McCain Never Fails To Play The POW Card

From Daily Kos
McCain plays the victim every time he mentions his POW record in Vietnam. He appeals to our sympathy and collective guilt and this is supposed to make us all view him as a war hero - why? I thought heroism had to do with eluding capture, managing not to get shot down, turning it all around and sticking it to the enemy in the end. At least that's what Hollywood war movies (e.g., "Pearl Harbor") with their swelling scores and tearjerking finales, as well as every war hawks' idealized version of heroism teaches. McCain's actual POW record is so far from this ideal, yet we continue to have this version of McCain as the great old American hero forced down our throats day in and day out, by not only the MSM, but by his appeasing political enemies as well.

How does losing 5 U.S. Navy aircraft (4 not in combat), an estimated 20 hours of flight time over enemy territory, ending in the loss of the 5th airplane, and sitting in prison for 5 years, somehow qualify this wizened old Drama Queen American hero status? Why does his high-profile birthright as the son of a Navy Admiral and his giving up military information in exchange for much needed access to surgeons always get lost in the glamor of the hero myth? How is it that sitting another year in prison after refusing a repatriation deal make him more of a hero? Wouldn't he have done a greater service to his fellow POWs on the inside, by working to get them released from the outside?

**Snip**

John McCain's stubborn refusal to look Senator Obama in the eye in Mississippi last night is as good a metaphor as any for his failed foreign policy and short combat records. As a failed Navy pilot, he flew above, but never looked his enemy in the eye in Vietnam. He jumped on the Iraq war bandwagon without ever looking his enemy in the eye. And he'll gladly continue Bush's failed policy of refusing any contact with our enemies while beating the drums for war (with Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Venezuela, or anyone else that dares to assert their right to self determination).

All of this refusal of John McCain to face his enemies eye to eye makes me wonder what he is afraid they'll see if he looks them in the eye. I wonder if it's that he's afraid they'll see the same frightened youth that hid behind his father's name instead of being left to die like so many nameless fatally wounded true American heroes in Vietnam.