First I very much appreciate and respect your explanatory reply. This is all it would have taken from the beginning, just a short “are you sure about that”? And I would have explained that I did indeed understand that the accusation was still an unsolved controversy.
But what you did because of your extensive knowledge about these planes and engines was bait me with a question so that you could dump your expertise on me and make me look the fool. But I clearly stated that I was not an expert and wasn’t completely sure what wet starting was in that same reply.
As for my “I think he did indeed” statement I see now it might have been better if I had used the term “could have” rather than “did”. I am like most and very familiar that this is a very long term controversy. My choice of “did” rather than “could have” stems from McCain’s own arrogance and lack of integrity which discredits every defense of this man.
Is it possible a mistake could have been covered up by the Navy because of the high profile situation McCain was in? Absolutely, and did McCain turn out to be an outright liar? absolutely. So based on this I have always thought the darker side of this controversy very well could be true. But I always admit that I have no factual basis aside from accounts of others I have read and there is a LOT of it.
Over the years I have had extensive personal experience with how the government works in cases like this. Do they fudge and manipulate investigations? Absolutely, I know this for a fact. And we just had a recent event where if it had not been for the huge internet exposure it would have been manipulated and covered up to save face...The USS Fitzgerald incident, it has been one of the very few that they were forced to be honest about.
So do I give credibility to the government and these official investigations? No, they are not a creditable source to be trusted in any investigation of themselves. And this truth should be universal knowledge to anyone who has been personally involved with government dealings.
I completely understand and commend your loyalty and defense of this website. And I have always done the same with web communities I have come to love being a part of. No judgment from me on this one, It is the right thing to do. What is a web community without it’s loyal and passionate members? I have always appreciated and respected this in my own web communities I have owned in the past.
Now with that being said may I now share a thought about your statement here? “Ha. Dummies on Free Republic don’t even know what a wet start is, all the crap they post there are lies anyway. If they lie and make stuff up about how a jet engine works just to smear McCain, everything else is suspect...”
I could be wrong, but I honestly don’t think there are that many left out there today who would even understand the whole concept enough to even raise this question or criticism about this. A criticism like this would have to come from a unique very very knowledgeable source like yourself.
And from what I see, there are very very few on the “other” side who have enough brain cells to rub together to even think of this particular very unique specialized criticism. But I completely understand and respect your defense here and will try to word things better in the future. :)
Well, you are right, I did bait you. I shouldn’t have done that, but unfortunately, with this subject, to dispose of it more quickly instead of dragging it out for many posts over many days, I try to get people to get right to the heart of the matter, so I can get to driving the stake through it faster.
It is part of the Socratic method, in which you ask questions to steer someone intellectually into the corner of a room with a floor they paint with their own answers to your questions, and once they are trapped in the corner, you ask them the question you really wanted answered in the first place, but you leave the person with only two ways to answer: Truthfully, which makes them have to recant their beliefs, or they answer by attacking irrationally to escape (Leaving the corner of the room they painted themselves into by simply walking out of the room on the wet paint they laid down)
I shouldn’t have done that. I don’t know you or your stance on things well enough to have taken that approach. It was a breach of trust with a fellow Freeper.
In this case, I had the impression you had full signed on to the concept that a hot start by McCain somehow started the fire or set off the ordinance that spread the conflagration. Your very first post in the thread made it clear to me what you were subscribing to. I shouldn’t have tried to pin you so quickly and given you time to clarify your statement.
Sigh. If you can’t tell, I have had this particular conversation on this subject...a lot. I apologize I was less accommodating to you on this than perhaps I could or should have been.