thoughts from a brokenSoldier

If there is any mystery as to why McCain has remained so close in the polls despite his innumerable gaffes, his constant displays of self-aggrandizement and flaunting of his POW past as political capital, and his zig-zagging back and forth between the cones of his policy positions during this campaign, this article by Margriet Oostveen on Salon.com should clear it up a bit for you.

We are all influenced by the tides of public opinion, whether we admit it or not.  And the opinions expressed by supposedly genuine citizens in their letters to their local newspapers go a long way towards skewing the perceptions of what a collective community is thinking.  McCain’s campaign and his Rovian acolytes certainly know this, so it should be no surprise to anyone that they have mobilized shameless surrogates in this arena in order to project an image of popular support for their campaign.

This article is one that tells of a team of individuals whose job is to write fake letters - replete with lies and deception - to local editors in battleground states for the purpose of influencing the opinions of those voters who may not have made up their minds on their electoral choice.  While I am grateful for the author’s candor in writing this piece, it sickens me that anyone would actually do this.  From pretending to be a staunch supporter of the Republican ticket to falsely claiming an emotional connection to the sacrifices made by our soldiers and their families in order to pull on the heartstrings of those who actually are in that situation, no tactic is off limits.  This is the ultimate example of the ends justifying the means.

These people do not care that their efforts are intentionally false or that the wrong choice in this election will inevitably wreak havoc on our national situation - their only goal is to get their guy into the White House.  I simply cannot think of a single thing that is more un-American than this.

The author admits she pretended to be the mother of a soldier deployed to Iraq in order to draw like-minded individuals over to the McCain side. This not only offends me, but it also genuinely hurts.  As I have already made known, I was wounded in Iraq in September 2005 and was evacuated back home as a result.  Even considering the physical pain and mental torment I experienced - and continue to experience - as a direct result of my wounds and experiences in Iraq, the single greatest pain I felt throughout the entire situation occurred in November of that year.  I was at Fort Gordon’s Eisenhower Army Medical Center waiting to see my family for the first time since shipping off to war.  When they finally arrived, I was utterly heartbroken when my mother walked through the door and saw her only son confined to a wheelchair.  I saw the pain and sorrow in her eyes, and to this day I wish that I had instead waited until I was able to walk under my own power before seeing her.  I’ll never be able to get that image of my mother out of my mind, as I am sure she will never be able to erase the sight of me in such a condition from her memory for as long as she lives.  No mother should ever have to see her child like that. Period.

For someone to outright lie about something so emotionally traumatic for the sole purpose of political gain is beyond deplorable.  And it is made exponentially worse by the fact that this is being done for the benefit of a war veteran’s Presidential campaign.  If anyone should be above such dirty tactics, it should be a man who personally understands the damage such a thing can cause.

I will not even listen to platitudes asserting that he may not have known about this practice.  If John McCain, a former officer and leader, truly does understand the military and the way it operates, then he knows that a leader is responsible for the actions of his subordinates, regardless of whether or not he had an active hand in those actions.

This morning, I simply disagreed with McCain and viewed him as a self-centered political opportunist.  This evening, after reading this article, I personally dislike the man and harbor a burning desire to see him completely removed from his position of influence in our nation’s government.  This morning, he simply did not appeal to me as a potential leader of the country.  This evening, John McCain - along with his campaign - makes me sick.