Posted on 09/18/2008 12:35:02 PM PDT by llevrok
Please help me track something down I find despicable.
Today I heard Rush say that an Obama supporter is calling John McCain "unfit" to lead because he "broke" when a POW. By "broke", that is - he gave confidential information to his captors or admitted his "guilt" as a war terrorist.
I've read many books on the POW's in captivity both during Vietnam, Korea and WW2. Most - if not all - "break" under torture at some point usually later than sooner. And all who come home carry this huge feeling of guilt for letting their fellow POW's, service, country and family down.
I would defy any liberal who is spreading this as a cause of McCain being too weak to lead spend 1 month - or 1 day - under such conditions and not concede to what their captors want them to say or do.
THis is an attrocious charge and needs to be nipped in the bud. Now.
I caught part of Limbaugh mentioning this but didn't hear the name of the Obama supporter. Who was he talking about?
0bama won’t have to be tortured and have his arms broken and pulled out of their shoulder sockets. He’ll just give it all away without being asked.
>> he gave confidential information to his captors or admitted his “guilt” as a war terrorist
It’s well known that, under torture, he “admitted guilt” in some fashion (signed a statement or something?)
But I have never heard that he gave confidential information to his captors.
Sign of weakness? I don’t see it as such. I doubt I would have had the guts to last one tenth as long as John McCain. This angle of attack on him is doomed to fail, IMO.
Go talk to anyone in the service, they will say you will break, it's only a matter of how long you hold out. They teach you how to resist for as long as possible.
This is well known, I believe McCain even mentioned it in his acceptance speech.
I’m not sure I understand what you’re looking for. Information to prove McCain didn’t break, or information to rebuff Obama’s insinuation.
IIRCC, McCain has acknowleged that he “broke”. I believe he may have signed some document admitting guilt. However, that notwithstanding, you do know that since Vietnam the US Military has changed their stance on resisting the enemy while incaptivity, right?
This was mostly due to American heroes like McCain who held out and held out but “broke” and then they would despair while in captivity as a result of their perceived failure. The rules have changed.
I’d just ignore this story. The caller who will vote for Obama because McCain “broke” sounded like a total idiot anyway.
McCain admitted this a long long time ago and he felt bad about it at the time until his fellow prisoners told him that everyone breaks sooner or later...and with enough mistreatment, and that it is therefore no dishonor.
Bottom line.
1) Every man breaks and has a limit. Hold out as long as you can to delay the info.
2) Try not to be used as propaganda.
Thats it. If you did that, you did your best.
I bet Obama wouldn’t have broken. He would have pushed for change in the POW camp.
Torture Works !
*Everyone* breaks eventually under torture. *Everyone*.
At some point, all you want is for the pain to stop, and you’ll do *anything* to stop it.
It’s only a matter of time.
In hiis acceptance speech at the convention hs said he had. Anyone would.
My understanding is that he did break and it was in his booki written many years ago. he said he felt ashamed and even considered suicide while in prison. The biggest shame he felt was because he felt he let his father down.
As is now common knowledge, no person can withstand torture indefinitely.
Everyone breaks. Under the UCMJ, it is not considered a crime or fault if it is under ‘extreme duress’. I think five years of torture would qualify as extreme duress. Even then, McCain just gave his ship name, something they most likely already had considering he was high profile. Nothing he gave jeopardized the lives of his fellow soldiers.
Reading his book and other’s accounts, most of the time, he was able to evade by giving smarta** answers such as the names of a football team’s line up.
‘... John McCain “unfit” to lead because he “broke” when a POW.’
Fine. Hook some liberal testicles up to 220ac with a promise of throwing the switch unless they vote McCain.
That would yield, oh... 100% straight-ticket GOP.
From John McCain’s acceptance speech at the Republican Convention....
I was in solitary confinement when my captors offered to release me. I knew why. If I went home, they would use it as propaganda to demoralize my fellow prisoners. Our Code said we could only go home in the order of our capture, and there were men who had been shot down before me. I thought about it, though. I wasn’t in great shape, and I missed everything about America. But I turned it down.
A lot of prisoners had it worse than I did. I’d been mistreated before, but not as badly as others. I always liked to strut a little after I’d been roughed up to show the other guys I was tough enough to take it. But after I turned down their offer, they worked me over harder than they ever had before. For a long time. And they broke me.
“When they brought me back to my cell, I was hurt and ashamed, and I didn’t know how I could face my fellow prisoners. The good man in the cell next door, my friend, Bob Craner, saved me. Through taps on a wall he told me I had fought as hard as I could. No man can always stand alone. And then he told me to get back up and fight again for our country and for the men I had the honor to serve with. Because every day they fought for me.
I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else’s. I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency; for its faith in the wisdom, justice and goodness of its people. I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again. I wasn’t my own man anymore. I was my country’s.
I’m not running for president because I think I’m blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need. My country saved me. My country saved me, and I cannot forget it. And I will fight for her for as long as I draw breath, so help me God.”
So, this is what made me realize that I should support McCain vigorously instead of as the less of 2 evils. Although there are many things that he has supported with which I disagree, I now understand that he is motivated by pure love of country. For that, he has my deepest respect, and that is the trait that makes me CERTAIN that he is the right man for the job.
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