If you were a POW, are you also automatically a hero?

[tannybogus]

This is not just about McCain. Would all POWs be heroes?

They have been through extraordinary circumstances.

I am still thondering. I'm not being a smartass(surprise).

It's been a question bouncing around for me.

:thumbsup: :thumbsdown:

[hisownpetard]

1. Sometimes, ya can't help but thonder.

[donco6]

2. Not if you're Kerry or Murtha, I guess. n/t

[Cirque du So-What]

3. No more so than being an Andrea Doria survivor

It may help get you a better apartment, but it doesn't automatically make one a hero.

[onenote]

4. i guess that would depend on how you define "hero"

In a world of comic book "super heroes" and video game "guitar heroes", its not as if there is one and only one definition of what is a "hero".

[Beregond2]

5. Certainly not, as McCain has proven.

It is one's response to circumstances, not the circumstances themselves, that make one a hero. McCain's response was to become a traitor and collaborate with the enemy. And if this isn't brought out very loudly over the next two months, I will be angered, but not surprised.

[dems_rightnow]

9. Unlike true heroes

Who are completely oblivious to pain and never break.

I'll be completely honest here, if you haven't been tortured and refused to give up what they wanted, you have no right to criticize that. Internet tough guy.

[Beregond2]

14. And yet,

hundreds of other POWs managed to keep their mouths shut.

If one is going to continually use POW status as a bragging point and all-purpose excuse, we have every right to point out that his behavior during the ordeal wasn't exactly inspiring.

Do you think the Repukes wouldn't have been making hay of this if it were our candidate who turned traitor?

And why don't you ask his fellow POWs THEIR opinion of him, the ones who had to listen to his propoganda in their cells?

[TheFriendlyAnarchist]

16. That's true. The two of us probably haven't. But I don't agree with that argument.

I don't blame McCain for doing that for one goddamn second. I would as soon as they showed me the hammer. Anyone would. And THAT is the point. Heroism is doing something extraordinary and unusual. His decision to cooperate was neither of those. It was the completely rational and normal decision. But in doing that, while probably saving his life (like most would do), he is not a hero.

[rurallib]

6. I believe one must also be Republican for that status to be conferred by the media

[Oregone]

7. Only if you know karate and can single handedly take out all the guards...

free the prisoners, and then become a Texas Ranger

[shadowknows69]

8. In a way, yes, absolutely

Because it means you were serving your country, regardless of whether or not the war was noble, and in my book anyone who even puts on that uniform is a hero. You shouldn't however use it as a blanket excuse for every mistake you've made over the years. There are many men and women who suffered in that war as much as McCain did who don't sully their own honor by flaunting it.

[NightWatcher]

10. hero? yes. Owed the White House? not even close

I've got an uncle who had a rough Vietnam he was almost grabbed while he was a tunnel rat. He's still a little shellshocked. Does he deserve to be the president? No. Do he deserve respect? yes.

[tannybogus]

11. Respect yes!! Hero?

NO disrespect to your uncle. Anybody who was a tunnel rat is a hero in my book.

[dems_rightnow]

12. It doesn't make you a hero.

Heroism is making a choice to do something wonderful. being a POW is not heroic.

He deserves respect for his service. He sacrificed more than most. But hero takes it too far.

[Stinky The Clown]

13. That seems to be the conventional wisdom

[Tutankhamun]

15. Wes Clark was absolutely right. That's why the MSM jumped all over him.

[Matariki]

17. The real heros during unjust wars are people who refuse to go and fight.

Vietnam was certainly an unjust war. The men who burned their draft cards and stayed behind to protest - sometimes at the risk of prison - are far more heroic, imo.

[cynatnite]

18. Absolutely. McCain stayed longer because of his fellow prisoners...

He didn't have to. I consider that very heroic.

The policies he intends to advocate is what makes him unfit to be president...not his time as a prisoner of war.

[Connonym]

20. did he do that by choice or was it Kissinger's choice?

I don't think the evidence on this is 100% conclusive that McCain himself requested to stay. I give the guy credit for what he went through but many have served and suffered and we don't continue to cut them slack time and time again because of their service. Hell no, we cut their VA disability benefits, make them receive care in military hospitals with mold on the walls and condemn them to a life of mental illness because we aren't willing to take care of their traumatic mental injuries. McCain is no more special than every other injured veteran and after the swiftboating shit they gave Kerry? They set the stage for us to say fuck McCain's "hero" status.

[Iggo]

19. In America's culture of victimhood...

...any victim is a hero. Sounds like cultural suicide to me. Then again, civilization sometimes moves forward fueled by the blood of martyrs. I just don't get it.

Mebbe I shoulda went to college.

[treestar]

22. You've got it

A hero is one who rises in spite of being victimized; the media has skipped that and just made a "hero" of anyone who is victimized in any way.

And with McPow it doesn't even account for the fact he got shot down.

[Timmy5835]

21. McCain IS NOT a hero

My Dad served in Iwo Jima during WW2. He carried a flame thrower during that hellish experience. He was only a private first class but became the platoon leader, why? because everyone else was killed. For his troubles he won the Navy Cross. My Dad is a hero NOT McCain.

[treestar]

23. Yes, but if you led a Swiftboat raid, you may not be

If you were successful and defeated the enemy and did them some damage with a daring exploit, you may or may not be a hero. But getting shot down gives you instant hero status. :sarcasm: