It’s not news that Senator John McCain was a POW for five years during the Vietnam war. Several times he and his campaign have referenced his time spent in captivity when discussing his patriotism and service to America. Although those things have never been questioned, even by Senator Obama, some are now questioning the very facts surrounding his alleged “torture”.
Oddly enough, despite his campaign’s claims to torture, McCain was and avid suppoter of the Millitary Commisions Act, defending the very techniques of torture used against him in Vietnam. Sleep deprivation, withholding of medical treatment, stress positions, long-time standing, and beatings are not only techniques used against McCain when he was a POW, but now they are techniques he supports the CIA and military’s use of these “enhanced interrogation”.
So one can assume that the McCain campaign views these techniques as torture only when applied to American POW’s, and “enhanced interrogation” when used against captives of war from contries we are at war with. How can we be the “beacon of hope” for democracy all around the world when we allow such hipocracy to be seated at the heads of our most powerful tables? How can we speak out against injustice when we practice the very root of it within our own walls?
You would think a POW, tortured, held captive for five years, would understand more than most the inhumanity of such treatment. But I guess it’s only inhumane when it’s used to insight fear into voters, and to paint a less than admirable politician as a war hero.
