And it’s not really true. Or rather, if is accepted as true then the definition of “al Qaeda” has convenient become so broad as to justify war throughout MENA.
Well I certainly don’t, because I’m not going to enlist. And none of the war-mongers here are going to either. In the Civil War, WWI and WWII people left their jobs to enlist. Including some who were elected to Congress. If I were Obama, I’d offer to send all members of Congress who support a war to go fight it. Except McCain. As much of a hypocrite as he is on virtually anything, he at least tried to serve his country losing five US fighter jets (way to go Ace!), blowing up a supercarrier (too bad it was one of ours!) and sitting five years in the Hanoi Hilton (at least it kept him from sinking our ships and grounding our planes).
I find it tiresome but this is true and it’s equally as true from the other side. It makes sense, though. A liberal is largely going to be happy with FDR’s accomplishments and the few mistakes (like the internment camps) are just blips on an overall good record (you can flip this with conservative/Reagan). But to a conservative FDR’s programs were wrong AND he threw a 100k Japanese-Americans into internment camps.
Really?
In the case of Gitmo, it’s a camp for enemies, not just people who happen to be of a certain nationality.
Of course, Obama has solved the Gitmo problem simply by mostly not taking prisoners. Does make things legally simpler, doesn’t it?
He lost five US navy jets. A military pilot’s career would normally be over after losing one or two, but he was the admiral’s son.
And it isn’t really clear what started the fire on the Forrestal, and probably never will be.
Could it have been Ace? Yes. But some other dummy might have done it too.
McCain wasn’t a great pilot. Mainly because he had more guts than brains. His actions aboard the Forrestal were similarly heroic. Where he did end up excelling was after the war as commanding officer of a training squadron. He proved there that he could lead.
Be careful how you make this claim. If you do so with a negative interpretation of the deity FDR’s actions, you will be shouted down as a crank conspiracy theorist, and probably a racist.
Ok phew! You’re good to go.
Which is different than what the white supremacist totalitarian Lincoln did because he only conquered one splinter nation?
Every dictatorial aspect of the American executive since the Civil War has been justified by invoking Lincoln in religious reverence. Read the speeches justifying worst atrocities committed by the American government, you will find Lincoln. You’re ok with this.
If you think the worst atrocities committed by the American government were overseen by Lincoln, then I think you’ve got a lot to learn.
EDIT: I’m remembering that this is the guy who thinks that, despite the first shots being fired by armed southern men shooting at US soldiers, Lincoln started the Civil War. And the guy who defends a state-like entity fully as great an enemy of humanity as Nazi Germany. Probably not much point to trying to talk to him about the Civl War.
His vision. If you’re not old enough to remember America in 1963, you have no idea how hopeful the future seemed before his assasination. The turmoil which followed throughout the 60’s could have been avoided. JFK was only beginning to reach his potential. He was preparing to end the Vietnam experiment, to address civil rights, to lead and inspire us toward space exploration and social equality. His legacy has been smeared by conservatives who praise Reagan, who was just awful. His (Reagan’s) charm carried him far beyond his abilities, which were vanishingly small.
Teddy was ahead of his time, Eisenhower was a so-so general and a so-so president, and Clinton was capable, but lacked courage (which JFK had in abundance) and he let his dick lead him into political impotence, to the voyeuristic delight of Rupublican hypocrites.
McCain dropped napalm on women and children, then got shot-down. Some hero. If he’d refused to fly those missions, he’d have been a real hero.
I don’t think Clinton was ever politically impotent. Seems to me that he was always winning politically and was able to get a lot out of the compromises he made with Congress. That’s why he’s the greatest. There was no situation where he couldn’t make lemonade out of lemons, and I still maintain that a lot of the reason there were few major crises on his watch was because he was on watch. Some say he was lucky, but competence creates its own luck. Don’t screw up, and surprisingly few things go wrong. And he committed all of his screwups early, such as the travel office fiasco.
According to FactCheck.org he did not lose 5 planes, the starting of the Forrestal fire had nothing to do with McCain, and you managed to throw in a pot shot at a POW who suffered a fair amount of torture.
Yeah, the Forrestal smear is particularly noxious. Thankfully it didn’t get any traction in the election. The “bad pilot” accusation was pretty accurate though, because McCain could get reckless, as he himself admitted. But geez, a young guy has more balls than brains, how unusual is that?
Side note: The wife and I have visited the old Hanoi Hilton prison where McCain was held all those years. It’s a museum now, well worth a visit, and they have on prominent display the flight suit he was wearing when they fished him out of that lake, and his parachute. Or at least they say those were his. I don’t recall if the suit had a McCain tag where they normally would have them, but even if it did, it would be easy to sew one on. I remember wondering at the time why they would have held back this particular flight suit and parachute, because he wasn’t famous enough yet to have stood out from all the other POWs.
Just a guess, but I’d guess they confiscated every flyer’s gear, and maybe they still have them all in some closet in a cave. They just picked McCain’s to display. Even at the time, he was the son of an admiral and probably worthy of special attention.
That’s probably true. And my wife now reminds me that there was a McCain tag sewn on it. But I’m still suspicious if that’s the exact same parachute.
[shrug] If he did not want to be tortured, he should not have run for public office.