See Ya, John (McCain) by Peter Van Buren

It’ll always be too soon, won’t it?

Glorifying McCain as a war hero allows us to imagine away the sins of Vietnam by making ourselves the victim. He encouraged unjust war in Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria and more as a cornerstone of his career.

When given the chance, he sold out and took Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential running mate, enabling a change in the GOP and political discourse we are still paying for and he is responsible.

As a victim himself of torture, McCain stood mostly silent when America tortured, finally mouthing some mild public platitudes while allowing the coverup to hide what we did. The American public knows 10x as much about McCain’s own torture as we do about what was done by American torturers to other human beings. Honor is not allowing torturers to go unpunished. Duty is not helping a coverup. Country deserves better from someone who knows better.

McCain allowed himself/profited from becoming a symbol and a myth. He positioned himself as a maverick and independent while towing the imperialist line for decades. I respect the things he endured as a prisoner. But his is a public life such that one can’t separate the individual out from the larger story at this point. I understand it is catechism to say only nice things when someone passes, but as long as people are going to turn McCain into something he wasn’t it seems useful to speak a little full-spectrum truth alongside that.

I’m sorry for his family, but the America he claimed to serve is served better by the truth than another politicized shadow of the truth.

McCain with Ambassador Chris Stevens, killed in Benghazi. McCain died with that blood on his hands.

19 thoughts on “See Ya, John (McCain) by Peter Van Buren”

  1. “I understand it is catechism to say only nice things when someone passes”

    Actually that only depends upon how the elite’s want to spin the person’s life.

    If it’s a leader from any other country that won’t roll over for the cabal it’s open season on them without a shred of regard for their family or friends.

    Let’s face it, empire protects whatever keeps empire going while trashing whatever opposes it and spitting on the graves of your “enemy” is a sport among the ruling elite.

  2. Surprised to see the kind words Canada’s New Democratic Party leader has tweeted about Senator McCain

    1. Do you believe Trudeau to be anything other than a neoliberal imperialist?

      He’s cute, though. Does a great Peacock pose.

    2. It’s simple: McCain turned the infamous Steele dossier over to James Comey at the FBI to frame Trump over alleged “Russian collusion.” Hence McCain has been a hero to the CIA-FBI-Stormy Daniels left since then. The New Democratic Party in Canada is a prime example of what I call the NATO left: It supported every act of NATO aggression and war in the military bloc’s history: Bosnian Serb Republic (1994-1995), the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1999), Afghanistan (2001 to present), Libya (2011).

      1. McCain has been a hero to the center-right “American mainstream left” for most of his career, with the single exception of the few months between his 2008 presidential nomination and the 2008 general election.

        Whenever he was running in Republican presidential primaries, he was their hero. Whenever he was “reaching across the aisle” as a “moderate Republican” on e.g. campaign finance reform in the Senate, he was their hero.

        The only time he was ever not Democrats’ favorite Republican was when he was the Republican presidential nominee, running directly against a Democrat for president in a general election. And as soon as he lost, he went right back to being Democrats’ favorite Republican.

        Saying they loved him for being anti-Trump is basically saying they felt like they had always felt because he did what he had always done.

        1. You’re correct. But regarding the recent out-and-out passionate love affair of the past two years, let us agree that the more execrable McCain became, the more the liberals/progressives embraced him.

  3. I would like to offer my sincere condolences to all of McCain’s innocent victims. It’s my sincere hope that there is actually some higher power in this universe that will hold him accountable.

  4. Surely Peter knows the “torture” stories were lies. McCain was treated with extra attention because of his military (criminal too) father and grandfather.

    1. Surely both you and Peter know that there are two different versions of that story. And surely neither Peter nor you, not having actually been there, know which version is closest to the truth.

  5. Millions of families in Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Pakistan, Syria, eastern and southern Ukraine, Yemen and elsewhere are not mourning McCain’s death. They have their own family members to mourn – courtesy of McCain.

  6. Good riddance to bad rubbish. He’s certainly warming his toes in hell with his Father, Satan.

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