What should we call McCain for what he did to POWs?
The War Secrets Sen. John McCain Hides
Former POW Fights Public Access to POW/MIA Files - Sydney SchanbergHurdles and limitations
Finally, in addition to these hurdles and limitations, the McCain act does not specifically order the declassification of the information. Further, it provides the Defense Department with other justifications for withholding documents. One such clause says that if the information “may compromise the safety of any United States personnel … who remain not accounted for but who may still be alive in captivity, then the Secretary [of Defense] may withhold that record or other information from the disclosure otherwise required by this section.”
Boiled down, the preceding paragraph means that the Defense Department is not obligated to tell the public about prisoners believed alive in captivity and what efforts are being made to rescue them. It only has to notify the White House and the intelligence committees in the Senate and House. The committees are forbidden under law from releasing such information.
McCain goes further to hurt future POWs...
Another bill gutted in 1996And then there is the Missing Service Personnel Act, which McCain succeeded in gutting in 1996. A year before, the act had been strengthened, with bipartisan support, to compel the Pentagon to deploy more resources with greater speed to locate and rescue missing men. The measure imposed strict reporting requirements.
McCain amended the heart out of the statute. For example, the 1995 version required a unit commander to report to his theater commander within two days that a person was missing and describe what rescue and recovery efforts were underway. The McCain amendments allowed 10 days to pass before a report had to be made.
Vietnam Veterans Against McCain YouTube video 7:45
Interesting information. Whether McCain was a hero is not the subject of this thread, but why the media is not asking the GOP candidates another totally logical question concerning this tiff between Trump and McCain.
And under a traditional definition of "hero", I don't think POWs are necessarily heroes.