McCain: A War Criminal, Not a Hero
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
Throughout his public life, he was one of America’s worst, nothing redeeming about his support for and participation in war crimes.
As a Vietnam war combat pilot, he was involved in naked aggression, terror-bombing targets in the country indiscriminately, largely massacring defenseless civilians he didn’t give a damn about, nor did he on his death bed.
He never met a US war of aggression against nations threatening no one he didn’t wholeheartedly endorse.
A decade of Southeast Asia war slaughtered millions, largely defenseless civilian men, women and children. Longstanding US policy treats civilians and combatants alike – flagrantly violating international, constitutional and US statute laws.
The Nuremberg Principles prohibit “crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity” – including “inhumane acts committed against any civilian populations, before or during the war.”
“(W)anton destruction of cities, towns, or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity” is absolutely forbidden.
Fourth Geneva protects civilians in time of war, prohibiting violence against them in any form, requiring treatment for the sick and wounded.
Washington consistently spurns all the above inviolable principles. So did McCain throughout his military and government disservice.
All US wars of aggression he supported were based on Big Lies – from the rape of North Korea and Southeast Asia, to the destruction of the former Yugoslavia, to all post-9/11 conflicts, raging endlessly because Washington rejects world peace and stability, notions McCain abhorred.
As a 2008 presidential candidate, he shamefully advocated bombing Iran – solely for its sovereign independence, not for any threat it posed.
“Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran,” he disgracefully sang on his “Straight Talk” tour – to the tune of a popular Beach Boys song.
Hillary at the time contesting Obama for the undemocratic Dem nomination was just as despicable, saying “I want the Iranians to know that if I’m president, we will attack Iran.”
“In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them.”
McCain was bloodthirsty throughout his public life, a despicable figure, one of the worst, demanding condemnation, not praise, not practically elevated to sainthood after his passing.
The NYT operates as a mouthpiece for wealth, power and privilege, supporting US imperial wars instead of denouncing them. It shamefully praised McCain as a “proud naval aviator…Republican congressman and senator from Arizona and a two-time contender for the presidency.”
The neocon/CIA-connected Washington Post turned truth on its head, claiming he “spent his life serving the dignity of his fellow man.”
The Wall Street Journal said his “death leaves a foreign policy void.”
CNN, the most distrusted name in television news, called him “a singular political leader and national hero.”
A BBC obituary called him a “Vietnam war hero (there were no US ones) who became (a) common-sense conservati(ve) dealmaker…”
London’s Guardian called him “an authentic national hero.” Other Western media and officials called him a “patriot,” a “maverick,” a “man of courage,” a “man of honor,” and a “public servant of rarest courage.”
Dr. Robin Abaya asked: “What fumigant do you use after reading and quoting such grotesque, sniveling and mendacious (remarks)? Byzantine court sycophants could never match this drivel,” adding:
McCain was the “antithesis of a merit-based military (officer, a) rock bottom of his class…Annapolis graduate,” an “incompeten(t)” pilot allowed to fly anyway because his father and grandfather were 4-star navy admirals.
“US officers from working class or rural families were well aware of how the system was rigged to favor reckless and amoral clowns with connections, like McCain.”
“Later in his heavily bankrolled political career, there wasn’t a crook or murderous warlord McCain didn't cultivate.”
“I imagine an infernal rice paddy where the souls of his victims can finish him off for eternity for his sins.”
He was wicked, lawless, uncaring, and dismissive of the enormous harm he caused countless others as a combat pilot and ruthless politician – an unindicted war criminal, an imperial spear carrier throughout his public life.
On Wednesday, he’ll lie in state at Arizona’s State Capitol, a memorial service to follow on Thursday.
He’ll then be flown to Washington where he’ll lie in state at the US Capitol Rotunda on Friday.
If proper justice is to be served, eternal hell’s fire awaits him – nothing less.
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My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."
