McCain probably can’t remember from one moment to the next which position he favors or thinks he favors. I think he is simply an attention whore who takes the position that will get him the most of what he craves; right and wrong be damned.
And he’s undoubtedly right, in the context he presents, the “grunt” in combat. The mutual bonding of men in combat is a hard-wired psychological effect, its history goes back to the dawn of time, a sense of commitment and brotherhood that has been noted and exploited by military monsters from Agamemnon through Shaka Zulu. It never fails, men in combat bond readily to people they might otherwise ordinarily have nothing to do with.
And it’s pretty specific, too. My father served in the Pacific in WWII and, according to his own testimony, returned much more accepting of people of different ethnic backgrounds, and considered himself improved by that. But he hated the Japanese to his dying day.
But I’m not counting on the extraordinary, the fires of combat, I’m counting on the deadly dull ordinary, the totally rear echelon of typists and clerks, I’m counting on the day to day normalcy of not knowing and not caring who the other guy wants to fuck. I expect crude humor, shrugs, and the issuance of socks, pair, cotton, white, 1 each…
In a world so openingly gay now the US military better get with it.
Seriously, old guys like John McCain, do not deserve to be called assholes. In his day he would have knocked your knucklehead off!
Have some respect OP.
If they are assholes, sure they do.
Bite me.
Yeah, I really think this is pretty much the answer. I don’t know if he ever had a steady moral compass, but I don’t think he really has one now. I went from being glad he was the Republican nominee simply because I had respect for him to being disgusted by his behavior. Maybe he always was the guy we see today.
Tough Fucking Shit for them. I bet there was more than a ‘sizable minority’ who opposed the racial integration of the Armed Forces, and what they thought about was completely irrelevant.
The montages put together on The Daily Show are very instructive in that regard. His stance on many issues has changed over the years to suit whichever way the wind is blowing. He was and is an asshole.
West Wing has a great scene that speaks to this, with John Amos’s Admiral Fitzwallace making this very point. Here you go.
Try “majority”.
I thought it was pretty clear that I was simply stating a fact in response to what another poster stated. I said I was in favor of repealing DADT in the first sentence of the first post post I made in this thread.
Who gives a shit? A lot of them didn’t want to serve with black people either. That’s not a criterion with any value, and the support for repealing DADT among military personnel now is much stronger than support for integrating the military under Truman.
If you’re waiting for unanimous accpeptance, then you have to support re-segretaing the military even now, since we still have racists in the military. A lot of the military doesn’t like atheists either. Or Muslims. Or women.
Please read post #50.
I suspect that if McCain had been elected, he’d probably have pushed to overturn DADT himself. Since the election, though, it just looks to me like he’s completely embittered about having the prize he believes with all his heart he was entitled to taken away from him by some slick-talking kid, and he now just can’t abide the thought of letting Obama have any important achievemenst credited to him whatsoever.
Quite likely. He seems to still be smarting from the defeat.
I don’t belive he would have done anything to overturn DADT. WHy would he?
And yet he’s tongued Dubya’s asshole since 2001.
-Joe
Wait…cracking under torture now somehow makes a person less worthy? :dubious:
[sub]No, I’m NOT defending McCain, or his stance here.[/sub]
He didn’t say that. He said it wasn’t heroic, and it isn’t.
You think it is fair to have them risk their lives in service to their country while living a lie and accepting bigotry?
When it happens, and it will, there will be an incident or 2 with some prejudiced soldier attacking a gay. That will not prove the change in policy is wrong. it will prove some bigots are so badly bigoted that they will not be able to control themselves. They should not be allowed to determine policy.
McCains being a jerk. Everything he asked for came along. He wanted the military leadership say they could implement it. He had every study he asked for. But he did not like the results. He is playing to the Tea Party types like he is in desperate need for his senatorial job. He has no credibility.
No, it’s the fact he made a meaningless confession while being tortured and yet supports torture because “we’ll get useful info out of them”.