July 21, 2017
The first time I met Senator John McCain, I was still under the
false impression that, even though he was a Republican, he was still slightly
independent and not entirely reprehensible.
The occasion was the now infamous meeting our family
had with then president George Bush in 2004, about six weeks after
Casey was killed in Iraq.
Our family was invited for a
“sit-down” with Bush at Ft. Irwin up near Seattle. The government was
paying, so we agreed. We had some things we wanted to “chat” with him
about, also.
Along with about 16-17 other families in the same
piteous situation, we cooled our jets for awhile in a waiting room at the base
hospital. After a bit, we were ushered into a small curtained room to
wait for 43. While we were waiting, the curtains parted and in walked
McCain. I did mention to him that he had been a POW in another immoral war and I
asked him why my son had to die. His response: “Well Cindy, if we don’t
win in Iraq, then I am afraid for nothing.” After McCain left, we all wondered if he had been the “opening act” for Bush.
Fast forward
six months to inauguration day for 43’s second term.
By that time, I was
now very active opposing Bush and the wars and had founded Gold Star
Families for Peace. I was invited to appear on Good Morning America
(from the Library of Congress) early on the morning of the inauguration.
After the interview, I was leaving and John McCain walked in to be
interviewed—I reminded him that we had met at Ft. Irwin and I told him what I was up to. His response (which
he later denied in our 3rd meeting) was: “The country needs people like
you, too.”
After I protested Bush and the wars at Camp Casey in Crawford in August of 2005, I went to Washington DC
for a huge antiwar rally in September and I met with many reps and
Senators and John McCain was one of them. I reminded him that he had
encouraged me to protest the war back in January and he said, “Why would I do that, I
support it?” On the way out, he said, “Good luck, Cindy.” I said, “Thank
you, you are wishing me luck to end the wars.” He said, “I take it
back, then.”
I have been in Phoenix at his office a few times opposing his bellicosity with my dear antiwar friends there.
Since
my first meeting with McCain in 2004, I am under no illusion that he is
“independent” or not too reprehensible. In a nation of reprehensibles, he is near the top (or bottom) of the dung-heap. It's normal that conservatives are praising him, but he is being lauded by liberals as an "American hero" also. That a war
criminal who, with his own hands, murdered untold number of Vietnamese
and with either incompetence or arrogance murdered 134 sailors on his
aircraft carrier the USS Forrestal in Vietnam is considered a “hero”
doesn’t say very much about this country.
Among others, Senator
Bernie Sanders (D-Vt—-yes, I know technically he is independent, but
he’s about as independent from the Dems as McCain is from the GOP) has
heaped praise upon the head of the slimy McCain since he was diagnosed
with brain cancer. Now, I don’t expect Bernie Sanders to tweet, “Nice, a
war criminal has cancer; isn’t karma a bitch?” But how can a person
who protested the Vietnam War tweet this about McCain?
John McCain is a hero, one of the most respected senators and a friend. The hopes and prayers of the nation are with him and his family.
In
the ill-fated campaign of Sanders for president, after he was “accused”
of being a supporter of President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela (CitGo oil
provides low-cost or free heating oil for poor people in the Northeast),
Sanders campaign sent out a fundraising blast to his supporters
trashing the beloved Chavez by calling the populist president of Venezuela who was democratically elected many times (and survived a coup attempt and recall effort) a “dead,
communist dictator.” (Unfortunately, he got the "dead" part right).
I was very privileged to know Hugo Chavez,
and in contrast to McCain who never met a war he didn’t like, or a
pocket he didn’t want to pick in reverse Robin Hood style, Chavez was a
warm person who had a big heart and used the power of his office to
elevate the condition of the poorest—often at the expense of the
parasitic wealthy.
When Chavez was a military officer, he
noticed that the government that he was sworn to serve was horribly
oppressing its own people and, with other officers, tried to overthrow
it.
On the other hand, McCain, who graduated 2nd to the bottom of
his class at the Naval Academy used his military career to carouse and
murder his way through Vietnam and with the help of his Admiral father,
covered up his crimes to use his “heroic” “service” as a
stepping-stone for greater political power.
If Obama and Sanders
and many liberal talking blah-blah heads are praising the “American
hero” McCain are they saying that the war in Vietnam was "heroic" and the
millions of Vietnamese who died and continue to die from their poisoned
country and landmines are just shit?
Liberals (like this clip from The View), who thought McCain was the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler
when he ran against Obama in 2008, are now gushing over how McCain corrected a
woman on TV who was afraid of Obama because she thought he was an
“Arab.”
“No,” McCain thoughtfully and with his "great" flair of being
so gosh-darned "independent" corrected the woman and said that Obama was not an
“Arab,” but a “good person.” Cogitate on that for a moment—liberals are
praising a deeply bigoted statement. Like the Vietnamese, do liberals
consider Arabs as shit?
John “Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran (and everywhere else, while we're at it),”
McCain has been one of the biggest devotees of this country’s imperial
misadventures his entire life; however, the “Communist dictator” never
once invaded or infested another country by his military. No, Chavez
used Venezuelan oil and the force of his personality to not only improve
the lives of Venezuelans, but to forge alliances and friendships
throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Yes, even improving the
lives of the poor in the United States.
Meeting McCain was like
meeting a robot with insincere blue eyes: a male Hillary Clinton, if you will. With few exceptions, the
humanoids that inhabit US politics are cold, calculating and murderous
liars.
Meeting Chavez was like coming home to your long lost
brother who only wanted good things for everyone and was expansive and
genuine in his hospitality and courageous in standing up to the Great
Satan of the North.
I am not afraid to say that, although I am
not thrilled that McCain has brain cancer, I am in no way sad about it,
or conflicted about calling out the terrible crimes against humanity this man has
committed in the name of American “heroism.” Illness, near death, or
death itself should not confer immediate sainthood on profoundly criminal lives.
I would rather see him and his ilk rotting in Ft. Leavenworth.
Cancer
claimed the lives of my sister Dede Miller and my comrade Hugo Chavez
and millions of other good people, often after torturous struggles. Now,
McCain.
The death of Chavez was a great loss to humanity; the death of McCain, not so much. We should have exactly the same sympathy and compassion for McCain that he showed to all his victims--at home and abroad--which is zero.
Cancer is the deadly and too prevalent equalizer: it takes the good and evil, alike.
