John McCain and His Neglect of the Troops

The grand finale of the Republican National Convention was nothing short of disgraceful.

We heard the story of John McCain's time as a prisoner of war probably five million more times Thursday night. We also heard the plastic-looking Cindy McCain shower love upon the man who once called her a "cunt" and a "trollop", followed by a cheesy, overly produced video about John McCain. Earlier in the night, we were unfortunate enough to see a video billed as a "tribute to the victims of 9/11", that was so in bad taste even Karl Rove was probably offended. It showed images of the 9/11 attacks, and even 9/11 missing person posters that appeared to be splattered with blood. It was a shameless example of fear-mongering, and an audacious exploitation of the victims who lost their lives on 9/11, as well as their families. Perhaps the video was the worst thing about the night.

However, John McCain's disingenuous acceptance speech was the highlight of the evening. There is an abundance of criticism that can be leveled at McCain's speech - from outright hypocrisy to bald-faced lies. But, specifically having to do with his comments about Iraq and national security, much of what McCain had to say showed just how out of touch, crass, heartless, dishonest and militaristic John McCain really is, and how his "Country First" mantra is just empty rhetoric.

While Adam Kokesh, a member of Iraq Vets Against the War, held up a sign reading on one side,"McCain votes against vets", and on the other side, "You can't win an occupation", McCain dismissed the protests as "ground noise and static", and patted himself on the back for the fake success of the so-called "surge", declaring that defeat in Iraq "would have demoralized our troops". However, McCain apparently has no problem with the things that actually demoralize - like stop-loss, multiple deployments, Post Traumatic Stress, inadequate body armor, missing limbs, dead friends, and being made to kill and possibly be killed for seemingly no good reason. Apparently these things - the problems that actually affect the lives of troops - are of no concern and have no role in demoralizing troops, and matter little as long as John McCain can keep alive the war he seems to love so much. The reality of Iraq is that there is very little investment in the mission by the American troops John McCain so stubbornly worked to keep in harms way. What they actually care about is staying alive, watching their buddies back and getting home to their families and friends. That is reality. That is what 99% of troops care about most, and the fact that John McCain has been able to make himself out to be the good, brave warrior, who valiantly defied popular opinion in order to enact the "surge", send more people to their deaths, and keep alive an occupation that is opposed by a majority of both Americans and Iraqis, is a massive tragedy.

One would think that the permanently disfigured and disabled, former POW John McCain, would at least do all he could to take care of troops when they return from the wars he sends them to fight for his political benefit. Well, one would be wrong if they believed this. While McCain never hesitates to use troops as props and pawns in his quest for the presidency, he disappears when it comes to funding their well being. The non-partisan organization, Disabled American Veterans (DAV), maintain a scorecard of the voting records of members of Congress on veterans issues - particularly healthcare for vets - and John McCain has consistently scored low marks. He scored 20% in 2006 on the DAV scorecard, and not much better in other recent years, all while troops were returning maimed, distraught and mentally damaged from the Iraq war he so ferociously fought for, and continues to fight to keep alive - a war which he believes Americans aren't "concerned if we're there for a hundred years or a thousand years or 10,000 years".

In McCain's acceptance speech Thursday night, McCain asked us Americans to stand up and "fight" for American ideals alongside him. I wonder if the battle for ideals he wants us to help him fight will be anything like his opposition to the new GI Bill legislation. The bill, sponsored by Democrats Rep. Harry Mitchell and Senator Jim Webb, will proivde full tuition funding for vets who attend state colleges and universities. As unbelievable as it sounds, John McCain actually opposed this proposal on the grounds that GI Bill benefits should be distributed on a sliding scale-meaning that benefits would increase in correspondence with re-enlistments and time on active duty, effectively painting troops into a corner, where they will be forced to decide between re-enlistment and college. Of course, if a troop is forced to re-enlist 2 or 3 times before reaching the full GI Bill benefit, it becomes less likely that troops will use the benefit at all. The sad thing is that the total cost of the new GI Bill proposal is only 52 billion dollars over ten years - a mere fraction of the hundreds of billions of dollars spent invading and occupying the nearly defenseless country that is Iraq. Predictably, McCain has never raised any objection the billions being spent in Iraq, much of which has gone directly into the pockets of war-profiteering military contractor corporations.

In his speech, John McCain states that he "hates war" and that it is "terrible beyond belief". Well, maybe that's true, but his actions suggest that there is at least one thing he dislikes more than war - the troops. How else can we make sense of his enthusiasm for war and lack of enthusiasm for ensuring the well being of the warriors?