Are you suggesting McClain isn't honest or forthright re. MIA's? It certainly appears so! You take the side of the bereaved, simply by running the story during a presidential campaign that your subject, of whom you don't approve, appears to be winning. Don't worry; if nominated, he'll lose in November. In the meantime, don't "Swiftboat" a guy who's more than paid his dues -- certainly more than you have!

I (gender female and age "late years of 80th decade") have lost a lot of physical stamina but still haven't given up on "hope" (however much the word has been ?pandered? in the political second-by-second inevitable tone of blogosphere posts -- ever since "Bill" Clinton ran as "the man from Hope [Arkansas]") .

What I ?could wish?:

1. That, somehow, the ?"two party system"? (and its structural dominance in current blogosphere ?discussions? about ?"politics"? (**) could be abolished. At least in the blogosphere discussions? I read all this STUFF that's sorted out as to "red state/blue state" (***) and when (or if) I find a snippet of thematic discussion that feels to me important for the welfare of not just the U.S. but the [if I may, in a U.S. "election year"?] "wider world", I ?wish for? ... Fantasy

#2:

2. Some, at least, of the ideas and valid points of some of the candidates on "both sides of the fence" could be put together on one ?"winning national ticket"?.

Meanwhile, it's Wednesday kind of early morning here and I'm just typing letters into my computer's keypad...a little too early for anyone ?"in my neck of the woods"? to be up and running.

So this post is a bit vaporous, and I apologise to my fellow Salon premium members.

Will ?"explain"? those asterisks some other time. >! ;-)

In effect what Anonymous is propounding is that because he is Asian American he cannot be racist. I guess he loves to hide his head in his A** hole as 1) being a minority does not insure you from being a racist and 2) some Asian americans are so enamored by their designation as the special minorities that they see themselves so much more superior and are even moreracist in thought than some active KKK memebers. You are a racist anonymous.

Is the Garry Owen guy a Salon.com personnel? It seems he always tries to act as a "voice of rationality" and set the keynote for other's discussion. When that happens a lot, it really becomes boring, hell, it sucks.

I'm a Vietnam era veteran, USAF. Like many others, I have grappled with all the emotions over the years resulting from a conflict that was never declared a war, entered into unwittingly by the American people, politicized by the government in order to justify it, and measured progress by body count.

I sometimes resented Americans my age who did not serve yet found fault with those who did. I also stood with good-hearted Americans who sincerely wanted an end to this wasteful war. We didn't have the words "thank you for your service" back then, or the ability to differentiate between a bad war and the honor that comes with nonetheless performing your military duty as required.

We were never properly thanked, recognized, or given any of the usual accolades afforded the men and women who fight for their country in good times and in bad times. Vietnam was swepted under the rug and many of us along with it. Even today, I feel a slight ache in my heart when I see TV spots honoring the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the out-pouring of gratitude they receive when they come home. I know they earned it. But I just wish the guys who served when I was in had received just a little of that same kind of respect. It would have made a difference.

There will never be any peaceful resolve between and among Americans about that war. It was a "damned if you do - damned if you don't" proposition back then, and still is today. We cannot argue or debate it to a consensus anymore than we could militarily find a conclusion.

McCain and Kerry have their own reasons for whatever they have done before, during, and after the war. I don't disrespect Kerry for wanting to end the war anymore than I disrespect McCain for wanting to rush normalizing relations with the country. We would love to find every MIA and confirm their deaths or survival. As with the nature of war sometimes, that probably won't happen.

Vietnam was a mistake - a serous mistake that left scars on the heart of our country's people. The object should not be to find a universal voice in explaining it or understanding it. It should be to recognize each others' contribution, each others' pain and losses, and continue to try to live with the disappointment as best we can.

The war was...well, the war. It was fought. It was lost. And it's a shame that our government and it's citizens hung an entire generation of young people out to dry in order to "move on." We will never get over Vietnam. So, why keep banging our heads into the wall trying?

McCain expressed such a tepid and sterile defense of Kerry against the swift boat liars, that it could've been interpreted as a covert endorsement of those douchebags. As his is wont, McCain doesn't stand up when it counts, and allows political tactical considerations to override principled behavior. I really can't think of a more unprincipled person carrying a halo of integrity and independence invented by him and perpetuated and distributed to the masses by the corporate media that just can't stop sucking up to him and glorify a politician who doesn't deserve any glory.

There is another way they are alike. Kerry apparently was serious about having John McCain as his running mate in the last elections--McCain is a Democrat in R clothing just to confuse us. There isn't a dime's worth of difference between the two of them. They also both tried to look like heroes from an old war long ago to appeal to the American people when running for President. It just isn't relevant anymore!

They allegedly worked together to remove Navajo and Hopi Indians from their ancestral homes and relocate them on a nuclear waste site where they are suffering death by cancers and children born badly deformed (plug "black mesa McCain" into your browser).

Why do we assume that the prisoners of war who were with McCain at the Hanoi Hilton are lying when they say he took favors at the expense of the other prisoners? Because McCain is so honest (NOT)!!