 |
|
Add to My Group
|
October 11, 2008 at 13:08:14
Promoted to Headline (H3) on 10/11/08: by Stuart Steinberg Page 1 of 1 page(s) |
|
|
3
3
2
Marie Claire is a women’s magazine that began in France and is now published in a number of countries in their own language and with articles geared to that country’s women. According to Wikipedia, “the United States edition focuses on women around the world and several worldwide issues. The magazine also provides the reader with health, beauty, and fashion information in each issue.” In today’s issue, Cindy McCain was interviewed by someone named Sam Dealey whom no one has ever heard of and, hopefully, will never hear from, again. I could rant in general about the entire interview, which was one of the biggest loads to appear during the Presidential campaign to date. It was a candy-ass pile of drivel that lobbed one softball question after another at Cindy McCain and never asked her about anything of substance, except in one particular area. Before I get to what that is, let me add one other thought. This “interview” was nothing more than a right-wing attempt to humanize Cindy McCain and make her appear first lady-like. I just made up that term because I couldn’t think of any other way to describe this sop of an interview. Here’s the “one particular area” that was touched upon: “MC: You met your husband after his POW days. To what extent is that still with you — or is it a part of history? These despicable comments by Ms. McCain either went right over Mr. Dealey’s empty head, or he deliberately, and quickly, moved on to the next topic, which was about McCain’s calling Obama a celebrity and then her saying she would compare John McCain—wait for it—to Winston Churchill. I swear to God and you couldn’t make this stuff up if you smoked crack and held your breath for five minutes. Any legitimate news reporter would have stopped cold, mouth hanging open and said, “Huh? What? Are you serious? Are you an idiot?” Ms. McCain’s comments are so wrong in so many ways, I hardly know where to begin. I am a Vietnam veteran. I spent eighteen months there as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal specialist—that’s the bomb squad in plain English. I was wounded twice and decorated for heroism. During my tours, I went on some 500 incidents involving explosive ordnance, including numerous improvised explosive devices. On May 10, 1969, I was blown up in an ammo dump that had been attacked by the Viet Cong. I was trying to move a dud mortar round to our demolition area for destruction. Ten days later, I was injured again during an incoming attack. On numerous occasions, I helped clear dead bodies—ours and theirs—for booby traps and the ordnance these soldiers were carrying when they died. I saw things that no human being should ever have to witness. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, I have post traumatic stress disorder. Apparently, according to Cindy McCain, it’s my own fault. Let me tell you something, Cindy, baby. If you think your husband does not have PTSD, you are living in some strange state of unconsciousness. Anger management issues are a prevalent symptom of PTSD and, wow, has your hubbie lived up to that one. Then there's the symptom of intrusive thoughts about traumatic war experiences. Do you really expect anyone to believe that your husband does not have intrusive thoughts about being shot down, his horrendous injuries and the five years of torture he reminds everyone about every time he opens his mouth to tell us why he's qualified to be president? Either you're lying, or he's lying, or your both lying, or he's had a lobotomy, which many of us believe is the case. And if you think that only “untrained” draftees get PTSD, you are so out of touch with modern medical thought and proven research, that I can only question if you have the intelligence of an ant. Wait. I think I just insulted ants. First, no one who knows anything about PTSD, and who knows what happened to your husband while he was in captivity, believes he does not have some small dose of PTSD. Not possible, ain’t gonna happen. Secondly, you pinhead, there are no draftees and haven’t been since, oh, 1970. Thirdly, I and many of my friends who suffer from this illness were well trained and knew how to survive, even though we didn’t come from an elite, privileged family like your husband, and didn’t attend the Naval Academy. According to Cindy McCain’s theory, the military is pampering the thousands of men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who have been diagnosed with PTSD and depression, because they couldn’t possibly have this debilitating illness since they are the best trained, best equipped, yadda, yadda, yadda. I guess they are all faking their symptoms and the hundreds who have committed suicide were defective before they went to war and saw their friends blown to pieces, or picked up the body parts of innocent civilians killed in a sick and demented war. I guess it’s our own fault for not being able to suck it up like your husband. Every day, I and my associates at Central Oregon Veterans Outreach, see the damage done by war to veterans from all eras. Some of our Vietnam clients have never gotten back on track, even after forty years. The kids we see who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan cannot understand what has happened to them and I have had more than one of them break down in my office and cry. These are men who fought bravely, who killed the enemy when required and who are now lost within themselves. Along with the Department of Veterans Affairs, we do what we can to see that they receive the benefits and treatment they have earned and which your husband has opposed time and time again through his votes in the Senate. I hope, Cindy McCain, that your son Jimmy, who served in Iraq, came back in good shape and never has to deal with the problems now being faced by many of his fellow Marines. If your son at the Naval Academy ends up in combat, I wish the same for him. However, if you think that this disease is only suffered by ill-trained soldiers who came from less than privileged backgrounds, I would suggest you spend some time talking to the wives, mothers and fathers of the young men and women who have to deal with this every minute of every hour or every day, sometimes for years, sometimes for the rest of their lives. Why don’t you do that, instead of doing interviews with sycophantic suckups like Sam Dealey?
CM: My husband will be the first one to tell you that that’s in the past. Certainly it’s a part of who he is, but he doesn’t dwell on it. It’s not part of a daily experience that we experience or anything like that. But it has shaped him. It has made him the leader that he is.”
“MC: But no cold sweats in the middle of the night?
CM: Oh, no, no, no, no, no. My husband, he’d be the first one to tell you that he was trained to do what he was doing. The guys who had the trouble were the 18-year-olds who were drafted. He was trained, he went to the Naval Academy, he was a trained United States naval officer, and so he knew what he was doing.”
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
 Contact Author |
Contact Editor |
 View Authors' Articles |
|
|
|
|
| 5 comments |
|
Thank goodness for PTSD
Without it, all those who have participated in all of the war efforts would be inhuman. Thank you for your article! And thank you for your sacrifices. by sometimes blinded (4 articles, 106 quicklinks, 15 diaries, 618 comments [53 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Oct 11, 2008 at 2:22:54 PM  (0+)
|
|
So Cindy thinks her
POW war collaborating, adulterous with numerous martial infidelities husband John is a "trained" Naval Academy officer. She failed to mention about his graduating nearly last in his class and violating all the rules and only being allowed to continue his schooling was his father's and grandfather's influence. Cindy forgets to mention about her husbands wrecking of multiple jets and the killing of 134 soldiers when wet-starting his jet aboard an aircraft carrier. Or how he doesn't want POW-MIA records to become public exposing his collaboration with the enemy in a time of war. It's quite visible to see how quick to temper and his comment of calling his current wife Cindy a tramp and trollop after her jest of his receding hair-line. Obviously she is just a brain-cell dead from the substance abuse she inflected upon herself, just like are current self-appointed Executive of AWOL/Deserter in a time of War Dybua, who won't disclose the last time he's done cocaine and convicted drunk driver and his buddy buckshot Dick who has received multiple drunk driving convictions while getting 5 Vietnam deferments. by Stanimal (2 articles, 228 quicklinks, 38 diaries, 1259 comments [235 recommended, 2 rejected]) on Saturday, Oct 11, 2008 at 5:49:00 PM (0+)
|
|
dumb and dumber
I was wondering why McCain never let her speak, why she was always reduced to being a ''shadow in pearls''behind him, always keeping her mouth shut. Now I understand why: each time she opens her mouth, a string of stupid remarks comes out. Really stupid things; she appears even stupider than Palin, if possible. She is lucky to have been born rich; if she'd been born in a trailer park, she would be flipping hamburgers now, or given her good looks, doing pole dancing in Las Vegas. by francine (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 385 comments) on Sunday, Oct 12, 2008 at 4:51:15 AM (0+)
|
|
Cindy and her John
Thank you sir, for your service to our country. You have my deepest respect. Of course Cindy blames other vets for PTSD. That is all the McCain's know how to do. I wonder if she blames McCain's first wife for his wandering eye!! Or maybe even the dear lady who had the nerve to "touch" McCain's arm at the gambling casino, where he went off on her and was taken out of the casino!! I wonder if, in spite of her enormous wealth, and resources, if she has not been abused by him over the years and is terrified to speak out. She is his "step-ford wife", his eye candy. Cindy has been trained to say what she says. I think she has many issues. I am a former psych nurse and I can tell you that in no way, absolutely no way, is McCain fit to be President. PTSD is very real, and totally understandable. I cared for many vets, it is NOT their fault. PTSD needs to be taken very seriously. Plus, McCain has other medical issues as well. Ever wonder why he won't release his psych records? Should he get into office, my fear is that he could react viciously to a situation and it will all be over for all of us. by Linda Bailey (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 68 comments) on Sunday, Oct 12, 2008 at 7:38:43 AM (0+)
|
|
The PTSD Monster that McCain Is
Cindy McCain is merely how we might expect Paris Hilton to turn out as she grows older and more detached from the Reality 95% of the rest of Americans daily address in their lives. Arrogant, ignorant, a closet full of trials and tribulations, and a distinct fear of doing jail time for the sins she has committed. Many years ago now I was very close friends with a former VN era prisoner of war. He was captured in the early 1960s and held in the jungles of Vietnam for four years before being released. He went on to become an expert in the field of survival, escape, resistance, and evasion (SERE). As someone with an impressive medical background he was also very much in touch with his own challenges and experiences having been a POW. He has since passed on but I vividly remember long talks about the effects of the POW experience. Mr. Steinberg is correct when he offers John McCain lives with PTSD and suffers the side effects which include womanizing (the need to feel attractive and wanted again); gambling (high risk stakes and high risk behavior); and anger (what can you say about McCain's legendary and now public outbursts of impatience and anger, to include prowling the debate set, not as a caged tiger but as someone looking for an escape route from the unpleasant and out of his control experience). McCain is absolutely wrong not to release his POW era medical records. He does not do so, IMHO, because he knows the extent of his PTSD is serious. He's what those who live with (and can grow from in a positive manner) term a "PTSD Monster". Meaning he's at the extreme end of the affliction and his behaviors demonstrate this daily. I, for one, don't want someone with McCain's challenges in this area at the helm of my country, or anywhere near the position of Commander in Chief of our Armed Forces. Particularly since he hides the information the American People should be made aware of so they can make the best decision possible come November. I would add McCain's actions in this area detract from the positive example he could be as someone with PTSD - the misinformation and bias that continues to plague our socieity regarding this condition is pathetic. McCain could make a difference in this area but chooses not to for his own personal and political reasons. I also have no use for someone like Cindy McCain, in specific her duplicity regarding her intimate knowledge of her husband's PTSD challenges (unless he's made that off limits to her as well as the country over the years) and her use of power, position, and money to beat a truly disgusting and vulgar drug theft/possession/use charge that "regular folks" would go straight to trial and then jail for. It will be sad to watch, I predict, Senator McCain's continued unraveling at the seams as November comes closer and his campaign spirals into the ground much as several of his aircraft did when he was a marginal military pilot. The Monster McCain tries so hard to hide from himself and this country's voters is, IMHO, clearly in control at this point and from here on in it'll be gaff, outburst, and curious, self-destructive decision making (another symptom of PTSD if not addressed properly through quality treatment) while his maven of a spouse stupidly states her husband was so "well trained" in the Navy that he couldn't possibly suffer any ill efffects whatsoever (mentally, emotionally, spiritually) from his five years as the victim of an NVA torture fest. Again, kudos to Mr. Steinberg for calling it as it is regarding this matter - by Greg Walker (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments) on Sunday, Oct 12, 2008 at 10:01:45 AM (0+)
|
Want to post your own comment on this Article? 
|
||||
|
||||||||||||||
News (0) 
Touching (0) 
Funny (0) 
Supported (2) 
Interesting (0) 
Inspiring (0)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tell a Friend:
|
Copyright © 2002-2009, OpEdNews |
