Why do people keep calling John McCain a "war hero?"?

Question

from what I have read McCain has in the past labelled himself a 'war criminal' for his role in the Vietnam war... a war in which millions of civilians were killed and more bombs dropped than in all of World War II, a war designed to be unwinnable and stretched on as long as possible, so as to make a maximum profit for defense and weapons contracting industries...

Held captive, but saved from death by his Vietnamese captors, who could easily have killed him, apparently McCain sang like a bird, and told them everything he knew

You may correct me if I'm wrong, or support me if I'm right (preferably with links to sources), but considering that McCain is from a line of warriors, and has had nothing but support for the fiasco in Iraq, and even seems eager to start an even more insane imbroglio in Iran now, McCain seems less like a "war hero" and more like a "war monger" to me.

What do you think?

Answer 1

The man has dedicated his life to serving his country...  He could have left his fellow soldiers and gone home.. but he didn't.. he was principled enough to say.. we all go home.. or no one goes home...  That's a War HERO!

Answer 2

On McCain's capture by the VietKong, from McCain himself:

"'I was carrying out a bombing mission, my twenty-third raid over Hanoi. It was then that I was hit. I wanted to eject but while doing so I broke both arms and my right thigh. Unconscious, I fell in a lake. Some Vietnamese jumped in the water and pulled me out. Later I learned there must have been about 12 of them. They immediately took me to a hospital, in condition two inches away from death. A doctor operated on my thigh. Others at the same time dealt with my arms."

So it would appear that McCain's arm problems were not the result of torture, but a result of his plane crash.

On McCain's true role in his VOLUNTARY participation in the Vietnam war, which, most thinking people would agree, was a sad, sick chapter in American history (much like the Bush presidency and the Bush wars in the Middle East).  Again, the words are from McCain himself:

"I am a war criminal, I bombed innocent women and children."

60 Minutes interview - 1977

http://www.libertyforum.org/showflat.php...

The communists have been running Vietnam since the mid-70's, and has Vietnam ever threatened America since then, like the war-mongers told us they would?

"During those years the United States dispatched its greatest ever land army to Vietnam, and dropped the greatest tonnage of bombs in the history of warfare, and pursued a military strategy deliberately designed to force millions of people to abandon their homes, and used chemicals in a manner which profoundly changed the environmental and genetic order, leaving a once bountiful land petrified. At least 1,300,000 people were killed and many more were maimed and otherwise ruined; 58,022 of these were Americans and the rest were Vietnamese. President Reagan has called this a “noble cause”.

http://www.globalissues.org/HumanRights/...

"...The most decorated American soldier of the war, Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Herbert, wrote in his book, Soldier, “They wanted me to take charge of execution teams that wiped out entire families and tried to make it look as though the VC themselves had done the killing.” Like Agent Orange, the Phoenix Programme was not a “story” until the war was ending. Like Operation Speedy Express [an atrocity where the US Ninth Infantry Division had killed 11,000 people, 5,000 of whom were “non-combatants”], the massacre of between 90 and 130 men, women and children at the village of My Lai on March 16, 1968, was not a story until long after it had happened. For more than a year a soldier who had heard about the My Lai massacre tried to interest Newsweek and others, without success. Finally, the story was “broken”, not by any of the 600 reporters in Vietnam, but by a freelance in the United States, Seymour Hersh... Only then did the correspondents in Vietnam tell their own atrocity stories. There was a cataract of them. Everybody, it seemed, knew about or had witnessed at least one; and everyone had either not reported it or pleased that their office had “spiked” the story they had sent."

http://www.globalissues.org/HumanRights/...

"The films shows young “veterans” (20-27) returning from the war. They realise they have been taking part in an act of butchery, and that they have been conditioned, dehumanised and turned into criminal “Terminators”. They also realise that there will never be an international criminal tribunal to look into the Vietnam war: the politicians and generals responsible for the massacres, the use of napalm, the bombing of civilians, the mass executions in prisons and the ecological disasters resulting from the use of chemical defoliants will never be tried for their crimes against humanity."

McCain proudly volunteered in all this, and looks forward to 100 more years of war in the Middle East - again, his own words.  

I would go with "war monger," like most people who have eyes to see, than with "war hero."

I could write a whole lot more about how McCain has repeatedly gotten the facts wrong about the situation in Iraq and Iran, repeatedly misidentifying the players there, apparently intentionally, to bolster support for more intervention, and incalculably more chaos in Iran, now.

Answer 3

"war heros" don't make anti american propaganda for north vietnam while others (such as myself) are sitting in a h**l-hole in south vietnam taking heat from north vietnamese regular army.

glktu

Answer 4

your so messed up. there is no saving you. there for i don't care what you think

Answer 5

...war criminalis going to far-but i agree -what exactly did he do that makes him a hero-he's not.he was a prisoner of war that married another elitist and noe thinks he and his friends will run the game for another 100 years-he doesn't realise he's at his end-and his price for failing America to date is at hand-OH>COUGAR is a junkie for the right-he is going with the rest of them "h**l"

Answer 6

Anyone who survived that Hanoi pit of h**l can claim to be a hero.

Answer 7

i totatlly agree with you. if you vote for McCain your getting another 4 years of Bush.

Answer 8

good point, "my friend"

Answer 9

I don't think "war monger" is the term I would personally use, but he certainly seems obsessed with the war, and war in general (ironically when the economy is the top issue in our country today). I find it hilarious though how he talks about service to our country and makes it seem like only those in the military are actually doing it. What about all those people in the foreign service or peace corps or working for a NGO/non-profit, on the ground in other countries making a difference? What about people who volunteer in their own communities on a regular basis? If John really knew the costs of war, he would understand that war isn't glamorous, it has many more long term negatives than positives, and should only used as a last result if all other policy options fail.

Answer 10

I think the facts are somewhere in the middle.  Though, from what I've read (sorry, no sources), McCain was beat regularly in Hanoi for not talking.  Every man has his breaking point.  That is why he eventually cracked and "confessed" to certain things.

However, his service record before that wasn't that great.  He was a partier and he crashed a couple planes throughout his career.

I wouldn't call him a hero.  He got captured, beat, and released.  I'm sure it was h**l but that doesn't make you a hero.  It makes you a victim of circumstance.  That could have been anyone.  The guys who jump on grenades are heros.