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John McCain Passes Away at 81


Hugo Stiglitz

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John McCain and the Meaning of Courage

Honoring His Political and Military Legacy Is Vital

About the Author:

H. R. McMASTER is a former U.S. National Security Adviser and the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.

 

Carl von Clausewitz, the Prussian philosopher of war, wrote in the early nineteenth century that “courage is of two kinds: first, physical courage, or courage in the presence of danger; and next, moral courage, or courage before responsibility.” The late U.S. Senator John McCain demonstrated both types. His physical courage was apparent during the 23 combat missions he flew over North Vietnam, especially the last of these, when he was shot down over Hanoi, severely wounded, and captured by the North Vietnamese. During his captivity over the next five and a half years, more than two of which he spent in solitary confinement, he demonstrated not only physical but also moral courage while enduring the worst possible forms of torture. Perhaps his most courageous act as a prisoner of war came when he refused to accept early release, in order to remain with his fellow Americans and deny the North Vietnamese a propaganda victory.

Years later, McCain would continue to demonstrate moral courage. He often broke with his party and never adapted his political positions to the latest opinion polls. He also refused to attack the character of his political opponents, even as political competitions across the country reached new depths of incivility.

McCain’s unwillingness to callously disparage his rivals was rooted in his empathy for his fellow man. At a time when American public discourse was becoming increasingly insular, he sought to foster relationships with like-minded nations and understand conflicts abroad that affected U.S. security and national interests. His fast-paced overseas trips, always with bipartisan groups of colleagues from the U.S. Senate and House, were legion. During my many meetings with him and his dear friends Senator Lindsey Graham and Senator Joseph Lieberman, McCain always tried to understand the wars in Afghanistan and Iraqfrom the perspective of the Afghan and Iraqi people. Empathy lay at the root of his humaneness, including his opposition to any form of torture.

Psychologists tell us that empathy and humor are linked. The senator’s quick wit, usually delivered in the form of self-deprecating jokes or well-meaning barbs aimed at allies and opponents alike, were the foundations on which he built friendships across the aisle and internationally. These qualities, combined with his boundless energy, allowed him to generate bipartisan support for otherwise contentious proposals, from campaign finance reform to defense appropriations to immigration reform.

Perhaps McCain’s most dramatic act of empathy was his push to normalize relations between the United States and Vietnam. In 1994, he co-sponsored a bill with then Senator John Kerry that called for an end to economic sanctions against Vietnam. McCain went on to visit the country over 20 times. This week, his former tormentors praised and thanked him. Retired Vietnamese Colonel Tran Trong Duyet, who, as commandant of the place that American prisoners of war called the Hanoi Hilton, oversaw the systematic torture and deprivation of McCain and his fellow servicemen, recalled McCain’s “toughness and strong stance.”

That toughness and strong stance derived, in part, from McCain’s pride in his nation and his sense of honor as a naval officer in its service. He wrote in his farewell letter:

“I lived and died a proud American. We are citizens of the world’s greatest republic, a nation of ideals, not blood and soil. We are blessed and are a blessing to humanity when we uphold and advance those ideals at home and in the world. We have helped liberate more people from tyranny and poverty than ever before in history. We have acquired great wealth and power in the process.”

McCain’s pride in what the United States stands for in the world drove his efforts as a senator for over 30 years to free people from oppression and promote representative government based on individual rights, liberty, and the rule of law. It also made him determined to ensure that the United States succeeded in the great competitions of his era. In his oversight role on the Senate Armed Services Committee, he advocated for a strong, ready military as the best guarantor of peace. Even when it had become unfashionable to do so, he called for strategies in Afghanistan and Iraq that would allow the United States to win those wars and secure its vital interests. In 2006 and 2007, when many were calling for a withdrawal from Iraq, McCain pressed for a renewed military effort and a new plan of action to ensure the enduring defeat of international terrorist organizations and deny Iran the ability to extend its malign influence across the region. His push for victory had a moral dimension: McCain believed that sending American troops into harm’s way is justified only if those troops are enabled to achieve outcomes worth the risks they run and the sacrifices they make.

McCain was equally strong in his determination to combat Russian President Vladimir Putin’s campaign of propaganda, disinformation, and political subversion against the United States and Europe. He was zealous in his defense of democracy and his condemnation of autocracy. His passion sometimes gave rise to his famous temper. But that temper was always directed at those who threatened what he held so dear—the freedom, liberty, and humaneness denied him for over half a decade in a prisoner-of-war camp.

Although McCain’s memory evokes words such as courage, empathy, pride, and determination, it will be up to the senator’s fellow citizens and like-minded friends abroad to translate those words into actions that secure his legacy. Will we find the courage to confront those who perpetuate ignorance and foment hatred and deploy it to justify violence against the innocent? Will we exhibit the empathy necessary to understand each other, build partnerships, and, when we disagree, do so respectfully? Will Americans rekindle pride in who they are, one nation committed to the principles of liberty, individual rights, and the rule of law? Will the United States possess the determination not only to defend its way of life but also to strengthen its democratic institutions and promote freedom and prosperity at home and abroad? Although McCain is no longer here to help us answer these questions, we must draw inspiration from his memory—and honor it with deeds that secure the legacy of an American hero.

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2018-08-29/john-mccain-and-meaning-courage

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At the risk of sounding crude, can we put this guy in the ground already?  Has everyone in Washington D.C. forgot he lost in 2008?  Ford didn't get this kind of coverage and treatment and he was a former president.  This memorial tour is being strung out more than a Star Wars trilogy.

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Watching the servicemen move his casket to the hearse at Joint Base Andrews, it just accentuated the fact the the old America is quickly dying. No, he wasn't perfect, and there was probably a part of him that relished being in the limelight. However, when people from the other party sing your praises, you had to have done something right. Just like the stories of Tip O'Neill and Reagan yucking it up over a couple of drinks, McCain's collaboration with the Ds may be overblown a bit, but the two-party system is what we have. Somehow it has to work for America to survive. 

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11 hours ago, Anastasis said:

Two years in solitary.  Dude had some huge fucking balls. And probably a few screws loose after that. As we all would.

Check that.  Most/all of us wouldn't have made it out of vietnam in any case. 

Huge balls.  He could have left, and if he was the kind of person some claim, he would have left.  He spent the last 50 years of his life unable to tie his own shoes or comb his own hair or being able to use a keyboard without it becoming painful.  I can forgive a few things for that.

And agreed with the others - I knew he had crashed aircraft prior to Vietnam, and while there's probably some truth to his father/grandfather helping keep him in, on the other hand, the Navy was looking for pilots left and right during that time.  They probably kept in more than a few that fucked up.

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5 hours ago, EMAWesome said:

At the risk of sounding crude, can we put this guy in the ground already?  Has everyone in Washington D.C. forgot he lost in 2008?  Ford didn't get this kind of coverage and treatment and he was a former president.  This memorial tour is being strung out more than a Star Wars trilogy.

Agreed. I’m a big McCain guy, but this is getting weird. 

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8 hours ago, EMAWesome said:

At the risk of sounding crude, can we put this guy in the ground already?  Has everyone in Washington D.C. forgot he lost in 2008?  Ford didn't get this kind of coverage and treatment and he was a former president.  This memorial tour is being strung out more than a Star Wars trilogy.

Lol.  Another trumptard...I mean GJ voter that’s butthurt.  

Lets keep celebrating.  

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At the risk of sounding crude, can we put this guy in the ground already?  Has everyone in Washington D.C. forgot he lost in 2008?  Ford didn't get this kind of coverage and treatment and he was a former president.  This memorial tour is being strung out more than a Star Wars trilogy.

No. You need every minute of this: a reminder that character and decency matter.
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Kissinger is really easy to hate but he’s one of the most valuable and influential foreign policy minds over the last century.

A complicated man with a complex worldview. 

As much as people label him a war criminal and traitor, I honestly believe he values peace between nations above all other loyalties.

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Full Obama speech 

BARACK OBAMA: To John's beloved family, Mrs. McCain, to Cindy and the McCain children, President and Mrs. Bush, President and Secretary Clinton, Vice President and Mrs. Biden, Vice President and Mrs. Cheney, Vice President Gore, and as John would say, my friends. We come to celebrate an extraordinary man. A statesman, a patriot who embodied so much that is best in America.

President Bush and I are among the fortunate few who competed against John at the highest levels of politics. He made us better presidents just as he made the Senate better, just as he makes this country better.

For someone like John to ask you while he is still alive to stand and speak of him when he is gone is a precious and singular honor. Now, when John called me with that request earlier this year, I'll admit sadness and also a certain surprise. After our conversation ended, I realized how well it captured some of John's essential qualities.

To start with, John liked being unpredictable, even a little contrarian. He had no interest in conforming to some prepackaged version of what a senator should be and he didn't want a memorial that was going to be prepackaged either. It also showed John's disdain for self pity. He had been to hell and back and yet somehow never lost his energy or his optimism or his zest for life.

So cancer did not scare him. And he would maintain that buoyant spirit to the very end, too stubborn to sit still, as ever, fiercely devoted to his friends and most of all to his family.

It showed his irreverence, his sense of humor, a little bit of a mischievous streak. what better way to get a last laugh than make George and I say nice things about him to a national audience? And most of all it showed a largeness of spirit. An ability to see past differences in search of common ground.

And in fact on the surface, John and I could not have been more different. We're of different generations. I came from a broken home and never knew my father. John was the stein of one of America's most distinguished military families. I have a reputation for keeping cool, John not so much.

We were standard bearers of different American political traditions and throughout my presidency John never hesitated to tell me when he thought I was screwing up, which by his calculation was about once a day. But for all our differences, for all of the times we sparred, I never tried to hide, and I think John came to understand the long-standing admiration that I had for him.

By his own account John was a rebellious young man. In his case, what faster way to distinguish yourself when you're the son and grandson of admirals than to mutiny. Eventually, though, he concluded that the only way to really make his mark on the world is to commit to something bigger than yourself. For John, that meant answering the highest of callings, serving his country in a time of war.

Others this week and this morning have spoken to the depths of his torment and the depths of his courage there in the cells of Hanoi when day after day, year after year that youthful iron was tempered into steel. And it brings to mind something that Hemingway wrote, a book that Meghan referred to, his favorite book.

"Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today."

In captivity John learned in ways that few of us ever will the meaning of those words, how each moment, each day, each choice is a test. And John McCain passed that test again and again and again. And that's why when John spoke of virtues like service and valor they weren't just words to him, it was a truth that he had lived and for which he was prepared to die. And it forced even the most cynical to consider what were we doing for our country? What might we risk everything for?

Much has been said this week about what a maverick John was. In fact, John was a pretty conservative guy. Trust me, I was on the receiving end of some of those votes. But he did understand that some principles transcend politics. Some values transcend party. He considered it part of his duty to uphold those principles and uphold those values.

John cared about the institutions of self government, our constitution, our Bill of Rights, rule of law. Separation of powers. Even the arcane rules and procedures of the Senate. He knew that in a nation as big and boisterous and diverse as ours, those institutions, those rules, those norms are what bind us together. Give shape and order to our common life. Even when we disagree. Especially when we disagree.

John believed in honest argument and hearing our views. He understood that if we get in the habit of bending the truth to suit political expediency or party orthodoxy, our democracy will not work. That's why he was willing to buck his own party at times. occasionally work across the aisle on campaign finance reform and immigration reform. That's why he championed a free and independent press as vital to our democratic debate. And the fact it earned him good coverage didn't hurt either.

John understood, as JFK understood, as Ronald Reagan understood, that part of what makes our country great is that our membership is based not on our blood line, not on what we look like, what our last names are, not based on where our parents or grandparents came from or how recently they arrived, but on adherence to a common creed that all of us are created equal. Endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights.

It has been mentioned today, seen footage this week, John pushing back against supporters that challenged my patriotism during the 2008 campaign. I was grateful but I wasn't surprised.

As Joe Lieberman said, that was John's instinct. I never saw John treat anyone differently because of their race or religion or gender. That in those moments that have been referred to during the campaign he saw himself as defending America's character, not just mine. He considered it the imperative of every citizen that loves this country to treat all people fairly.

And finally while John and I disagreed on all kinds of foreign policy issues, we stood together on America's role as the one nation, believing that with great power and great blessings comes great responsibility. That burden is borne most heavily by our men and women in uniform.

Service members like Doug, Jimmy, Jack who followed their father's footsteps, as well as families that serve alongside our troops. But John understood that our security and our influence was won not just by our military might, not just by our wealth, not just by our ability to bend others to our will, but from our capacity to inspire others with our adherence to a set of universal values. Like rule of law and human rights and insistence on the god-given dignity of every human being.

Of course John was the first to tell us he was not perfect. Like all of us that go into public service, he did have an ego. Like all of us there was no doubt some votes he cast, some compromises he struck, some decisions he made that he wished he could have back.

It is no secret, it has been mentioned that he had a temper, and when it flared up, it was a force of nature, a wonder to behold. His jaw grinding, his face reddening, his eyes boring a hole right through you. Not that I ever experienced it firsthand, mind you. But to know John was to know that as quick as his passions might flare, he was just as quick to forgive and ask for forgiveness.

He knew more than most his own flaws, his blind spots, and he knew how to laugh at himself. And that self awareness made him all the more compelling.

We didn't advertise it, but every so often over the course of my presidency John would come over to the White House and we'd just sit and talk in the Oval Office, just the two of us. We would talk about policy and we'd talk about family and we'd talk about the state of our politics.

And our disagreements didn't go away during these private conversations. Those were real and they were often deep. but we enjoyed the time we shared away from the bright lights and we laughed with each other and we learned from each other and we never doubted the other man's sincerity or the other patriotism or that when all was said and done, we were on the same team. We never doubted we were on the same team.

For all of our differences, we shared a fidelity to the ideals for which generations of Americans have marched and fought and sacrificed and given their lives. We considered our political battles a privilege, an opportunity to serve as stewards of those ideals at home and do our best to advance them around the world. We saw this country as a place where anything is possible. and citizenship as an obligation to ensure it forever remains that way.

More than once during his career John drew comparisons to Teddy Roosevelt. I am sure it has been noted that Roosevelt's men in the arena seems tailored to John. Most of you know it. Roosevelt speaks of those who strive, who dare to do great things, who sometimes win and sometimes come up short but always relish a good fight. A contrast to those cold, timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

Isn't that the spirit we celebrate this week? That striving to be better, to do better, worthy of the great inheritance that our founders bestowed. So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse can seem small and mean and petty. Trafficking in bombastic manufactured outrage, it's politics that pretends to be brave and tough, but in fact is born of fear. John called on us to be bigger than that. He called on us to be better than that.

Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that will ever come can depend on what you do today. What better way to honor John McCain's life of service than as best we can follow his example to prove that the willingness to get in the arena and fight for this country is not reserved for the few, it is open to all of us, and in fact it is demanded of all of us as citizens of this great republic. That's perhaps how we honor him best, by recognizing that there are some things bigger than party or ambition or money or fame or power, that the things that are worth risking everything for, principles that are eternal, truths that are abiding.

At his best, John showed us what that means. For that, we are all deeply in his debt.

May God bless John McCain. May God bless this country he served so well.

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Full Obama speech 

 

 

BARACK OBAMA: To John's beloved family, Mrs. McCain, to Cindy and the McCain children, President and Mrs. Bush, President and Secretary Clinton, Vice President and Mrs. Biden, Vice President and Mrs. Cheney, Vice President Gore, and as John would say, my friends. We come to celebrate an extraordinary man. A statesman, a patriot who embodied so much that is best in America.

President Bush and I are among the fortunate few who competed against John at the highest levels of politics. He made us better presidents just as he made the Senate better, just as he makes this country better.

For someone like John to ask you while he is still alive to stand and speak of him when he is gone is a precious and singular honor. Now, when John called me with that request earlier this year, I'll admit sadness and also a certain surprise. After our conversation ended, I realized how well it captured some of John's essential qualities.

To start with, John liked being unpredictable, even a little contrarian. He had no interest in conforming to some prepackaged version of what a senator should be and he didn't want a memorial that was going to be prepackaged either. It also showed John's disdain for self pity. He had been to hell and back and yet somehow never lost his energy or his optimism or his zest for life.

So cancer did not scare him. And he would maintain that buoyant spirit to the very end, too stubborn to sit still, as ever, fiercely devoted to his friends and most of all to his family.

It showed his irreverence, his sense of humor, a little bit of a mischievous streak. what better way to get a last laugh than make George and I say nice things about him to a national audience? And most of all it showed a largeness of spirit. An ability to see past differences in search of common ground.

And in fact on the surface, John and I could not have been more different. We're of different generations. I came from a broken home and never knew my father. John was the stein of one of America's most distinguished military families. I have a reputation for keeping cool, John not so much.

We were standard bearers of different American political traditions and throughout my presidency John never hesitated to tell me when he thought I was screwing up, which by his calculation was about once a day. But for all our differences, for all of the times we sparred, I never tried to hide, and I think John came to understand the long-standing admiration that I had for him.

By his own account John was a rebellious young man. In his case, what faster way to distinguish yourself when you're the son and grandson of admirals than to mutiny. Eventually, though, he concluded that the only way to really make his mark on the world is to commit to something bigger than yourself. For John, that meant answering the highest of callings, serving his country in a time of war.

Others this week and this morning have spoken to the depths of his torment and the depths of his courage there in the cells of Hanoi when day after day, year after year that youthful iron was tempered into steel. And it brings to mind something that Hemingway wrote, a book that Meghan referred to, his favorite book.

"Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today."

In captivity John learned in ways that few of us ever will the meaning of those words, how each moment, each day, each choice is a test. And John McCain passed that test again and again and again. And that's why when John spoke of virtues like service and valor they weren't just words to him, it was a truth that he had lived and for which he was prepared to die. And it forced even the most cynical to consider what were we doing for our country? What might we risk everything for?

Much has been said this week about what a maverick John was. In fact, John was a pretty conservative guy. Trust me, I was on the receiving end of some of those votes. But he did understand that some principles transcend politics. Some values transcend party. He considered it part of his duty to uphold those principles and uphold those values.

John cared about the institutions of self government, our constitution, our Bill of Rights, rule of law. Separation of powers. Even the arcane rules and procedures of the Senate. He knew that in a nation as big and boisterous and diverse as ours, those institutions, those rules, those norms are what bind us together. Give shape and order to our common life. Even when we disagree. Especially when we disagree.

John believed in honest argument and hearing our views. He understood that if we get in the habit of bending the truth to suit political expediency or party orthodoxy, our democracy will not work. That's why he was willing to buck his own party at times. occasionally work across the aisle on campaign finance reform and immigration reform. That's why he championed a free and independent press as vital to our democratic debate. And the fact it earned him good coverage didn't hurt either.

John understood, as JFK understood, as Ronald Reagan understood, that part of what makes our country great is that our membership is based not on our blood line, not on what we look like, what our last names are, not based on where our parents or grandparents came from or how recently they arrived, but on adherence to a common creed that all of us are created equal. Endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights.

It has been mentioned today, seen footage this week, John pushing back against supporters that challenged my patriotism during the 2008 campaign. I was grateful but I wasn't surprised.

As Joe Lieberman said, that was John's instinct. I never saw John treat anyone differently because of their race or religion or gender. That in those moments that have been referred to during the campaign he saw himself as defending America's character, not just mine. He considered it the imperative of every citizen that loves this country to treat all people fairly.

And finally while John and I disagreed on all kinds of foreign policy issues, we stood together on America's role as the one nation, believing that with great power and great blessings comes great responsibility. That burden is borne most heavily by our men and women in uniform.

Service members like Doug, Jimmy, Jack who followed their father's footsteps, as well as families that serve alongside our troops. But John understood that our security and our influence was won not just by our military might, not just by our wealth, not just by our ability to bend others to our will, but from our capacity to inspire others with our adherence to a set of universal values. Like rule of law and human rights and insistence on the god-given dignity of every human being.

Of course John was the first to tell us he was not perfect. Like all of us that go into public service, he did have an ego. Like all of us there was no doubt some votes he cast, some compromises he struck, some decisions he made that he wished he could have back.

It is no secret, it has been mentioned that he had a temper, and when it flared up, it was a force of nature, a wonder to behold. His jaw grinding, his face reddening, his eyes boring a hole right through you. Not that I ever experienced it firsthand, mind you. But to know John was to know that as quick as his passions might flare, he was just as quick to forgive and ask for forgiveness.

He knew more than most his own flaws, his blind spots, and he knew how to laugh at himself. And that self awareness made him all the more compelling.

We didn't advertise it, but every so often over the course of my presidency John would come over to the White House and we'd just sit and talk in the Oval Office, just the two of us. We would talk about policy and we'd talk about family and we'd talk about the state of our politics.

And our disagreements didn't go away during these private conversations. Those were real and they were often deep. but we enjoyed the time we shared away from the bright lights and we laughed with each other and we learned from each other and we never doubted the other man's sincerity or the other patriotism or that when all was said and done, we were on the same team. We never doubted we were on the same team.

For all of our differences, we shared a fidelity to the ideals for which generations of Americans have marched and fought and sacrificed and given their lives. We considered our political battles a privilege, an opportunity to serve as stewards of those ideals at home and do our best to advance them around the world. We saw this country as a place where anything is possible. and citizenship as an obligation to ensure it forever remains that way.

More than once during his career John drew comparisons to Teddy Roosevelt. I am sure it has been noted that Roosevelt's men in the arena seems tailored to John. Most of you know it. Roosevelt speaks of those who strive, who dare to do great things, who sometimes win and sometimes come up short but always relish a good fight. A contrast to those cold, timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

Isn't that the spirit we celebrate this week? That striving to be better, to do better, worthy of the great inheritance that our founders bestowed. So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse can seem small and mean and petty. Trafficking in bombastic manufactured outrage, it's politics that pretends to be brave and tough, but in fact is born of fear. John called on us to be bigger than that. He called on us to be better than that.

Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that will ever come can depend on what you do today. What better way to honor John McCain's life of service than as best we can follow his example to prove that the willingness to get in the arena and fight for this country is not reserved for the few, it is open to all of us, and in fact it is demanded of all of us as citizens of this great republic. That's perhaps how we honor him best, by recognizing that there are some things bigger than party or ambition or money or fame or power, that the things that are worth risking everything for, principles that are eternal, truths that are abiding.

At his best, John showed us what that means. For that, we are all deeply in his debt.

May God bless John McCain. May God bless this country he served so well.

 

*George and ME.

 

#English_as_a_second_language

 

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14 hours ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

Kissinger is really easy to hate but he’s one of the most valuable and influential foreign policy minds over the last century.

A complicated man with a complex worldview. 

As much as people label him a war criminal and traitor, I honestly believe he values peace between nations above all other loyalties.

i got six words in and have been nodding ever since.  wonder what the rest of it says.

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