Donald Trump — as is his wont — used quite hard and direct language to begin a renovation project that is long overdue, a dramatically corrected assessment of Senator John McCain (R-Arizona). I have no objection to describing and respecting McCain as a “hero” for his long and painful internment in a North Vietnamese prison. He was shot down, wounded, suffered, persevered, and lived to get home. But since returning home he has exploited, for his personal benefit and to his country’s cost, his status as a former POW more shamelessly and ruthlessly than any other POW I can recall. McCain has dined out on his imprisonment for decades, and has used the protection afforded by the citizenry’s respect for his military service to do nothing but harm to the nation that has revered him.
Continue reading “From Trump, McCain gets a harsh but surely just appraisal”