Posted on 05/26/2006 3:23:30 PM PDT by RWR8189
JOHN McCAIN IS, without a doubt, heroic.
Disagree with his politics, mistrust his shifting political alliances, but no one who's benefited from the tortured sacrifices he made at the Hanoi Hilton should question his integrity. How can we, whole in body and strangers to the hell he experienced, challenge this patriot? To do so indicates a fundamental inhumanity.
That aptly describes the young woman who stood up last week and ridiculed the senator from Arizona. Jean Sara Rohe, a graduating senior at the New School in New York, introduced McCain before he delivered his commencement address.
Ms. Rohe took the opportunity to attack McCain because he supports the war in Iraq, making him a proxy for the president she and her ilk so obviously detest. Her words, dripping with the elite disdain perfected by liberals, is an example of how the pampered progeny of the boomers are always demanding rights without acknowledging prior debts.
The righteous Ms. Rohe was only able to give voice to her beliefs because of McCain and others like him who sacrificed their youth (and, in some cases, their lives) to secure the freedom of strangers. You wonder what sacrifices this young woman has ever made for her country, or if she even thinks it merits the effort.
The disrespect didn't stop there. At one point, the school's president, Bob Kerrey, admonished the crowd to let McCain speak, dryly noting that it takes courage to stand at a lectern but none to scream from the crowd.
The response? Kerrey, who left part of his own leg on a battlefield in Vietnam and who received the Medal of Honor, was called a "war criminal." Given the caliber of the accuser, this is actually high praise.
To hear these things makes my blood boil. What type of people are we, so mired in our partisan anger, that we dare attack the few and singular examples of valor in our midst?
McCain, Kerrey and their comrades deserve respect and gratitude. If we disagree with their politics, the remedy is at the ballot box. But to label as "criminals" men who withstood physical assaults that make Abu Ghraib look tame? Citizenship is wasted on such as these.
Like Vietnam, Iraq is a lightning rod for controversy. Many Americans genuinely feel that we should never have invaded a country that (they say) posed no strategic threat. Many others believe that the threat existed, and provide salient arguments to counter the tired claim of "the president lied." Still others believe that even though the invasion was flawed in its execution, it was a necessary exercise of executive authority. Our country is divided, and the rhetorical battles are as fierce as the real ones.
But regardless of our personal convictions, there is no place in public discourse for the rantings of spoiled children who have never risked life or limb for the greater good. The First Amendment protects their right to protest, even though it is defiled by the content of their thoughts. Unfortunately, it doesn't endow them with courage or character.
Of course, some would disagree. Arianna Huffington has called Ms. Rohe fearless, or words to that effect. Others have praised Jodie Foster, who graced our local Penn graduates with a nice rap song and some ruminations on how we squandered the good will of the world's people.
Still others think that Mumia Abu-Jamal has something of value to impart from his seat on death row. Cop-killers, actresses and clueless little girls. Our graduates are truly blessed.
What most upsets me is that hardly anyone in the liberal community has criticized the attack on McCain. Remember the outrage at "swift-boating" and the indignant defense of Jack Murtha?
Those who were rightly upset at the mud thrown in John Kerry's direction are conveniently silent when it comes from their own side. Those who said we should listen to Murtha's call for an immediate withdrawal of troops because of his war record turn their backs on McCain and stigmatize Kerrey. Their hypocrisy is limitless.
My wish for Ms. Rohe is that, away from the admiring cameras and accompanied only by her conscience, she make as great a mark on society as John McCain and his brothers-in-arms. But I doubt it. The only Hilton she'll ever occupy belongs to Paris' daddy.
Now if they view moderate centrists like McCain etc with such hostility, how much more hostile are they towards really very conservative people like Mark Steyn or Pauline Hanson?
Kerrey should resign.
Although I am not a vet, I share your attitude. All those who served are heroes in my book. Yes, some to a greater degree than others, and some are heroes despite their subsequent behavior and the fact that I disagree with their current political positions. But they are heroes.
Including, sir, you. Thank you for your service.
He graduated 894 out of 899. Unlike his father and grandfather, who were admirals, he made it to captain only. Clearly, Navy didn't think much of him and neither should we.
He's a fair game.
Yes they are. I think perhaps we have given them too much credit for maturity just because they are more physically developed at that age than my generation of teens (1950s) was. But we forget that their relatively few real life experiences have not given them a proper perspective of this complicated and often confused world scene in which we all now must live.
A pampered teenage child, which describes most American teens of upscale families, who has never known any hardship more distressing than a dent in his or her Bimmer's fender can't properly appreciate the sacrifices our servicemen and women have made over the years and still make today in order for them to live a privileged and carefree life in a free and prosperous nation.
Now if they view moderate centrists like McCain etc with such hostility, how much more hostile are they towards really very conservative people like Mark Steyn or Pauline Hanson?
It's no longer a matter of degrees, on either side.
Of course, I would have gone about it completely differently. Simply put, John McCain WAS a war hero, a man who suffered greatly under the gentle ministrations of the people the leftists of the "antiwar" movement cheered on.
However, I refuse to give McCain a pass for the things he's done over the last 30 plus years. Otherwise, we should have done the same for Kerry, who I believe also served in Viet Nam.
Seriously, just because someone serves with honor, even with distinction, doesn't keep them from being scumbags in civilian life.
I would have highlighted his membership in that exclusive club, "The Keating Five," as well as described the McCain/Feingold CFR as the abomination that it is.
Heck, if we really want to give a pass to anyone who serves with honor, or are decorated combat veterans, maybe we should have said, "well, sure, blowing up that federal building in OKC, and killing all those people was a bad thing, but still, Timothy Mcveigh did receive the Bronze Star, so maybe we should give him a pass...
Mark
Actually, IIRC, when the NVA learned who they had (and admiral's son), they offered to let him go, and he refused. I believe that's one of the "facts" that many leave out, but I could be wrong about it. There are a lot of misleading "histories" of Viet Nam, and I was only 10 years old when we pulled out.
Mark
See Duke Cunningham...
It is true. I remember an anti-Communist talkshow host in Hong Kong who once described US liberals as "hypocrites, naive, and pompous" and dared to claim if one day the US falls it will be the American libs' faults.
And note he is not an American: a HK Chinese, he has never had any ties with the US: he was a Warwick University graduate with diploma from LSE (London School of Economics - an institution that has produced plenty of Afro-Marxists), and worked as a BBC radio station host for some time.
I read the whole thing and you still say he sucked as a pilot as if that
should exclude him from being a hero. You didn't say bailing out.
So please enlighten me how John McCain ranks up there with a Murphy, a Patton or a Washington as a HERO? (this should be good)
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