Why Do People Confuse "War Hero" with "War Vet" ? McCain is merely a POW Vet, Not Hero?
The War Secrets Senator John McCain Hides
Former POW Fights Public Access to POW/MIA Files…
Now WHY would a HERO want their record kept from the Public? If you’re brave enough and lucky enough to have that HONOR bestowed upon you, WHY on earth would you try to "hide" things about that era? wouldnt you PROUDLY discuss the decisions you made to protect the lives of fellow servicemen? McCain is a Fraud!!! Just like G.W Bush. Brats that fooled the mainstream public into believing their something they’re NOT!!
http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnmccain.com/cin_secretworldofmccain.htm
NEW YORK (APBnews.com) — The voters who were drawn to John S. McCain in his run for the Republican presidential nomination this year often cited, as the core of his appeal, his openness and blunt candor and willingness to admit past lapses and release documents that other senators often hold back. These qualities also seemed to endear McCain to the campaign press corps, many of whom wrote about how refreshing it was to travel on the McCain campaign bus, “The Straight Talk Express,” and observe a maverick speaking his mind rather than a traditional candidate given to obfuscation and spin.
But there was one subject that was off-limits, a subject the Arizona senator almost never brings up and has never been open about — his long-time opposition to releasing documents and information about American prisoners of war in Vietnam and the missing in action who have still not been accounted for. Since McCain himself, a downed Navy pilot, was a prisoner in Hanoi for 5 1/2 years, his staunch resistance to laying open the POW/MIA records has baffled colleagues and others who have followed his career. Critics say his anti-disclosure campaign, in close cooperation with the Pentagon and the intelligence community, has been successful. Literally thousands of documents that would otherwise have been declassified long ago have been legislated into secrecy.
For example, all the Pentagon debriefings of the prisoners who returned from Vietnam are now classified and closed to the public under a statute enacted in the 1990s with McCain’s backing. He says this is to protect the privacy of former POWs and gives it as his reason for not making public his own debriefing.
But the law allows a returned prisoner to view his own file or to designate another person to view it. APBnews.com has repeatedly asked the senator for an interview for this article and for permission to view his debriefing documents. He has not responded. His office did recently send APBnews.com an e-mail, referring to a favorable article about the senator in the Jan. 1 issue of Newsweek.
In the article, the reporter, Michael Isikoff, says that he was allowed to review McCain’s debriefing report and that it contained “nothing incriminating” — although in a phone interview Isikoff acknowledged that “there were redactions” in the document. Isikoff declined to say who showed him the document, but APBnews.com has learned it was McCain.
Many Vietnam veterans and former POWs have fumed at McCain for keeping these and other wartime files sealed up. His explanation, offered freely in Senate hearings and floor speeches, is that no one has been proven still alive and that releasing the files would revive painful memories and cause needless emotional stress to former prisoners, their families and the families of MIAs still unaccounted for. But what if some of these returned prisoners, as has always been the case at the conclusion of wars, reveal information to their debriefing officers about other prisoners believed still held in captivity?
What justification is there for filtering such information through the Pentagon rather than allowing access to source materials? For instance, debriefings from returning Korean war POWs, available in full to the American public, have provided both citizens and government investigators with important information about other Americans who went missing in that conflict.
Would not most families of missing men, no matter how emotionally drained, want to know? And would they not also want to know what the government was doing to rescue their husbands and sons? Hundreds of MIA families have for years been questioning if concern for their feelings is the real reason for the secrecy
http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnmccain.com/cin_secretworldofmccain.htm
I think that’s exactly what’s going on. A vet does not a hero make. Though their service to out country is deeply appreciated.
Because hero sounds better then "Pilot who can’t eject right"
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Crom thinks a man’s DD-214 is his own business and no one elses, it has no bearing on the the election. Time to move on.
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I think that’s exactly what’s going on. A vet does not a hero make. Though their service to out country is deeply appreciated.
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Yeah, but he’s a POW vet, nonetheless. Suffered all kinds of torture; can’t raise his arms above his head. Show some respect for all he’s been through.
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All POW’s are war heroes
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Please do not say things like McCain not being a war hero. The beatings that man endured still harm his body to this day. That said, he never gave up the information that the Vietnamese wanted, even suffering broken ribs while remaining mute on the matter. When the Vietnamese wanted to use McCain for propoganda, he refused time and time again, even rejecting the chance to go home. If you are not just spouting off like an idiot and actually believe that McCain is not a war hero, please read his book, "Faith of Our Fathers".
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If you’d gone through what he went through, you’d understand. Basic training alone is tougher than anything most non-military people go through in their entire lives. Combat is obviously even tougher than that. You have a 1st Amendment right to rant, but don’t use that right to insult the people who put their lives on the line to protect that right.
They’re ALL heroes.
Anyone who served with honor is a hero. Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, other……. Catholic, Protestant, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, other……. White, Black, Latino, Asian, other………. If you did that for me you’re a hero.
Period.
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Wrong, just another liberal smear tactic on a proven war hero, while showing disrespect for one who gave so much. Obumma has done nothing close to this, other than buy crack from drug dealers. No respect given for that…or for him being a Neo-Muslim!
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Some other Guys Flew and Crashed a plane once just like McSAME.
I think they called them-Terrorist.
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A man who can throw an oblong shaped ball to a guy who can catch it is a hero.
A man who can hit a ball with a stick over a wall is a hero
A man who can throw an orange ball into a circle is a hero
It is time to redefine what a hero is in this country.
As for what you say, What he went through is his business. Not yours.
I would consider him a man to look up to. And a hero.
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I think its called "spin"
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http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnmccain.com is just a site run by Ted Sampley. McCain exposed Sampley as a fraud preying on families of MIAs. All MIAs were dead, Sampley knew that as he was scamming more money for trips ect.
I dislike McCain, but Sampley needs to crawl back under a rock. Sampley mixes in some facts with a pack of lies, just like he did trashing Kerry.
So consider the source.
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not a McCain supporter, but you are rude.
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Stop drinking the Kool aid my friend.
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McCain IS an American hero, and you are a liberal punk who doens’t deserve the freedoms you so blatantly ignore.
no, it was heroic to put up with torture and not accept early release. He is to be admired for that, but that does not make him a good choice for president. He wants to keep Bush’s policies and that is enough to say no to him.
Don’t lower yourself to republican swift boat tactics, there’s no need. The issues are enough
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The "hero" title doesn’t bother me at all. He did go to war and fight for this country so he is one. He just wasn’t very good at it.
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Your vet might be my hero. It’s a personal judgment call their pal.
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You use a Ted Sampley website as a basis for your arguments?! Hasn’t that man already been exposed as a fraud?!
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Silver Star, a Legion of Merit for Valor, a Distinguished Flying Cross, three Bronze Stars, two Commendation Medals, plus two Purple Hearts, and a dozen service medals. I would love to beat you about the head neck and shoulders for the crap you just wrote! This man has sacrificed more for his country than most men would want to or even could. So before you go and post another piece of crap column like the one you just posted, keep in mind its war heroes like McCain and many others who have died, been taken prisoner of war, and men who have seen things that would make Satan himself cry, that have given you the opportunity to post such sick crap! Have a good day.
Update: What the Navy said about John McCains service, "For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while interned as Prisoner of War in North Vietnam from 27 October to 8 December 1967. His captors, completely ignoring international agreements, subjected him to extreme mental and physical cruelties in an attempt to obtain military information and false confessions for propaganda purposes. Through his resistance to those brutalities, he contributed significantly toward the eventual abandonment of harsh treatment by the North Vietnamese, which was attracting international attention. By his determination, courage, resourcefulness, and devotion to duty, he reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of Naval Service and the United States Armed Forces."
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To answer your question, ALL records are private unless the person chooses to release them. It’s called PRIVACY laws. It’s no different than us demanding that you release YOU military records to us to prove you’re qualified to bash McCain.
You WERE in the military, weren’t you?
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Navy during Carter’s administration
Yes, hate has confused you.
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You’ve obviously asked this "question" with an agenda in mind. I’m curious if you’ve ever seen combat or had weaponry pointed menacingly in your direction. There can always be a negative attribution created to anything anybody ever says.
Regardless of your political views, any man or woman who has stared into the face of an enemy that is beating him and say nothing, is a hero. Anybody who is a uniting force for a population being held captive by one of the cruelest systems in our life time is a hero. You think Abu Ghraib was "torture"? Try having all of your fingers broke as a technique to get information and then the only medical care you get is bandages wrapped around your hand. Ask Admiral Stockdale or Captain McMillan if John McCain is a hero.
No, not every vet is a "hero". But for you to denegrate McCain’s contributions to the lives of those men in prison is offensive and intellectually dishonest. McCain refused early release from the Hanoi Hilton and in doing so did not allow the North to use him as a PR tool. This showed real leadership and bravery. How many of you out there would subject yourself to 2 more years of poor food, isolation, beatings and lonliness for a matter of principal?
None of this means he will or won’t be a good President, but if you think for one minute that what he did wasn’t heroic, then you are deluded and politically motivated even to the point of moronic.
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The only thing that McCain has going for him is his Military time & Time in Senate!McCain definitely has been in washington long enough to be a part of the problem!McCain hasn’t changed anything and will be more disructive than Bush has been!
Obama 2008!
Ebony & Ivory President!
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I have no respect for his campaign but you can not belittle what he endured .How many of us could survive? If I was at the throttle of his A4 I would have driven it over the side and prayed Martin Baker was truthful. But I wasn’t there
None of us in honesty can say we could survive what he did. But he will not get my vote this time
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thank you for your question!
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if you are going to compare war records than lets look at Kerry, you guys called him a war hero when he was running and he did nothing in fact other service men had come forward to prove he did nothing the only thing he did is slap his own country and service men in the face with coming back and protesting with that traitor Jane Fonda, so McCain is definitely a hero compared to him, and i don’t think McCain ever tried to hide anything about his service unlike Obama who hides everything and gets made like a little baby if someone brings something up he doesn’t like so nice try at the smear but it’s not going to work it’s to late for Obama now he screwed up 1 to many times
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Anyone who puts on a Military Uniform and goes to War, and puts their butt on the line to fight for your freedom is a HERO. And if you don’t get that, you are not an American. And the answer to your question is YES John McCain is an American Hero, and so are all of the other Soldiers.
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