-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! War hero? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- © 2001 WorldNetDaily.com Saying unkind things about popular icons and well-known politicians can sometimes make one feel churlish. But not saying something would be worse. Credit should be given where credit is due, but many people in the public eye are largely creations of the media, spin-doctors and handlers. They simply have no merit in themselves -- they're like silly putty, crafted to suit someone else's purpose. Or they're made heroes for the wrong reasons. And when that happens, the concepts of merit and virtue are themselves debased. In general, I don't share many values with those in the mainstream media. I'm used to seeing people and concepts I hold in high regard discredited, swine apotheosized, and idiocies praised in the popular press. So I tend to be suspicious of anyone they like. Especially if it's someone in politics. Now comes one John McCain, a Senator from Arizona. Like most Republicans, he doesn't appear to have any core beliefs other than that the Democrats are moving too quickly in transforming the U.S. into a fascistic welfare state. And people are listening partly because, very much unlike the poseurs Algore and Baby Bush, McCain is supposed to be a war hero. Based on that, there might be reason to believe McCain is made of sterner stuff than his blow-dried colleagues. Col. David Hackworth, who actually is a war hero (among many other things -- literally too numerous to list here -- he's the recipient of two DSCs, 10 Silver Stars, 10 bronze Stars, and 10 Purple Hearts) took a look at his record and questions whether McCain is a "genuine war hero," like Audie Murphy, or just a guy who had the bad luck to be shot down after only 20 hours of flight time over a combat area and then survive over five years of imprisonment. The word is that he wouldn't have made the grade as a naval aviator had not his father and grandfather been flag officers, but that's beside the point. McCain was awarded a Silver Star, a Legion of Merit for Valor, a Distinguished Flying Cross, three Bronze Stars , two Commendation medals, two Purple Hearts and a dozen service awards. Unfortunately the narratives for the awards only speak of his having undergone extreme mental and physical cruelties at the hands of his captors, and were described as "boilerplate" and "part of an SOP medal package given to repatriated (Vietnam-era) POWs" by Naval officers Hack interviewed. The medals were basically given out for being there, not for heroism. The problem here is not that McCain didn't have terrible things done to him for a long time -- he did. The problem is that neither he -- nor anybody else who was in prison camp -- had a choice about whether they were endangered. But medals for heroism are supposed to be given out for actual heroic action, taken willfully and at great personal risk. They shouldn't be awarded simply because someone survived an involuntary ordeal. And didn't survive it as well as many others. McCain was quoted as saying "O.K, I'll give you military information if you will take me to the hospital" four days after his capture and later signed a confession declaring himself a war criminal. And although McCain refused an early release, the word is that he was ordered to do so by his U.S. POW commander. It was unquestionably a long, painful nightmare for McCain to log all that time in a North Vietnamese prison and, for that, he deserves genuine sympathy -- the kind of sympathy you reserve for someone who survived a five year battle with cancer. And the experience may (or may not) have made him a better person. But based on the facts, he's not a war hero. And it speaks poorly of him to let his handlers promote him to the public in that way. *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? Write at [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a menu of our lists! <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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