corpuscollossus
Newbie
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Posts: 32
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« Reply #12 on: October 11, 2008, 08:15:33 AM » |
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well for some reason my big ass reply to JFree89 got deleted twice. here it is again without the linked sources:
thank you jfree. he has had some considerable military accomplishments:
Reason 1
McCain graduated 494 out of 498 in his naval airforce class in Annapolis - if it weren't for his Admiral father and truly heroic grandfather, he would never have been allowed to fly - a point that would have spared the Navy millions of dollars, as mccain ended up crashing five airplanes. Since becoming a politician, John McCain has not had a single navy airman from his generation come out to publicly support him - virtually unheard of among the tight-knit military set.
Reason 2
How heroic was mccain in captivity in Vietnam? The answer is not very. He was labelled a 'songbird' by his Vietcong captors, and received special medical treatment once they found out he was a military elite:
“His Vietnamese capturers soon realized their POW, John Sidney McCain III, came from a well-bred line of American military elites. McCain’s father, John Jr., and grandfather, John Sr., were both full Admirals. A destroyer, the USS John S. McCain, is named after both of them. While his son was held captive in Hanoi, John McCain Jr., from 1968 to 1972, was the Commander-in-Chief of U.S. Pacific Command; Admiral McCain was in charge of all US forces in the Pacific including those fighting in Vietnam. ..The Admiral’s bad boy was used to special treatment and his captors knew that. They were working him.For his part, McCain acknowledges that the Vietnamese rushed him to a hospital, but denies he was given any “special medical treatment.” However….two weeks into his stay at the Vietnamese hospital, the Hanoi press began quoting him. It was not “name rank and serial number, or kill me,” as specified by the military code of conduct. McCain divulged specific military information: he gave the name of the aircraft carrier on which he was based, the number of US pilots that had been lost, the number of aircraft in his flight formation, as well as information about the location of rescue ships…
On the other hand, according to one source, McCain’s collaboration may have had very real consequences. Retired Army Colonel Earl Hopper, a veteran of World War II, Korea and Vietnam, contends that the information that McCain divulged classified information North Vietnam used to hone their air defense system…McCain told his North Vietnamese captors, “highly classified information, the most important of which was the package routes, which were routes used to bomb North Vietnam. He gave in detail the altitude they were flying, the direction, if they made a turn… he gave them what primary targets the United States was interested in.” Hopper contends that the information McCain provided allowed the North Vietnamese to adjust their air-defenses. As result, Hopper claims, the US lost sixty percent more aircraft and in 1968, “called off the bombing of North Vietnam, because of the information McCain had given to them.”
Reason 3
McCain's voting record for veterans stinks. Here's what McCain said:
As President, I will do everything in my power to ensure that those who serve today and those who have served in the past have access to the highest quality health, mental health and rehabilitative care in the world. The disgrace of Walter Reed must not be forgotten. … Whatever our commitments to veterans cost, we will keep them, as you have kept every commitment to us. The honor of a great nation is at stake.
Here's how he voted:
Not only has he refused to support the 21st Century GI Bill, which the Veterans of Foreign Wars endorsed last June, he has consistently voted against increasing funding for the Veterans’ Administration, which oversees all medical care for veterans:
Voted AGAINST an amendment providing $20 billion to the VA’s medical facilities.
Voted AGAINST providing $430 million to the VA for outpatient care “and treatment for veterans,” one of only 13 senators to do so.
Voted AGAINST increasing VA funding by $1.5 billion by closing corporate loopholes.
Voted AGAINST increasing VA funding by $1.8 billion by ending “abusive tax loopholes.”
Reason 4
McCain was against torture before he was for it. On 3 October 05, he introduced the McCain Detainee Amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill. The United States Senate voted 90-9 to pass the amendment, prohibiting inhumane treatment of prisoners, including prisoners at Gitmo, by limiting interrogation to methods detailed in the military's Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation. McCain then embraced the Military Commissions Act of October 2006, which vastly broadened the definitions of what constituted torture and stripped POWs of their habeus corpus rights.McCain's then voted against the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2008, which would have prevented the intelligence agencies from torturing 'threats'. McCain bizarrely stated during the debate that while he opposed torture, he wasn't going to hold the intelligence agencies to the same standards as the military.
Reason 5
McCain visits a Market in Baghdad, then lies on numerous occasions about it, and it leads to the death of 21 shopkeepers the following day:
McCain: "There are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods today."
McCain: "General Petraeus goes out there [Iraq] almost everyday in an unarmored Humvee." "I'm not say that they [VIPs] could go without protection. The president goes around America with protection. So I certainly didn't say that."
Reporter: "[On 26 Mar] You said there are areas in Baghdad that you can walk around freely." McCain: "Yeah, I just came from one."
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