Posted by
beltway girl on Sunday, August 31, 2008 3:08:39 AM
"When the soldiers came home from Vietnam, there were no parades, no celebrations. So they built the Vietnam Memorial for themselves." --William Westmoreland
Who is John McCain?
John McCain was crushed when his plane was shot down over Hanoi in October of 1967. His body broken, he nearly drowned.
When the Vietnamese recovered this twisted and fractured, but certainly animated and alert remnant of a human being, a crowd attacked him. He felt the bayonet and the butt of a rifle. His body absorbed the hatred of his country, and of western civiliztion.
The soldier, now a prisoner, was taken to the Hanoi Hilton. What life was like in this place can only be imagined from the details available. That was Hoa Lo, which means "Fiery Furnace," or "Hell's Hole." "Stove." Another nearby prison was known as the Zoo.
Why did they call it the Zoo?
Well, all the windows had been bricked off, and the doors had padlocks. But there was a small crack where the prisoners could look out, and livestock could look in.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/honor/sfeature/sf_prisons.html Perhaps the most important note to this aside is that the North Vietnamese truly did view creatures of the west as no better than animals; but the Zoo was not the Hilton.
The Hanoi Hilton was built by the French, who were not very popular with many of the locals. It became a hot point for what was to come. Men destined to lead the North Vietnamese communists were no strangers to it. When they got their chance, they decided to make John McCain familiar with its hospitality, which somehow hadn't changed all that much, except, perhaps, to have become more savage.
The article goes on. "Some of the most brutal torture of Americans took place here in specially equipped rooms."
Our servicemen, mostly pilots at this place, were tortured and interrogated. There were "rope bindings, irons, beatings, and prolonged solitary confinement." (Wikipedia) The North Vietnamese wanted good press. They wanted U.S. policy denounced by these men.
"In 1968, he was offered early release, and when he refused, because others had been there longer, his captors went at him again: he suffered cracked ribs, teeth broken off at the gum line, and torture that lashed his arms behind his back and that were progressively tightened all the way through the night." (
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/03/25/he-left-his-teeth-in-the-hanoi-hilton/, quoting
Vanity Fair)
The piece continues that he suffered from dysentery in solitary confinement and attempted suicide.
"I took one look at him, and my brain said, 'They dropped this guy off on me to claim that we let him die.'" ((
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/05/08/mccains-former-hanoi-cell-mate-describes-character-in-deplorable-conditions/)
These were the words of Col. George "Bud" Day, a celebrated soldier also being housed at the Hanoi Hilton at the time, as quoted in CNN.
Watery soup and bread were the least of their worries. Starvation, beatings, tortured for hours and hours. Hate America, my brother. Some did at home without any torture. The Hilton uniforms are eerily reminiscent of Adolf Hitler's concentration camp uniforms.
John McCain lived there for five years. Atrocities. Many in the quest for good press for the North Vietnmanese.
This man is clearly someone to be considered for the White House this year. He should not be denied that if he is shown to be the clearly superior candidate. Many on the left don't like to remember Vietnam; it doesn't sit well with their "world view."
As our own press has already launched an attack on his running mate's "inexperience," let's try to make sure that the quest for good press doesn't once again besiege this soldier.
A good leader, even in our nation, isn't easy to come by. We have many presidents in our history, the names of whom escape the memories of school children and investment bankers alike.
But the competition is stiff. Barack Obama offers a whole gamut of gifts, including a brilliant mind, beautifully crafted speeches, and an enhanced opportunity for racial healing.
But please remember that this man has a story, too. Some among the left like to make light of this story, knowing how powerful it truly is. John McCain came home from his "Vietnam experience" like many others. Many in the nation didn't embrace these men, didn't love these men, didn't cherish these men, and did not celebrate these men.
Men like him built their own building, and, like McCain, they built their own legacy. The good press the North Vietnmanese craved wasn't in Vietnam; it was here. There was a very receptive audience for them.
McCain came home and turned the page in his life, and he chose the life of a public servant. More recently, he has turned the page by making Sarah Palin his running mate. It's a page worth turning. Because the audience the North Vietnamese sought out in this country is to be found on the far left.
They in this flank of the American political landscape say this vice presidential candidate is light, but their own presidential candidate floats like a duck feather.
America, don't turn back. Heed Barack Obama's advice and know that you cannot turn back. This was a good man you had in John McCain, and he still is. He is the same man that survived America's lost war, and the brutality that followed that loss.
For once, show the left that the quest for good press has gone too far. Saying that this man's building is the White House is not partisan, it is just. Give this man, and the men who served with him, the building they really deserved.
It is, seriously, the right kind of change.
His opponents in his own party say he's a "maverick," and doesn't do as he is told.
It's the turning page for "The Maverick." Let's ask, if you had been through what this man had, would you be anything else?