POW- John McCain Prisoner of War



This pulls at the heart strings and is a totally biased posting in the context of this election, but I don't care. I did it on purpose.

I never went to Vietnam. McCain did. Look what they did to him.

But look at him now!

Michael

We didn't have enough reminders? With this already getting two allusions in each of his speeches? (Three, in those of Palin — more morbid than her running mate.)

Yes, he suffered. It was abominable. Still, how does this suffering, as such, merit special attention on an Objectivist message board? Just wondering. Doesn't quite seem to fit with heroic Romantic realism.

I can respect what he endured, and the fortitude he showed in doing so. No one deserves torture. He's been steadfast in opposing this in his public actions, which brings him credit.

What I cannot respect is that his torture was a consequence of bombing people that he — and his superiors, up to LBJ — had no business attacking in the first place.

Nor can I respect that he has constantly pointed to his war wounds in search of political gain. We'll have that syndrome as long as we have decorated veterans coming home from the battlefields to become demagogues. (That is, forever.) Yet its being a permanent fixture of the electoral landscape does not make it seemly, much less morally right.

Steve,

Just to be clear, I hold it is morally right (in Objectivist terms) for anyone to point to McCain's war wounds for electoral reasons, especially when facing the blatant socialism of the other side.

I also hold that this is perfectly OK on an Objectivist board since I missed the ceremony where they appointed you the gatekeeper of Objectivism.

If even only one person changes from a vote for Obama to a vote for McCain because of this video, I will feel perfectly satisfied that my Objectivist moral values do have concrete repercussion in a social environment. McCain may not be saying all the right things, but he is saying a hell of a lot more of them than the liberals.

Oh yeah... I forgot... he paid some heavy dues for love of this country and service to it. I was against the Vietnam war, but I find any hint that McCain's patriotism is anything but pure patriotism disgusting beyond belief.

Look at the video, anyone who will, and observe a true patriot. McCain paid those dues then and I doubt he has changed his mind about loving America.

Michael

btw - I am endorsing McCain and Palin because I am convinced that Obama & Co. will take Bush's galling and exponential increase of government, change the names around, point the finger at Bush and call him some bad names, then expand the government even further to accommodate their own agendas using Bush's laws and policies as underpinning.

I am convinced that McCain and Palin will not. On the contrary, I am convinced that they will dismantle some of it on principle.

Michael