Most ex-military personnel that I have watched on TV, or spoken with are against the idea of conducting foreign wars for the underlying benefit of material things, like oil, pipe-lines and other commodities. By definition, these are certainly not existential wars, as far as the U.S. is concerned. Therefore, I found it strange that a man, who was a prisoner of war (POW), who was supposedly tortured would always advocate for wars in various places around the world.
Today, I came across a video, thanks to Dr. John, about John McCain that can put things into perspective. Please follow the links below. Apparently, these recording of John McCain making a prisoner propaganda statement for
North Vietnamese radio in 1969 became public due to being misfiled,
and were released by accident.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tkBiFZBix0&feature=youtu.be
https://www.google.com/search?q=songbird+mccain+youtube&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1
After I saw the video and listened to the voice recording of John McCain, kissing up to his captors in a big way; the text of which was surely dictated by his jailers. One would have to consider two alternatives for why McCain gave this performance, 1) he was a Communist sympathizer or 2) there was a man scared to death, willing to do anything to stay alive, even perhaps sell out US positions, etc. The second option is the most likely reason for his compliance. It is not a far stretch to imagine that a man in this situation and frame of mind was willing to give anything within his power to prevent torture and/or his death. In any event, this is not the behavior of a hero, this is a behavior of a scared individual, who acted not unlike, perhaps, many of us would in the same situation.
I would venture to say that 99.73% (6 standard deviations under the famous Gaussian-Bell Curve) of us would listen to the message of the survival instinct and act accordingly. Now, there are 0.27% of us who would not do as McCain did, they would simply not do it for any price, now these are the statistical mavericks, the outliers as Statisticians call them, and these would be the heroes we love to hear and read about. One thing is for sure McCain was not among these, he was scared to dead, if not the first option mentioned above would apply, which I reject as not being a viable conclusion.
After much public pressure, was in 1991 a bill approved, known as the 'McCain Bill', which made a face-saving effort only; this bill did not provide for the unconditional release of heretofore classified material. In fact, as is shown below it took a lackluster search for POW and MIA families, and with a fabricated percentage of only 26.8%, as shown below, they decided that families did not give consent for the release of this vital information.
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/pow/pdf/McCain_bill.pdf (Dec. 1991)
This bill contains a lot of verbiage, but it does not address the key issue, namely full disclosure to the public.
"The
McCain Bill does not specifically direct declassification. Its
pro-release intent does, however, imply such action to make the
information available to the public. Compliance with the PNOK's
non-consent does limit the Government's ability to release publicly all
information containing T-L-C data
that is declassified."
The
record shows that 2266 consent request were mailed to families of POWs
and MIAs, 366 replied with no consent, 243 did not reply, and were
therefore considered as no consent; that was easy. Accordingly, the
questionable combined percentage was only 26.8 % of the total requests
mailed, and this small percentage was used as excuse for not coming
clean and provide the information sought by family members and the
public at large. What a charade?
https://fas.org/irp/congress/1993_rpt/pow-exec.html - Report of the Senate Select Committee.
"Our people, and especially our POW/MIA families, have a right to know
all that it is possible to know about the fate of their fellow
countrymen and loved ones. This Committee, with strong public support,
has pressed both our government and foreign governments to add to that
knowledge--through the declassification of documents, response to hard
questions, access to archives and eyewitness accounts. A process has
been established that will permit timely, in-country investigations of
evidence that live Americans remain in captivity. The search for remains
and other evidence that could bring certainty to families is ongoing.
More people are now employed and working full time on the POW/MIA issue
than at any time since the end of the war, almost 20 years ago. America
is finally being allowed to do what it should have been able to do long
ago."
Doing further research, I learned that the Senator and others had blocked the release of information those families of POWs so desperately screamed for, without success. Yes, John McCain and others apparently blocked the declassification of information on
POWs and MIAs for many many years, information that is still blocked today, information the release of which the House and other Senators supported. But apparently the relevant Select Committee voted against the release. The apparent reason given was to protect the privacy of the POWs; protect their privacy from their families?
The following links lead to must read article about McCain.
The article of the link below speaks to the character of McCain; according to sources, he was known for his violent outburst, and his demeaning manner towards others, at times to families of POW or MIA, the very people he should have had great empathy, which apparently he had not. He seemed more concerned with maintaining his public image of a great patriot, which in his heart he must have known, he was not. Psychology teaches us that such exaggerated behavior is the typical overcompensation of a weakness perceived by an individual, namely being a coward on the inside. Other examples of this overcompensation exist, I remember the story of a well known politician, who was very outspoken against homosexuality, only to be discovered of being a homosexual himself.
Alfred Adler, who coined the phrase 'compensation' said it best.
'If people feel inferior and weak in one area, they try to compensate for it somewhere else.'
In the case at hand, here
McCain, apparently, knowing of his own lack of 'Patriotism', while a POW, constantly defends with vigor and aggressiveness against any perceived doubt by others.
The text quoted below speaks volumes, and confirms Adler's theory.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/mccain-and-the-pow-cover-up/
https://www.vvof.org/mccain_hides.htm
"One such witness was Dolores Apodaca Alfond, chairwoman of the National Alliance of
Families, an all-volunteer MIA organization. Her pilot brother, Capt. Victor J.
Apodaca, out of the Air Force Academy, was shot down over Dong Hoi, North Vietnam,
in the early evening of June 8, 1967."
"Alfond’s testimony, at a hearing of the POW/MIA committee Nov. 11, 1992, was
revealing"
"But McCain, having been advised of
Alfond’s testimony, suddenly rushed into the room to confront her. His face angry
and his voice very loud, he accused her of making "“allegations … that are
patently and totally false and deceptive.”" Making a fist, he shook his index
finger at her and said she had insulted an emissary to Vietnam sent by President Bush.
He said she had insulted other MIA families with her remarks. And then he said, through
clenched teeth: “And I am sick and tired of you insulting mine and other
people’s [patriotism] who happen to have different views than yours.”
In the final analysis, McCain's father, John S. McCain Jr. was an Admiral and, apparently, history could not stomach the idea that here was an Apple that fell too far from the trunk, therefore history rewrote itself.
When we elevate the wrong people to the position of Hero, we do a disservice to society, and in particular give the wrong impression to our impressionable young generation, which often wants to emulate heroes. Heroes cannot be linked to human cruelty, deceit, cowardice behavior or acts, etc.
