POW: I remember McCain telling the cross story in 1971
posted at 5:25 pm on August 18, 2008 by Allahpundit
Share on Facebook | printer-friendly
Hopefully the left will challenge this. Anything that keeps McCain’s heroism front and center, without a shred of evidence from any eyewitness that he’s lying, is tantamount to an in-kind campaign contribution. More, please.
I called Orson Swindle, a fellow POW who is campaigning for McCain, to ask him about it.
“I recall John telling that story when we first got together in 1971, when were talking about every conceivable thing that had ever happened to us when we were in prison” Swindle told me a few minutes ago. “Most of us had been kept apart or in small groups. Then, in 1970, they moved us into the big cell. And when we all got to see each other and talk to each other directly, instead of tapping through walls, we had 24 hours a day, seven days a week to talk to each other, and we shared stories. I vaguely recall that story being told, among other stories.”
“I remember it from prison,” Swindle continued. “There were several stories similar to that in which guards — a very few, I might add — showed compassion to the prisoners. It was rare, and I never met one, but some of the guys did.”
I’ll make you follow the link for Swindle’s assessment of the naysayers. He’s right too about the guards and their associates occasionally showing compassion; Bob Owens googled around to see if he could corroborate McCain’s story and stumbled upon a similar incident involving former POW (and GOP senator) Jeremiah Denton. The dumbest part of all of this — aside from the fact that the nutroots is pushing it into the mainstream media, where it’ll redound to McCain’s advantage and dirty St. Barack’s hands by association — is that if he was going to make up stories to prove his devotion while in prison, surely he could do better than this. I remember some lefty (at TNR, I think) noting quite rightly after McCain’s Christmas ad came out that the specifics of it really are more a testament to his captor’s faith and humanity than to McCain’s. If Maverick wanted to dazzle believers with evidence of his own grace under pressure, he’s got material to work with. But then, this is a guy whose son was stationed in Iraq and yet who almost never mentions that fact on the trail even though it gives him moral cover in his push for a sustained troop presence. Anyway, rock on, nutroots.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Comment pages: « Previous 1 2
Wow, Alphie’s really doing well today. What is that, like 3 or 4 undocumented statements in one thread?
Try a little harder Alphie. We don’t want to put you on the 2nd string. That’s where all the shriekers are.
john1schn on August 18, 2008 at 10:15 PM
McCain offers many stories when discussing his imprisonment in Vietnamese captivity and to nitpick (i.e. with time frames in when he discusses them) and try to call him a liar is beyond absurd. Has it ever occurred to most of these people that Christianity wasn’t allowed by Communist authorities and that the only way of showing some type of solidarity with a captured prisoner would be to show it through the dirt? That any proof of this said incident would have probably put the guard into some type of punishment? Huh?
No of course not, it’s much more logical to take a totally different account of ANOTHER prisoner in ANOTHER Christianity suppressed country and say one is fabricated. The situations themselves were entirely different.
McCain’s involved an interaction between a guard and a prisoner. It showed to a defiant McCain that even among his enemies there were fellow Christians (and that they too were being held in bondage in terms of their faith).
Solzhenitsyn’s account involves the power and representation the cross signified and what it meant to him given the situation he was in. It involved an old man and someone who wanted to give up, who couldn’t take it anymore.
The contextual differences are stark and the ONLY similarities between the two incidents is a cross drawn in the sand in two situations where Christianity was severely suppressed (in both cases, in a prison). It says more about how religion was treated in Communist controlled camps and the lengths prisoners needed to go about in displaying their faith than actual theft that some are purporting. I really wonder if people will start discrediting other stories by McCain, how about the one he tells often about a man who went to great lengths to stitch together an American flag, even after severe beatings. Of course that’s probably a lie too, huh? If there is any instance of another prisoner in another time witnessing an event similar to that, then it HAS to be false. What utter B.S.
DanStark on August 19, 2008 at 3:02 AM
Because that’s what trolls do.
Squiggy on August 19, 2008 at 6:28 AM
That’s because you’re an idiot. You would not consider Pat Tilman a hero, I suppose.
The fact that someone signs up to put their life on the line so others don’t have to…THAT is heroic. That means every rookie policeman, rookie firefighter, newly enlisted military personell…are all true heroes.
ynot4tony2 on August 19, 2008 at 8:52 AM
ynot4tony2 on August 19, 2008 at 8:52 AM –
In today’s setting the word “hero” has become worn…and at times misused, and for some meaningless altogether.
But, you are right, anyone who puts themselves in harm’s way for the benefit of people they don’t even know, that rookie policeman, rookie firefighter, newly enlisted servicemenber, are certainly being heroic.
coldwarrior on August 19, 2008 at 9:10 AM
Come on guys and gals. Let’s make a pact. How about, in the future, we never acknowledge that Alphie is in the room? Without getting the attention he craves, he will go away.
And Ed, Al – I was at a blog once, don’t remember where, where you could select the poster of a comment and then select “ignore.” They’d just vanish from the thread. Sure would be neat to have that ability here.
Rod on August 19, 2008 at 9:51 AM
If we all agree, and mention this to others and ask that they please comply, it might work, Rod.
wise_man on August 19, 2008 at 11:40 AM
This sounds good at first but it is not a good idea.
It is in the crucible of ideas that truth and wisdom separate out and rise to the surface. We need alphie, as distasteful as that may sound. He/she allows us to demonstrate superiority in many areas.
There is also the problem of doing things the way the looney leftists do – squishing opposing viewpoints.
I’m pretty sure that we do not want to prove moral equivalence with the nut-roots. Even inadvertently.
platypus on August 19, 2008 at 12:56 PM
Not saying to ban them. Let them post. Just give me the option to hide their comments when I get sick of having to wade through their non-sense.
Rod on August 19, 2008 at 1:35 PM
Comment pages: « Previous 1 2