STEVE PIECZENIK TALKS

Trump Attacks John McCain and Double Downed!
McCain was Not a War Hero!

Once again we find ourselves in the middle of a stream of invectives between a man who served our country [McCain] and one that refused to serve [Trump]. Does the fact that Trump seemingly insulted McCain minimize his chances in the Presidential race for 2016?

Let’s exam the more relevant factors in Trump’s assertions.

[1] He claims that McCain was a ‘dummy’ and was ‘low man’ in his Annapolis Class.

Fact: John was born to an extremely privileged military family about which he says very little. Both his grandfather and father were famous Four Star U.S. Navy Admirals.

Clearly he had an advantage when he entered the U.S. Naval Academy. However, according to his own memories, he said the following: “..it was bullshit and I resented the hell out of it [demands of discipline].”

“…McCain would later acknowledge that those [key] courses math, science, engineering were a struggle for him” [Wikipedia].

“His class rank was further lowered by poor grades for conduct and leadership which reflected his sloppy appearance, REBELLIOUS ATTITUDE, and POOR RELATIONS with his company officers.”

“Being on Liberty with McCain was like being in a train wreck” [Classmate testimony].

“McCain graduated fifth from the bottom in CLASS RANK, 894^th out of 899.”

Conclusion: Trump was correct that McCain did not perform well. I suspect that if McCain’s father, a very famous admiral had not intervened on behalf of his son, McCain would have been thrown out of the Naval Academy for behavioral and intellectual deficiencies.

[2] Trump claims that McCain being a ‘captured pilot was not a war hero’.

Fact: General Patton in his biography and opening statement in the movie played by George C. Scott correctly inveighed his Army troops to believe the following precept of war: “Taking a hostage is what makes us war heroes; not become a ‘hostage’.

What factors in this rambunctious McCain’s military life would have led him to eventually end up as a hostage to the North Vietnamese?

By his own admission, McCain revealed that during his training at Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida, he was ‘a  party man’, ‘drove a Corvette’ . and dated an exotic dancer named ‘Marie the Flame of Florida’. McCain concluded that he “generally misused my good health and youth.”

He was not assigned to the elite units of fighter aircraft. Instead became a pilot of ‘attack aircrafts’.

A brief history of McCain’s flying accidents and mishaps:

▪ During March 1960 on a practice run in Texas, he lost track of his altitude and speed and his single-seat, single pistoned –engine AD Skraider CRASHED INTO CORPUS CHRISTI BAY and sank to the bottom. [Wikipedia].

▪ In December 1961, McCain collided with power lines while recklessly flying too low over Southern Spain.

▪ In January 1965, McCain appeared as a contestant on the quiz show “Jeopardy” winning one game.  Perhaps stroking his insatiable narcissism?

▪ “In November 1965, McCain had his third accident when apparent engine failure on hi T-2 Buckeye trainer jet over Eastern Shore of Virginia led to his ejecting safely before his plane crashed”. 

▪ On July 29, 1967, then a Lieutenant Commander crashed once again, this time on the USS Forrestal which created a major fire wherein he was struck in the legs and chest by fragments. The fire he had created killed 134 sailors and took 24 hours to control.

▪ In fact, McCain even wrote “in all candor, we[McCain] thought our civilian commanders were COMPLETE IDIOTS who did not have the least notion of what it took to win a war.” Wikipedia.

▪ On October 26, 1967 , McCain was flying  his 23^rd bombing mission over North Vietnam in his A-4E Skyhawk and was shot down by a missile over Hanoi.

What in all these accidents made McCain a hero?

That is really the key question.

The early release of McCain from the Vietnamese Prison is strictly prohibited by the military code of conduct so that nonsense that he voluntarily refused early discharge from the Hanoi Hilton is nothing but pure propaganda. This propaganda was promoted by McCain himself, Kissinger and Schultz.
Trump has a very reasonable point when he stated repeatedly that McCain was “not a war hero”.  In fact, he was a major screw up.

The rest is history and with a lot help from his well-connected father, McCain became a Navy liaison to the U.S. Senate beginning in 1977. Next he went on to run for politics as a Presidential Candidate where once again, he was a ‘loser’. As a senator,  McCain supported every major nonsensical war created by the Bush Jr administration and continued by Obama.

Please tell me and the other veterans how McCain was a legitimate war hero after having crashed and burned five times before his final captivity? Forget his personal life replete with alcoholism, gambling, domestic violence and constant extra-marital trysts. 

So for all those who did not serve or refused to serve like Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Romney [who ran away to Paris to become a Mormon Minister during the Vietnam War]--- McCain stands for recklessness; childishness; and complete and unadulterated narcissism fostered by a political system for which there is no outrage or accountability. McCain fits right in with the misfits of society called “Entitled Politicians”. Trump makes no bones about his draft dodging days and his capacity to defy the system without any recourse to pandering and political correctness.

No one can be more hypocritical or vicious than those who spout platitudes and are born with the congenital lying gene: Hillary, Jeb etc. Trump is not a perfect candidate. He is a man who will on impulse or calculation tell it like it is… Now it’s up to us to decide if that is what America needs or not…

Good luck future voters and supporters.