John McCain: Songbird?

There is a bulletin floating around MySpace that is a copy of this article. It is written by Jack McLamb, a Vietnam veteran who served nine years in special operations in Cambodia. In it, McLamb claims he has spoken to numerous former POWs over the years and they all say John McCain cooperated with the North Vietnamese from the very beginning in order to avoid torture. They further claim McCain made 32 propaganda recordings speaking out against American imperialism while in captivity. Those have been classified by the US government in order to protect the reputation of Sen. McCain and his famous admiral father and grandfather.

I obviously cannot quote you chapter and verse on McCain’s POWE experience or even accurately judge how one would behave under the circumstances of being held captive and tortured for nearly six years. It is not like the movies in which Rambo takes electric shock torture all night without even screaming and somehow you get the impression that is the norm for the heroic good guy. That certainly is not reality. Even the toughest break down. Even the toughest cannot take it at all. I do not believe there is a standard that every single person is expected to meet under those circumstances. It is a matter of personal strength.

There is no doubt in my mind McCain suffered as a POW. He bears the physical, mental, and emotional scars of his five and a half years as a prisoner. I do not see how even his detractors can deny it. Note how he barely moves his right up, much left ever lifts it high. That is a lingering condition from having his arms broken and never treated properly, so even the claim he received favorable medical care while held captive is suspect. I read his Faith of Our fathers six years ago with its vividly detailed accounts of his torture and the lingering mental scars it caused. While I fully accept Mark Twain’s axiom that any one who writes an autobiography is a notorious liar, one cannot make that stuff up. I urge you to reads it yourself if you are in doubt.

I am more apt to rely on the personal testimonies of McCain’s fellow POWs whom we can identify by name, like Bud day, a roommate of McCain’s in the Hanoi Hilton, who attests to his endurance, rather than anonymous POW accounts and classified propaganda. Let us get real here. If you spent years being tortured while not giving up any information to the enemy while the admiral’s son sang like a canary the entire time, would you care about his reputation as a senator? I doubt it. Early on, Pentagon officials showed an open contempt for Bill Clinton because he was a draft dodger. John Kerry was Swiftboated right out the gate and he served as a combat veteran. Surely if McCain were a collaborator, we would hear plenty of his fellow POWs speaking out loud and clear, but we are not.

If you do not want to vote for McCain, fine. He was not my first choice for the Republican nominee, either. But recognize this as an attack on him without merit. Do you trust anonymous sources you have never heard from before or a man who appears on your television newscast every night, scars and all, from his experience? I hope you do not have to take any time to think about that one before answering.