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Why is John McCain a Hero (Seriously)?
On thonight's Hardball show, McCain's "Summer of Love" ad was played, which references McCain's ordeals in Vietnam.
Now, I'm with Obama and others who honor McCain's service. But why is John McCain a hero?
Did he do anything especially heroic in combat? What did he do that was more honorable than other POW's in Vietnam?
I ask this in the spirit of fact finding. I hope that some of McCain's supporters respond thoughtfully. Most importantly, I do not intend this post to be the proverbial "hanging curve ball" invitation for people to bash McCain. I am asking my questions to acquire knowledge.
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Because he's an ace. An ace is anyone who takes down 5 planes.
Oh, wait.. They were ours. Nevermind..
[/bash]
July 17, 2008 7:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, you really can't charge him with the USS Forrestal disaster -- or can you?
July 17, 2008 11:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Your source is trash. The whole affair was started when someone placed a tractor exhaust up against the warhead of a Zuni rocket on someone else's plane, and it went off. As for McCain's alleged dropping of his bombs onto the deck, it'd be cooler there than three or four feet up in the flames, so they'd have cooked off anyway. And he did not negligently crash five planes. That counts two engine failures (vastly more common 40 years ago than today) and the one he was shot down in.
But he is not a military hero in any real sense of the word. A hero is someone who does something. Only if every flier over there is a hero is McCain a hero. Getting shot down doesn't qualify. Getting killed doesn't even qualify. Do you think that all 300,000 dead Americans in WW2 were called heroes by anyone? The word has lost its meaning. You want a hero? Google "Sergeant Roy Benavides."
Here is the MOH citation:
"On May 2, SSG Benavidez was assigned to Detachment B-56, 5th SFG(A). After a 12-man reconnaissance team had been inserted west of Loc Ninh, they encountered enemy resistance and requested emergency extraction. After three helicopters had unsuccessfully attempted to extract them, SSG Benavidez volunteered to return with the helicopters for another attempt. Directing the helicopters to a protected clearing, Benavidez ran to the crippled team. Even though he was severely wounded in his right leg, face and hands, he dragged or carried the dead and wounded to the helicopters. In order to recover the remaining team members, Benavidez threw smoke canisters directing the helicopters to the site. As the enemy fire intensified, he hurried to recover classified documents on the dead team leader. Hit in the abdomen and back, he continued to gather the classified documents. Simultaneously, the pilot of the helicopter was killed and the chopper crashed. Although in extremely critical condition, Benavidez assisted the wounded out of the overturned aircraft, and gathered the stunned survivors into a defensive perimeter. Under increasing enemy fire, Benavidez went around the perimeter distributing ammunition and water, instilling in them the will to live. He, although extremely weak, began calling in tactical air strikes and directing fire from supporting gunships to suppress the enemy's fire and to permit another extraction attempt. Again wounded in the thigh, Benavidez kept administering first aid to the team members until the extraction helicopter was able to land. He then began ferrying the wounded into the helicopter. Upon his second trip, he was clubbed from behind and he became involved in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy whom he subsequently killed. He continued to carry wounded to the aircraft. Upon reaching the aircraft the last time, Benavidez spotted two enemy soldiers and killed them. Only after all the wounded had been placed on the helicopter did he allow himself to be treated. Benevidez [sic] died in El Campo, Texas 1999."
http://www.medalofhonor.com/RoyBenavidez.htm
At most, McCain had an extended opportunity for self-examination during his confinement and occasional moderate torture. But he seems not to have learned much.
July 18, 2008 5:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Your source is trash. Wigmarx
Actually, my "source" is Google Search -- hard to be sure whether or not that's "trash" but you may be right.
July 18, 2008 7:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Google Search" is not a source, it is a vehicle. When someone asks where you got a library book, do you say, "from my car?"
July 18, 2008 8:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm definitely not responding as a McCain supporter. But I can give you some perspective on what makes a hero.
Since we no longer have a society that includes demigods (at least I think not), heroes have evolved into the person (man or woman) who does not possess any extraordinary advantage or strength yet faces danger or adversity with courage and is willing to sacrifice him or herself for the good of others. This can be the greater social good, or it can be to save only one life, but it is generally regarded that the act of heroism be one of moral excellence. Something that provides the all-important emotional connection for the unheroic is that this person not begin in a position of relative strength. That it could have been any of us, in the same position, is important.
Though our popular culture likes its heroes to have super strength that likens them to the ancient definition of the demigod as hero, the most common depiction of the hero is of the ordinary person who manages, by sheer will and because of the moral rightness of the situation, to overcome the trials and adversity and best the odds to achieve the goal.
We certainly have those who died in their heroic actions as our culture's heroes, but we like our heroes to live so we can laud them.
The problem in designating someone to be a hero is in being sure that the action that resulted in a greater good was what the hero intended when embarking on the courageous action or self-sacrifice. This is what has undone many declared heroes, either through their own crises of conscience or the revelations of facts that contradict the heroic story.
I don't know where McCain falls in any of this, but that's mostly because I can't know what's been in his heart. He's the only one who can know this truly.
July 17, 2008 7:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow. Thanks for your response, which is not easy to process after two martinis...
To pull from your response, McCain was never a common man. His miliraty career was privileged. Next, other than being a POW, what has he done that shows he faced "danger or adversity with courage and is willing to sacrifice him or herself for the good of others" greater than that of other POW's. (Note this is not to diminish his Vietnam situation. It is merely to wonder what makes his predicament stand out?)
July 17, 2008 10:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
And sports figures are heroes in our society why?
Personally I think the term "hero" has been so misued so often that it's often meaningless, as in the case of football and basketball heroes. I also think that people tippy-toe too much around McCain's military service, especially in light of the fact that he uses it as the foundation for his campaign. Posters here and on other blogs, for example, when trying to discuss McCain's military service, find themselves compelled to write things like "I don't mean to dishonor McCain's service," or "I'm not implying anything about his service," or "I'm not knocking McCain's service." We've all been pulled into the GOPs rah-rah military mindset, to the point where even we won't question anything about McCain's service -- including exactly how it makes him a better president than other candidates. No one has really answered that question. What exactly about McCain's service makes him better qualified to be president? The answer hinges on whether you believe a president should know about all things military and thus always be prepared for war (GOP) or a president should be capable of good judgement and other characteristics not necessarily linked to military matters (everyone else, usually).
Some in the media have feebly tried to get answers to these questions that, very rightly, the public deserves to have answered. We aren't shopping for a GI Joe doll, we're electing a president. In some ways, calling McCain a hero, to me, is just another part of his campaign. And I'm not making any apologies for saying so.
July 18, 2008 6:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't think McCain would be called a hero in the WWII or even Vietnam War senses of the term.
The term in those days connoted extraordinary valor or self-sacrifice. Both were volitional. Prisoner's of war, or simple soldiers who earned the CIB and maybe earned Purple Hearts too weren't generally called heroes.
It was a later development...sometime around Gulf I or definitely Gulf II where any participant in military operations was given that title rather indiscriminately. And I guess the term has changed from voluntary self-sacrifice of life and limb to participatory or involuntary self-sacrifice of life, limb, time, career, and so forth.
McCain qualifies in the newer, media-driven sense of the term which has valorized simple participation, but I doubt he would accept the term himself if he uses the old standards internally.
July 17, 2008 8:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
somehow, wanting to kill all those who don't like us takes a lot of the "hero" out of John McCain.
July 17, 2008 8:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
John McCain is not a hero. The word has been debased to the point where any servicveman kiled in Iraq is called a "hero." That McCain acted with great valor is beyond debate. That it has left him permanently crased also should be obvious.
July 17, 2008 9:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
The sentence that caught my attentiun is, "That McCain acted with great valor is beyond debate."
How did he act with great valor?
Again, this is not to play down McCain's service. But what makes his actions stand out?
July 17, 2008 10:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
The word has been debased to the point where any servicveman kiled in Iraq is called a "hero."
Calling someone a "hero" who gave their lives in the service of their country is NOT debasing the word! You need to give some serious thought to your horribly skewed, insulting and repugnant perspective.
July 17, 2008 11:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Robby: a "hero" is someone who performs heroic action. Getting killed is not ipso facto "heroic." It is honorable, patriotic, or a ton of other adjectives, but why would it be heroic? Milton Oliver was a hero, but it was the WAY he got killed that made him so, not the fact of his death.
Panagea: I find both McCain's years of imprisonment and his conduct during them (rejecting early release) valorous, though others may not, perhaps with justice.
July 18, 2008 4:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Put it this way, does Halliburton or KBR create a hero every time a service member gets electrocuted in a shower in the Green Zone?
July 18, 2008 5:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree 100%. I posted a reply earlier in the thread, before I'd read down-thread farther and find that more posters are echoing my thoughts than I believed would be the case.
July 18, 2008 6:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am a veteran and an Obama supporter. My take...
Anyone who serves in the armed forces, the police department or the fire department with honor is a hero. These are people who are prepared to give their lives for their country, for their communities, for the people.
McCain served honorably and nearly died in doing so, as he was prepared to do. That makes him a hero in my book.
Norman Schwarzkopff was a hero, too. Doesn't mean I want him to be my President. Doesn't mean he's qualified to be President just because he's a hero. That's the distinction that needs to be made.
July 17, 2008 10:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
To your point, I think that many people think that being a hero is a very good reason to elect someone President. Additionally, those who are labeled heroes are often given attributes they may not necessarily posses. I wish others had your ability to separate a person's talents and abilities from their descriptives.
July 18, 2008 10:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
Robby: try consulting a dictionary! All those positions may make it likely one will perform heroically; just holding the job does not automatically make one a hero.
July 18, 2008 4:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Your attitude is the main reason why most of us progressives are seen as unpatriotic. You miss the point completely. Those who volunteer to put their lives on the line and serve honorably (which most do by the way) as fire fighters, police officers or members of the armed forces is WHAT MAKES THEM HEROES!!!!
The fact that this is difficult for you to grasp is just stunning to me. "Consult a dictionary"? You are completely lost, my friend.
July 18, 2008 4:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you. I'm amazed at these cowards and losers that have taken over this web site. Imbeciles like this poster will never cease to amaze me.
July 18, 2008 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Are you the guy who was lying on the hospital bed next to Billy Pilgrim?
July 18, 2008 5:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Anyone who serves in the armed forces, the police department or the fire department with honor is a hero."
What a simp.
July 18, 2008 5:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't care what any of you kitchen sinks say!
John McCain is my hero; he's my American Idol; he's the wind beneath my wings.
July 17, 2008 11:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah lone eye of truth. Nations as well as individuals gradually lose attachment to their identities, and the present generation is amused rather than offended by the ridicule that is thrown upon their ancestors.
July 18, 2008 8:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm a little surprised more people don't know the story. McCain is considered a hero by some not because he served in Viet Nam or because he was a pow. When it was discovered by his captors that he was the son of an admiral he was offered early release. He decided it would be dishonorable to accept special consideration because of his connections. He thought it would be unfair to those pows that were there longer. And he felt it would be a propaganda coupe for his captors if he allowed himself to be sent home early.
Its said that he was beaten more severely to attempt to convince him to accept early release and was offered it several times. He never accepted. So he self sacrificed for what he believed was an ethical imperative in respect to his fellow pows and what he believed was patriotic in respect to his country.
July 18, 2008 12:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
If that is case then he is a hero in my eyes.
July 18, 2008 12:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
Is there a particularly good, credible site where one can find out more about McCain's time as a POW?
July 18, 2008 7:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry, can't help you there. Contrary to what you might assume from my post I'm not a McCain supporter. I just remember reading the story several times over the years. I know I saw it in respectable sources since I don't read right wing nut case sites or trash newspapers. Therefore I believe its probably accurate as I posted though I've never thoroughly investigated it.
July 18, 2008 8:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for getting back to me oceankat. I didn't assume that you supported one candidate over another. I think it is perfectly acceptable to acknowledge positive things about someone you oppose as it is to criticize someone you support.
July 18, 2008 10:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
I believe that McCain has written a book that details his captivity. The interesting thing to me is that he says he was broken by torture, lost hope and made statements that were used by the North Vietnamese as progaganda. I believe it was after that that he recovered, openly defied his torturers and refused to take early release, even though that meant the beatings continued. I've never been tortured. Never even been under the control of people who could hurt me. The extraordinary thing to me about McCain is the redemption. Had he just been tortured and held out, he would be a man who did not know that there are limits to his courage, his strength and his will. But having been broken on the rack, to voluntarily go back onto the rack and prevail? I'm not sure what kind of heroes we're looking for. I'm not even sure that we should be looking for heroes. But if I were looking for someone to look up to, it might be the John McCain who sat in his cell in Hanoi, waiting for the torture to begin again.
July 18, 2008 2:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
well said.
July 18, 2008 2:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lots of debate, and significantly differing reports on the timeline. There is even a disagreement as to whether the North Vietnamese learned about LtCmdr McCain being the son of an Admiral from McCain himself, or from the news media. Admiral McCain was, at the time, winding down a tour as Commander, US Forces in Europe, and getting ready to assume command of US forces, Pacific. Not somebody with a low profile.
Repatriation of wounded prisoners was not an unusual thing, as long as the captors could get some level of good press out of it. Debriefing returning prisoners provides useful information, so both sides benefit. Being repatriated was clearly acceptable under the Fighting Man's Code. Cooperating with the enemy in return for better treatment was a violation.
The whole mess has been going on since John McCain, as a candidate for The House shut off comments about his "carpetbagger" tag by saying that he the only place he had lived longer than Arizona was Hanoi.
July 18, 2008 5:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
That everyone who serves is a 'hero' is like every woman who sings, and now any gay man, is a 'diva'.
It lessens the term.
I've known many police who were corrupt, with power or with 'graft', and none of them were heroes in the slightest.
The concept that one must actually do something heroic to be a hero is no more. Manning a speed camera doesn't make you a hero, it makes you a tax collector.
July 18, 2008 11:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
You said it, Diego!
July 18, 2008 4:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
And that guy with the speed gun also has the job of responding to protect you when someone is breaking in to your house. The very fact that they are out there, voluntarily standing between you and the bad guys, is an act of heroism.
I weep for your ignorance.
July 18, 2008 5:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
"I weep for your ignorance."
I chafe at yours.
July 18, 2008 5:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
When a school kid asked JFK how he became a hero, the President replied: "It was involuntary; they sank my boat".
A true hero does not have to keeping bragging about what they did.
July 18, 2008 12:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Perhaps a hero doesn't brag about what he did, but politics requires bragging. Obama is bragging a good deal about his community service. He is doing it because he is trying to make a point about his character and values. McCain is doing the same. Now the real dishonorable type is the one that steals the heroism of others much better than himself and tries to present himself as one of them. I think being an Air Guard pilto through family connections and not even fulfilling the minimum requirements of that service falls in that category.
July 18, 2008 12:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Point taken. The fact that Obama resisted the allure of a high salary lawyer's job to work for a meager wage to assist the less fortunate is noble and honorable, but I don't think that his actions make him a hero.
It seems to me that self-sacrifice, in and of itself, is not enough to make one a hero. Some have suggested that one's job can automatically qualify one as a hero. I'm not quite convinced of that either, though I will concede that some professions may be inherently more honorable than others.
July 18, 2008 1:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
What has always struck me about fire fighters is that they are always going up the stairs toward the fire while everyone else is coming down. That's the way it was on 9/11. That's he way it will be in my house if I and my family are ever trapped on the second floor by fire.
July 18, 2008 2:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why don't you read the New Yorker article instead of stopping at the front cover cartoon and you'll discover the real reason Saint Obama went to work for the law firm he did. It wasn't some legal aid clinic for the poor and indigent as you somehow thought. It was a politically connected expedient career path to political office. Saint Obama has had one thing on his mind since moving to Chicago in the '90s and that's the next higher office. The guy has never run for re-election to a seat because he's always looking at the next job up.
July 18, 2008 5:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'll give him status for having acted bravely at some points during his captivity. In particular, refusing early release. What I won't concede is that his war experience makes him an unquestionable expert on the military, or that his expertise in "foreign affairs" is so obvious as to be beyond even questioning as a proposition.
I served in Vietnam, too. I don't think that qualifies me as expert in anything but my own experience there. The fact is that by his many befuddled pronouncements, John McCain seems ever to reveal himself as completely INexpert; yet the media accepts without question that his props in foreign policy and national security and military matters are as obvious as the sun rising in the east. One wonders how many more misstatements and confusing of his own prior record it will take for media to wash the scales from their eyes. It's really astounding.
I wrote in a somewhat related manner about this on my blog a while back.
July 18, 2008 2:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm not sure the experience they're looking at is his war time experience. I think they count his years in the Senate and his committee and subcommittee assignments and junkets in his favor.
July 18, 2008 3:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
You mean the committee meetings he never attends? Or the votes he doesn't cast. John McCain acts like a dopey teenager, making simplistic, snide comments; he doesn't even act as though he is mature. A leader? Well, he could lead our country further down the rat-hole in which it is headed!
July 18, 2008 4:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sure you're right. But the question remains: other than spending time, where's the evidence that he's gained command of issues and has learned in a way that promotes good judgment.
July 18, 2008 7:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
You may both be right. I'm just pointing out where I think the MSM is coming from. They're not looking at his wartime experience. They're looking at his peace time experience and they are impressed by it, whether we are or not.
July 19, 2008 3:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have never voted for a Republican in my life; I am as consistently pro-Obama as any poster on this site; and I could not disagree more strenuously with this post.
Had the man not been tortured, giving six years of his life to confinement in a tiny cell at the hands of enemies of his who hated him and wished our nation out of their homeland, is a heroism that to me far outshines a single noble act that saves lives, which we conceive of as heroic with our cinematic thoughts of what heroism is.
Putting it another way, if you gave me a choice of losing six years of my life to a comfortable prison in nowhere or losing a limb, take the limb now. That is a far greater sacrifice.
But he was not in a comfortable prison. The man was tortured, separated from everyone and everything he knew for six years, not knowing he would emerge alive. I think the enormity of that experience, like the enormity of mass murder, is impossible to really _understand_ from the detachment of analysis.
As a public figure, I have nothing good to say for the man, and have no patience with Democrats who consider voting for him for literally any reason. As a servant of his country, however, he is a great hero for the degree of sacrifice he made of himself and his life, in an attempt to serve the nation. I don't discount it for my strong disagreement with the Vietnam War, I don't discount it because of the lack of externalities caused by his incredible sacrifice. I cannot understand the contrary position, not one bit. Sorry.
July 18, 2008 3:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
So, to sum up: Bad Things Happen to Good People.
July 18, 2008 3:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
It is not being a prisoner that makes hima hero. He had no choice in the matter. Refusing early release is what makes him a hero. It is that simple.
July 18, 2008 4:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
The vast majority of the guys refused early release. While commendable, such solidarity does not a hero make. And it was obvious even then that early release would have killed his Navy career instanter.
July 18, 2008 5:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mixed motives?
As Friedrich would say, Human, All Too Human.
July 18, 2008 5:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for your comment.
I'm sorry that the way I phrased my questions led you to believe that I was dishonoring John McCain. Looking back at my post, I can see how my questions could have led to that conclusion.
As per my post, my intent in asking my questions is to increase my knowledge of McCain and help me think through what it means to be a hero.
I am grateful to you and the other posters who are responding thoughtfully and respectfully. Reading what you all wrote (as well as some of the articles and blogs to which you linked) is helpful to me. I hope that others have also found these comments useful and thought provoking.
July 18, 2008 4:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Anyone who remains so close to George W. Bush is no hero.
July 18, 2008 3:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Patty Hearst was abducted and brain washed. Is she a hero?
July 18, 2008 4:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
There's an interesting piece in the Phoenix New Times archives (http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1999-03-25/news/is-john-mccain-a-war-hero/1) that starts off debunking some of the strongest voices against McCain, and proceeds through the evidence extant at that time. Much in the way of conflicting information, but it covers a lot of the territory. I would not suggest McCain's books, speeches, or post-return debriefings, since there's a LOT of contradiction.
I worked for, and with, a fair number of former POW's, and few of them were very patient with being called heroic. I had a couple of experiences with getting shot at, but I'm not a hero. When I enlisted, part of the contract was to place myself, as the song goes "between [my] loved home and war's desolation." People like Lance Sijan were heroes.
The primary question, and I've heard it debated at great length in Professional Military Education classes/seminars, involves the Fighting Man's Code, which was supposed to govern conduct when captured by the enemy. You have a clear obligation to escape. Does an offer of early return qualify? Particularly after one has already given interviews, made films, etc. that reflected well on one's captors? Does trading cooperation and information for medical treatment constitute accepting favors?
"Hero" is now such an overused word that it demeans the men and women in uniform. We are so eager to paint ourselves in the colors of glory that we even extend the term to every single person who was killed, injured, or within blocks ot the WTC on 9/11. There was even a bill in the House (thankfully not passed) to give Purple Hearts to everyone in the buildings who sustained wounds. Where does it end?
Finding objective sources gets more difficult with each year, as political discourse has descended to two ideologues, standing at the far distant sides of a question, throwing dulled sound bites at each other. OK, it was that bad some time ago, but now it seems to be accepted as status quo. Somehow, that seems worse.
July 18, 2008 4:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
oreh..is hero spelled backwards and is an old republican term for someone who is a candidate for elected office that the party feels will be defeated!
So I guess in that way Mcfuddle is a hero of sorts!!
July 18, 2008 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sure he's a hero, but a common one--enduring hardship for reasons of self-preservation. His gallantry was not born of his own initiative, it was placed upon him. We all know he was a lousy pilot, a party boy, a lousy student at the academy. (Where was his devotion to his country then?) What tarnishes his service is his running for office on his merits as a POW. It gives him no insight into geopolitics, or how to lead a nation, or how to tell a joke. He received his Naval commission because he had admirals in the family. McCain's wealth....he married into it. All the hard work of others.
Compare McCain with Eisenhower for just a minute and you can see the difference between a great man and, well, John McCain.
My uncles died at Coral Sea, another served in OSS, a great....grandfather Benjamin Lincoln took sword from OHara at Yorktown, another served during Korean War. Etc., etc. None bragged, or became self-righteous. Rather, they let the experience inform and influence the manner in which they lived as citizens, raised their families....
Obama, on the other hand, is an entirely self-made person. That's a hero.
July 18, 2008 6:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Would a hero vote to allow his country to torture men, women and children? I can't think of a hero that would.
Most of the circumstances McCain found himself in weren't really the result of heroic self-sacrifice, he happened to be captured and held prisoner.
Nothing in his service record points to him as a leader, let alone Presidential material.
Using his POW experience as a ticket to power is rather round-about, but lacking anything more substantial it will have to do.
The term "hero" is used so loosely in this country that anyone that makes the winning shot is a hero. Its a stretch to call McCain a hero.
July 18, 2008 8:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wikipedia on him has good summary of his prisoner of war story with quite a few footnotes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain#Prisoner_of_war
The related footnotes include several sources available online.
July 18, 2008 11:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
p.s. I don't attempt to answer your questions because I find the classification of someone as a hero kind of useless. The noun "hero," which always had a nonspecific meaning in our language, over time has been used and misused many ways for many purposes making it useless except as a term for expressing gratitude to someone for something they did. I think for some reason the adjective "heroic" has avoided some of that and retains a bit more usefulness and nuance.
July 18, 2008 11:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think John McCain should be President of Czechoslovakia.
July 19, 2008 11:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
That may be a good idea. MaCain's maverick tendencies will help fight the influence the Soviet Union exerts on the Czechs.
July 19, 2008 12:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
The other day, I heard a radio commentator describe John McCain as "a war hero who has never stopped fighting against his country's enemies." I had heard/read that formulation before. For some reason, it had struck me as vaguely funny.
In the candle hours of this morning, I realized what it was. When I was young, there was a TV show called Captain Midnight (later rebroadcast as Jet Jackson, the Flying Commando).
The intro (read over a stirring rendition of "Men of Harlech") went: "On a mountaintop above a large city stands the headquarters of a man devoted to the cause of freedom and justice -- a war hero who has never stopped fighting against his country's enemies [music swells, massive echo on shouted voice] Captain Midnight!!!"
So now, instead of getting angry when this product of privilege gets touted as some kind of role model, I can let the clip play in the back of my head and picture Senator McCain in the Captain Midnight outfit, complete with Secret Squadron decoder ring.
It helps. Not much, but it helps.
July 19, 2008 4:08 PM | Reply | Permalink