Everyone's heard the ditty, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."- Speaking only for myself, the same thing answers much of the why I feel the way I do about John McCain.
My father served for 3½ years in the United States Army during World War II. No diminishment intended, only a statement of fact, but the closest he ever got to the perils and emotional and psychological stresses of combat was as a telegraph operator in Cairo, Egypt. Nonetheless, regardless that he chose not to access the full array of GI benefits available, he could have had a full college career "" to include full tuition, full lab fees, full books and a generous living stipend "" paid for, as a consequence of his service.
When it came to America's longest and third most deadly war, Vietnam, and how the country regarded those who served . . . not so much. But for those of us who served then and there, we're growing grey and a paunch, and would have little to no use for an educational package reminiscent of the WWII era. Our time was then. I harbor neither regrets nor the first tinge of animus over "then."-
What circulates as a toxin of bitter rage coursing my veins, however, is how today's soldiers, marines and veterans have been taken for total fools by the way too many who should feel and know better. Yes, my now gnarled and quivering finger is pointed in disdain and thorough disgust most especially at Senator McCain.
George Bush and those who compose his cabal, and those on the Right who support(ed) him most have been their lives the most cowardly of disreputable of miscreants. They seized every loophole to avoid facing the hazards of military service, while, once the peril had passed and the desiccated dust of older years had settled, were ardently for putting others in its path. They were all, and as they were, they remain, loathsome cowards. They turned their backs on their country and ran when running was to their physical and financial benefit. As much as I hold them in lowest contempt, I do understand them, and where they're coming from, vis-à-vis the total lack of genuine concern for today's soldiers, marines and veterans.
But Senator McCain? I do not understand him; not at all, though I try so hard.
By a great margin, Senator McCain has missed more votes than any other senator, even more than Tim Johnson, who was struck by a near fatal aneurism and was many months recovering. And when it came to the Webb Amendment that would have brought to today's veterans greater parity with the benefits their grandfathers secured, McCain didn't even bother to show up to vote. Rather, while he stood back, he loudly raised his voice up against the bill.
However this could be a diatribe highlighting Senator McCain's horribly muddled meandering through the briar patch of just plain basic issues any aspirant to the dual role as president of the United States and Commander in Chief ought to know with unwavering certainty, however this could be a diatribe against the senator's disparaging of the aspirations and workplace difficulties faced by American women, however this could be a diatribe against McCain for voting to terminate the federal program that provides breast-cancer screenings, however this could be a diatribe against the senator for his misogynistic "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Her father is Janet Reno"- joke, however this could be a diatribe assaulting the highly hypocritical tax policy positions of one who is himself blest beyond measure with a wife whose life story is one of incomparable privilege, one who is on the cusp of gaining hundreds of millions more that she did nothing whatsoever to earn, this diatribe "" while mentioning them "" does not draw its breath of life from any of them.
This diatribe is a honed sniper shot at a target that, since at least 2001, has supported not one bill, amendment, or joint resolution that would have upgraded the safety or post-military opportunities of those who have served their country honorably; not one bill, amendment, or joint resolution! And I just do not understand why.
Lofty words and "attaboy"- toasts and pats on the back mean absolutely nothing. Nothing! They are, in fact, the most crass of all conceivable insults, unless and until they are accompanied by actions and the adequate funding that are necessary to give form, substance and life to those words, toasts, and pats on the back. But the Republican candidate for the presidency of the United States of America "" every bit as egregious as Patton's infamous slap of the combat-traumatized soldier "" has chosen to disdainfully slap the face of every man and woman in America's military, and every veteran of it. He has scorned all his brethren, and I just do not understand why.
However there are many on the Right who point to the deficiencies of Senator Obama, as an effort to deflect attention from the Grand Canyon State's senior senator, whatever the Illinois' senator's defects, raising them are non sequitur ad hominems that are without the first hint of relevance to even the introductory indictments accosting John McCain, for his repeated displays of contempt, nay, hatred, for those who serve and have served in the uniform of our country. And I just do not understand why.
By McCain's scorning of those who now serve, in scorning those who have most recently served, I too feel deeply scorned. That explains why I feel as I do, but it does nothing to explain why John McCain feels as he does.
This is known as a shot over the shoulder: I've panned every neuron and synapse for something good to say about President George Bush, and the only golden grain I could find was that HE'S LEAVING!! My overriding fear is that his mumble-minded, ugly-mannered twin brother may be headed into town, to take his place.
"" Ed Tubbs
Palm Springs, CA
