kool aid" about the past that never was, he joins the very "sissy" crowd he condemns, because in his assertions that don't add up, he has just "followed the herd", albeit in a different manner.