War Hero? Maybe...

I was reading an interesting article about Bush's Paraguayan Fiasco in CounterPunch and ran across another interesting article about McCain.

War Hero? Meet the Real John McCain: North Vietnam's Go-To Collaborator

What actually happened in his POW camp that twisted John McCain and made him the unstable bully he is today? Was it abuse, as he claims, or was it the fact that he collaborated extensively and has to cover up? In this EXCLUSIVE expose, Vietnam war historian Douglas Valentine gives us the answer. Read how the Vietnamese protected and promoted him and how in return Hanoi John danced to their tune. McCain was on Vietnamese radio so often he was tagged as "the PW Songbird". SUBSCRIBE NOW to read the true story of Glory Boy McCain, only in our newsletter.

They lost me at 'Subscribe Now!' but there's quite a few excerpts:

How McCain behaved when he was a prisoner is key. McCain is probably the most unstable man ever to have got this close to the White House. He’s one election away from it. Republican senator Thad Cochrane has openly said he trembles at the thought of an unstable McCain in the Oval Office with his finger on the nuclear trigger.

“This is the lesson of McCain’s experience as a POW: a true politician, a hollow man, his only allegiance is to power. The Vietnamese, like McCain’s campaign contributors today, protected and promoted him, and, in return, he danced to their tune. . .”

I have no certain knowledge of the veracity of the charges in the article and I don't give a shit what McCain did as a POW. Whatever he did, it made no difference to the outcome of a war that was predestined to fail.

The Code of Conduct, which basically says "name, rank, and serial number or kill me" is a pipe dream. It's been pretty much recognized that it goes out the window when the bamboo slivers and waterboard come out and that the prisoner is under constant pressure and duress and can do whatever he needs to do to survive. Hell, if I had been in his situation I'da gave up my grandma for a roast rat with a side'a cockroaches.

I do worry about his mental stability. He's in unquestioning support for our present criminal war and occupation in Iraq and wants to expand it to Iran. I do not want a hotheaded bully who failed big time long ago to have the opportunity to push a red button to avenge himself.