again, I IMPLORE THEE - What is so HEROIC about getting SHOT DOWN while BOMBING INNOCENT CIVILIANS?

[thenext8seconds]

How does being a former POW make you a HERO??????????????????????

I'm not denigrating his service, but it's a simple question in need of a real answer.

Being a former POW doesn't mean you can claim that you love your country more than your opponent.

Well I guess just the simple fact that he served makes him a hero, but come on, it's not like you had much of a choice when there was a freakin DRAFT going on... How can you be proud of the fact that you bombed innocent civilians? WTF

What country am I living in?????????

:argh:

[tekisui]

1. No hero in my eyes.

[valerief]

2. But St. John SUFFERED just like Jesus did. I think that's the logical link.

I don't want to get into trying to understand the 'Jesus suffered for your sins' thing now, though.

[jeff30997]

5. Mel Gibson is making a movie about McRectum:

It's called The Passion of the POW.

[valerief]

9. LOL

:rofl:

[OwnedByFerrets]

11. That is hilarious!!!

[quiet.american]

3. As Barack and Joe say, we may owe him our respect -- we don't owe him our vote.

I have to agree I've had much the same thoughts as you -- survivor, yes -- hero -- I don't know.

[samuraiguppy]

4. I don't

get it either. But we will let him get away with this crap. like always.

[Divernan]

6. He has admitted that he was at fault for being shot down AND for his injuries

After he unloaded his bombs, he looped around and made a second pass over the area, for the thrill of seeing the destruction he had unleashed. This was violation of standard operating procedure (or whatever the correct phrase is) for military pilots. He was supposed to hit his target and boogey right out of there. But then John's goal in the Academy was to break every single rule, and this character defect continues to this day. After his plane was hit and he had to eject, he did not keep his arms and legs tucked in, such that when his seat catapulted out of the plane, his arms and leg were broken (don't recall if it was both arms and one leg, or both legs and one arm). You'd think he would have been expert at ejecting, since he'd had to eject from three other planes, 2 in the States and one in Italy,(due to his crappy pilot skills - not in battle situations) plus get out of the plane on the deck of the Saratoga.

[jeff30997]

7. It reminds me of the Scott O'Grady story.

"Scott F. O'Grady (born October 12, 1965 in Brooklyn, New York) is a former United States Air Force captain who gained prominence after the Mrkonjić Grad incident, in which he ejected over Bosnia when his F-16C 89-2032/AV was shot down by a Bosnian Serb SA-6 on June 2, 1995 while patrolling the no-fly zone."

I remember watching all this circus on TV and my father said:"Why are they calling him a hero?

What did he do? His plane was shot down then he waited to be rescued.The heroes are the peoples who

risked their lives to go in and get him out of there."

I didn't disagree with him.

[Hepburn]

8. Nothing....

...absolutely nothing.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

10. Most US POWS in Germany in WWII were fliers involved in bombing innocent civilians

Your point is taken, but so what?

McCain didn't craft the war he fought in. He did what soldiers do, assume the cause was correct and soldier on. Sucks it was such a lousy war, but it was more Johnson's fault than McCain's that McCain was bombing civilians.

He shouldn't be president but his military performance was hero-grade by the standards of people who didn't die, assuming one wants to obsess over what constitutes military heroism.