Recently, Senator John McCain passed away at the age of 81 after a battle with brain cancer. He is being deified by his allies and even strongest of foes, referred to as a true American hero who lived a life free of sin.
It's all a load of crap.
It legitimately surprises me just how quickly people forget, or are willing to brush aside the dangerous and damaging actions of a man who committed more heinous acts than heroic ones. It's considered poor taste to speak ill of the dead, but it needs to be said.
Just because he died from aggressive cancer doesn't mean we should all just sweep what John McCain has done under the rug.
Who is John McCain?
He was a US Navy pilot in America's horrible war against Vietnam. A war considered by many to be a mistake, a war that resulted in numerous war crimes being committed and other unspeakable acts against innocent civilians. And if you can stomach some hard reading, and you are not already aware of the story, go read about the My Lai Massacre in which unarmed Vietnam citizens were slaughtered and raped by US Troops.
There is nothing heroic or proud taking part in a horrific and unjustified war.
McCain found himself being shot down in North Vietnam and then held and tortured as a prisoner of war. He allegedly broke under torture, and there are claims that he assisted Vietnam during the war earning himself the nickname "Songbird John".
McCain's Thirst for War
John McCain has a very long list of war advocacy, which is strange for someone who was taken hostage for six years during the Vietnam war and knows first-hand what the damaging effects of war really are. I guess when you're helping steer the warship from the comfort of the White House, it's different.
His capture and participation in the war seem to have instituted a life-long hatred of Asian people, on a campaign bus in 2000, John McCain said:
I hate the gooks, I will hate them as long as I live.
He never apologised, he tried saying he was talking about his captors and justifying it. It doesn't matter who he was talking about, referring to Asians as gooks is no different than calling black people the "N word" - it's racist, even if your captors held you prisoner and tortured you.
Perhaps the most surprising thing of all in all of this, Stevie Wonder who was an outspoken figurehead in the anti-Vietnam movement who wrote a song called Front Line about the war paid tribute to John McCain in the middle of a recent concert.
They say history repeats itself and this is one of those clear-cut examples that prove even outspoken anti-Vietnam war figures like Wonder have forgotten or maybe just don't know what McCain's true past his, opting to call him a "patriot", "hero" and "great senator".
Perhaps one of the best known examples of John's desire to bomb the fuck out of every other country, especially if that country had coloured people in it was highlighted in 1999 when he supported Bill Clinton's air strikes in Kosovo.
In his campaign for the 2008 presidential election, McCain responded to an audience question about military action against Iran to which he responded, "that old Beach Boys song" and then sang the chorus of an old Beach Boys parody song, Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran.
He supported bombing Libya, Nigeria, Kosovo and Bosnia, as well as others. When Trump did bomb Syria, McCain could not contain his excitement and said it was eight years in the making.
Dying from cancer is horrible
Anyone dying from cancer is horrible, regardless of whether you're a famous warmongering senator or a blue collar worker with no health insurance struggling to feed your family.
I find it ridiculous that we are so eager and willing to wipe someone's tainted slate clean just because they died.
McCain lived to age 81, the same can't be said for the people he carpet bombed during the Vietnam war and the civilians his peers raped, tortured, killed and inflicted chemical weapons upon causing multi-generational birth defects.
McCain is a reminder (even in death) that America's thirst for war no matter the cost is something that will always be challenged never stopped and always celebrated. John McCain is no hero.