McCain POW Interview

Good video. Thanks again Curt.

Difficult to understand parts of it with my hearing loss and the French translator speaking over the dialog. I do better with discerning written French than the spoken tongue. I wonder if there exists another version without the translations.

I found these transcripts, but it appears there is only a very heavily edited partial translation of this interview:
http://cryptome.info/cia-mccain-pow/cia-mccain-pow.htm

Liberal bloggers such as Daily Kos are using the partial transcripts to defamate McCain and claim he is no hero. Points they do not consider is:
1) McCain displays sincerity and deep remorse on his face whenever he mentions that his captors broke him.
2) We must remember these were propaganda videos arranged for by Vietnam captors in order to try to discredit America. Not by the Red Cross.
3) POWs were not allowed to be alone with the interviews. Their captors were in attendence off camera and would exhibited their anger if POWs gave an answer they did not like.

http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/viewthread.php?action=printable&tid=551479

In his autobiography, McCain describes how a North Vietnamese officer was present in the room during his meeting with Chalais and was “displeased” with his uninformative answers. Nevertheless, he said he very much regretted providing information to interrogators and interviewers that went beyond his name, rank, and service number.

Anti-McCain activists have accused the senator of violating the Code of Conduct. Former POWs in Vietnam, including the Medal of Honor winner Col. Bud Day, have come to his defense, saying that he did not provide any military secrets to the Vietnamese and therefore did not violate the code

I doubt Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, creator of the Daily Kos website would come out crowing so had he himself endured the forms of inhumane mistreatment our Vietnam POWs went through during and following that war. Some so badly tortured they died under the abuse and have never been acconted for. The horrors they went through would make Gitmo alleged torture methods seem like grade school playgroud hazing. Some so deeply scarred that they took their own live rather than submitting themselves to continually relive those events in their minds. Others returned unable to be fully rehabilitated. I’ve known others who still desired to continue to serve even after returning from these camp. One case I know of personally, because I had the honor of service along-side him for a time, concerned a former “Full-Bird” Colonel. He was demoted in rank only for assignment purposes and given duties of lesser responsibilities to allow him to finish his time in service and retire. He retired in his former rank with all applicable benifits in a very touching ceremony. Many of those in attendance and the guest of honor were moved to tears. His retirement ceremony ended with a standing ovation.

I am utterly ashamed and disgusted with the likes of former Private Zuniga, who after only serving 3 years in the U.S. Army, speaks of Vietnam POW veterans like McCain with such venom and vitriol. McCain could have returned and put himself out to pasture on a military disability pension. But for John to come back from that experience and go on to become a national leader is a grand and astounding accomplishment. I may not like all of his political positions, yet he has more than earned praise and respect from myself and any this grateful nation might bestow upon him.

When he tells the reporter to tell his wife that he loves her it was in the voice of someone who believes he won’t she her again. That was painful and for anybody to try and make character judgments on somebody who was held as a prisoner of war in an attempt to impugn them is despicable.
The far left never tries to make this sort of argument when bringing up any of the people kidnapped and killed by the Islamic extremists.
Notice also that while they address the injury to his right arm, they kept it covered. Also attention to be paid to the fact that he appears to be shirtless. None of which indicates “good” treatment. Remember the outrage over how we handle prisoners we capture today?
BTW in one fleeting moment you can see the VC handlers. When they are lighting his cigarette you get a brief glimpse of the pith helmet that they wore pass in front of the camera and then you can see it on the shadow on the wall. His eyes also are not directed at the camera much but rather to somebody at the foot of the bed.
I can not imagine enduring that for 5 years.

One utterly despicable trait of the Left is their love of personal attacks and how they laugh at someone else’s tough times. I used to think that the so-called progressives were just clueless and needed info to be straightened out. Now I just think they hate, including themselves. They just cannot stand that others live for something greater than self. Some of us live for GOD, for family, for country – but they scoff at all of that as a waste of time. They have become an enemy of virutally all that is good in this country.