JOHN McCAIN: PROOF NIETZSCHE WAS WRONG

Were I a conspiracy buff, I'd claim that JFK was killed because he wanted to get out of Viet Nam, and that Nixon picked Gerald Ford as a reward for his accommodations on the Warren commission, and that John Kerry and John McCain got their shots because they willingly sold 600 brothers down the river. I actually think, that JFK and Bobby were murdered because they felt the government should be the only organized crime syndicate operating in the United States, but that would run contrary to my theme and many people do believe JFK was assassinated because of his position on Viet Nam including, Oliver Stone.

Not ever having served in our armed forces, I do not feel obliged to speak in absolutes as to what I would do in certain circumstances. However, I pondered for many years about what my feelings would be were I an abandoned POW in Viet Nam. The results of my imaginary voyages ranged from wanting to live just long enough to know that my captors were being blown up along with myself, to thinking it was probably for the best that I never make it back to the United States alive. The first, I feel is pretty much self-explanatory: if rescue is not possible, I at least would want to see the torturous, despicable, sadistic devils meet their ends by the hands of the U.S. military. The other conclusion of my vicarious travels might be slightly less obvious but logical: were I to manage to, by my own resources, make it back to the United States, I would most likely be so all-consumed with hatred and contempt that my resulting violent actions would be easily dismissed as self-serving by those who made the decision that 600 some-odd American soldier's lives were a small price to pay for being able to relegate Viet Nam to history. I do not know how many Viet Nam vets reportedly went berserk and were labeled by politicians as just not being able to psychologically handle their transition, when in truth they were trying to shed light on the fact that so many of their brothers were left behind, but I know I would not wish to be one of them.

With respect to what I am about to say about a heroic American solider, I can not over stress the fact that there are situations I have not been in, for example, an acquaintance of mine once told me of being forced to watch a brother solider dig his own grave in a prison camp in Laos(?) and my knee-jerk reaction was to say, "if you are going to shoot me, dig it yourself". My acquittance could have told me then and there I was full of shit and be done with me, but he calmly and very cordially explained that if you are digging, you are still alive, and though the old adage that where there is life there is hope might not have truly applied, when you are that close to death, you covet whatever time you have.

Unlike the POW's that were truly left behind, John McCain and nearly 600 American soldiers
that were released, were not abandoned or forgotten. (at least not until they got home) They might very well have been viewed by LBJ, Nixon, and the U.S. State Department more as nuisances than brave American soldiers, but at least they still existed in the eyes of our government. Granted, POW's were evidently told daily, by their captors, that they had been forgotten by America but as long as new prisoners came in, that ploy should of had very limited success. I would like to note how uplifting I have always found the ingenious methods of communication devised by prisoners when they were facing death if caught talking to each other.

I can only guess as to the horrors John McCain and every other American that was forced to survive on the hospitality of the North Vietnamese and I make no claims that I would have fared better than any of them, but I don't believe anyone can accurately say that Senator McCain emerged the stronger for it. Senator McCain has long been known as someone willing to work with the opposition(a fact he has frequently parlayed into political success) and the only truly knock-down-drag-out political fights he has had has been with members of his own party. One hardly needs a degree in psychology to see this as a direct result of his North Vietnamese tormentors. Clearly, were he to buck them it would mean additional pain and suffering while conflicts with friends will never result in the agony which followed defiance to one's enemies.

While I have long considered John McCain to have returned from Viet Nam broken, information is coming to light, if true, sheds a much darker light upon John McCain. Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Sydney Schanberg now claims, reported by Alexander Cockburn in a recent article published in the Las Vegas Review Journal, that John McCain not only made numerous broadcasts denouncing the United States, which Schanberg claims were used to break the spirits of other POW's, but he and John Kerry, acting as investigative committee principals, covered up the existence of around 600 POW's that were abandoned to face certain death in Viet Nam. Schanberg also notes that John McCain was particularly vicious in his mocking of the families that kept insisting that their loved ones had been left behind.

With regards to Mr. Schanberg's first claim, I must check my criticism for obvious reasons. No one can know for sure what their reaction to torture will be until they have experienced the exact same degree of pain, and no can know that they could have withstood more until that is precisely what they have done. These simple, inescapable truths properly preclude me from judging Mr. McCain harshly regardless of the suffering those broadcasts may have compounded. However, the accusations of having covered up the existence of additional POW's still imprisoned in Viet Nam and cruelly mocking those wanting only the return of their loved ones, after he was physically free from his captors, is quite another matter.

Undoubtedly there will be those who believe I have no business, much less right, to question Senator McCain's strength of conviction, and perhaps to an extent they are right, but John McCain being in the front lines ridiculing those wanting only the return of their loved ones, and claiming no one was left behind is something I haven't the power or desire to excuse. If John McCain wanted nothing to do with the situation and chose non-involvement over championing the cause of the forgotten, I would find myself powerless to ethically judge the man, but he did not choose inaction. God forbid I ever face anything resembling that which John McCain was force to endure, and I prayed nightly for every soldier, during and after the Viet Nam war, but John McCain will have to look for forgiveness from the families of those forgotten warriors for having done the vile bidding of people unworthy to lick his boots.

John McCain could be one of the finest human beings that has served our country in the last seventy years, but I also wish he had somehow found the strength not to have buckled to those that felt the lives of 600 of America's finest were not worth the trouble of landing a single decisive blow upon the face of evil. As for those abandoned soldiers, who most certainly died alone after serving so courageously and selflessly, I find myself inexplicably drawn to conclude that their spirits are rooting for America to endure and that they long ago forgave John McCain. I still feel that John McCain's political career definitely should have ended before his presidential runs and probably should have ended before it began. For those that feel I've given John Kerry a free pass, it's simply because I never have, nor ever would expect better from the likes of him.