After reading all of the posts on this issue I have to amend my statement. Obviously there are those on the left who are equally as ignorant and cruel as any on the right. Comments attacking McCain for not escaping or for being a prisoner should have no place in the Democratic Party or among a group of people professing a desire for social justice. I'm ashamed of you.

I have met and interviewed McCain and though I would never vote for him because I am deeply opposed to many of his positions on issues, he is truly deserving of the hero moniker.

It is interesting to note that Democrats would never even consider pulling a Swift Boat attack on him and that unlike Kerry four years ago, McCain has nothing to worry about on that score. It goes to show how pathetic and deeply evil so many in the GOP are. Bush being number one goon.

It is true that McCain was badly tortured and offered a release which he refused unless they would let his comrades out as well. Mocking this might work on the blogs, but for any public figure - even a right wing hate show host - this would result in a career ending in shame. Will we be as insensitive as Ann Coulter? And what will happen when centrists stumble upon this sight? If we can mock anyone in their torture, whether mental or physical, what is motivating us?

Few of my highly ethical vegan, bicycling, simple living friends seem ready for the kind of ethical position McCain took in Vietnam. And I find it inspiring - in spite of the fact that I think the war was horrible and stupid - that someone who would take such a stand would wind up with such different politics from me. He sees different things, his philosophy is different, and his values differ. This does not mean he is motivated by mal intent. But it is difficult to imagine the mockery of someone else's pain motivated by anything but mal intent.

Theo Horesh

I am amazed at this hostility towards him for being shot down, captured, imprisoned, and tortured. It does NOT have a thing necessarily to do with presidential qualifications, but I am stunned at the derisive mocking of that period of his life.

Do you realize he cannot raise his hands over his head on his own and therefore cannot comb his hair? Watch him on stage with his wife. They clasp arms and *she* raises his arm over his head.

He himself jokes on the stump he is not a hero. The heros are the ones who managed not to get shot down.

The South Vietnamese singled him out because his father was running naval operations at the time. They were trying to break him given his high profile affiliation. He spent 5 1/2 years in the middle of a major city. They were put there precisely because it would be impossible to hide and slip away in a jungle.

Calling him a coward and worse for not getting out of there when he was badly wounded in the crash and then further harmed through beatings that separated both of his shoulders just baffles me. Good lord, you do not have to vote for him, but this kind of rhetoric is utterly reprehensible. It's mind boggling, sickening, shameful and sad.

John McCain's sojourn in Vietnam as a Prisoner of war was an ordeal for him and his family, and an american hero. But is that really any reason we should elect him President?

NO.

Look, I can see how McCain's campaign wants to present an image that will enhance his chances of being elected, but please! This guy was no Audie Murphy. The fact that he went through his harrowing experience should've made him wary of careless military adventures. Instead, he seems willing to expose others to the nightmare he went through. And to what end? He drinks the Kool-Ade of AIPAC and the neocons and offers no real rationale of why we're in Iraq. Why not do a video of why he thinks were over there, and back it up with FACTS?

svenson: "Held captive by a bunch of bamboo stick army and illeterate soldiers, and not able to escape for how many years?"

You're confusing John McCain's experience with the movie "Rescue Dawn." McCain was in a standard concrete-wall type prison. Escaping would have been tricky (if only he'd had a poster of Raquel Welch to cover the hole he was digging with a discarded paper clip).

svenson: "NOw any smart American like McCain did not even try to escape once. What sort of prisoner is that? What a loser."

Whatever you think of McCain, this ugly line of thinking will not win any converts to the Democratic side.

I do think it's a little weird how some people get misty-eyed whenever people discuss their military service in past wars, or when anybody who serves in a war is automatically called a "hero" (though it's the least we can do for people who end up injured after carrying out orders from an unwise government).

But just imagine all the potential swing voters out there who might vote for Obama/Clinton. Imagine how much less likely they'll be to do so after seeing McCain's military service attacked.

If you really care, let the McMedia/McPress know about these hearings and that you want it reported. Also, let the "Candiedates" know about it, in case they are unaware of this stealth message for peace. Ask for John Kerry, who appeared in 1971 at the original version, to make a statement, if he dares. He has enough of his wife's money to withstand the heat.

I am committed to Oneness through Justice and Transformation

peace,

st john

While I respect McCain's service to our nation, I'm tired of him being referred to as a war hero. Being a POW does not make someone a war hero. Doing heroic things, makes some a war hero. Army Spc. Monica Lin Brown is a war hero, who risked her life to save the life of fellow soliders. John McCain is just a guy who graduated from United States Naval Academy 884 out of 889. He then when on to crash three airplane, get captured, endured five years as a POW where he was saddly driven to attempt suicide, came home, cheated on his wife who had been in a car accident, traded damaged wife in for a newer model that could finance his bid for a Senate career where he promptly go caught up in the lobbying scandal of the decade. John McCain is many things, but heroic is not the word that pops to mind.

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