John McCain--sincere about Geneva or a political ploy?

[AlCzervik]

or both? Is McCain doing this because of real concern for American soldiers or is this just a move to put some distance between him and Chimpoleon?

[Renew Deal]

1. Sincere about the conventions

But a fight with Bush may be a political ploy. Bush should not allow our boys to be tortured just so he avoids prison.

[ncrainbowgrrl]

11. I'm glad that I'm not the only cynic.

I also think that there's some combo of sincerity and political motivation going on here. . . Not sure what percentage is political motivation vs. actual sincerity.

[Warpy]

13. Agreed. He experienced harsh treatment first hand

when he was a POW. The Viet Cong didn't recognize the GC.

He knows damned full well that torture doesn't work, first hand.

[movonne]

18. Everything he does is a political move...I can't stand the man..he

is just as fowl as Lieberman..

[melnjones]

2. Because he was a POW,

I have no doubt that he is sincere in this. Many people on DU would agree with me, but I don't care. I like McCain.

[orpupilofnature57]

5. I loved the thought of a person with that much strength and conviction....

Shrub has made him another one of his " Chain of Fools " I thank him for what he was ,not what he is.

[havocmom]

3. Sat how long in a North Vietnamese prison?

Thinking the man may have sincere concerns for US military personnel if we let bush/cheney/rumsfeld decide what Geneva really means

[napi21]

4. I believe McCain is sincere on this one!

First because of what HE went through during Vietnam, but

Second, one of his sons has enlisted, and the other one is in a military academy now, and will me an officer when he graduates.

[ncrainbowgrrl]

6. for once, i'm gonna say something sorta good about mccain...

i think this is genuine. i'd hope that this is genuine, anyway, based on his experience in vietnam.

however, i wouldn't put much past him- i've lost any/all respect i had for the man when he was seen in the picture w/bush from the 2004 campaign where he was in a (more or less) headlock being toted around by the commander-in-thief.

then there's the possibility that we have a combo deal going here- possibly it is politically motivated, but something that he would have taken a stand on anyway, and this is a good way to combine political ambitions with personal convictions?

thoughts?

[AlCzervik]

12. well if it is a combination i think or i'd like to think he put personal

convictions first and the ambition second. This morning on cspan Brian Lamb covered this topic and for the 1st 30 minutes opened up the phone lines for republicans only to find out what they thought about the issue and the base was very displeased with McCain so if it was political then it was a miscalculation but i'm guessing McCain knows that. The callers were awful, a bunch of raging mouth breathers bitching about McCain and Warner and not one word was said about American soldiers.

[bonito]

15. My personal feelings

about him are good along with Powell,I think powell didn't realize the scope of the pnac agenda at first and is why is is out, Mccain on the other hand has been in the position of wakening up to the reality late in the same boat with many of his colleagues, and I don't feel he can be used to further the necon agenda even though it's lost, and they are scrambling, I think he will put America first, not others.

[bklyncowgirl]

7. I think he may actually be sincere--he may also realize he's been had.

Did McCain actually think that embracing a man he has to know to be a lying sociopath and letting him kiss him on his bald little head was going to get him the support of Bush and his team of smearmeisters for the Presidential nomination?

Frankly, I have a better chance of getting the GOP nomination than John McCain and he may just have come to that realization himself.

Sucker.

[Eric J in MN]

8. His bill is a sham. It makes the Geneva Conventions uneforceable...

...by barring lawsuits in federal court.

http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2006/09/hand_reporting_.html

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

9. Sincere on the issue, working it for as many political points as he can.

[Jade Fox]

10. I've never been able to figure out what McCain is sincere about.

[Greyhound]

14. Both? Convenient experience, though I'm sure he'd have forgone

the torture, given an opportunity, Sometimes politics and beliefs coincide.

[jwirr]

16. I actually believe that this is the one thing he is sincere about.

[IChing]

17. The only integrity he had he must have gotten it from someone else.

Sorry, the guy was bombing Hanoi when he was shot down. Was that legal or ethical? He was saved by the Vietnamese don't forget that.
Yes, a prisoner of war, sad of course. But he said this:

"I am a war criminal; I bombed innocent women and children" – as he did in an interview with Mike Wallace on Sixty Minutes in 1997.

Fuck him, he is not a hero.
Not my kind of hero least not forget what he did

McCain was the one who traveled 12,000 miles from his own country, invaded North Vietnamese air space on October 26, 1967, and was dropping bombs on that nation for the 23rd time when his plane was shot down. That's how he became a North Vietnamese prisoner.

No North Vietnamese had ever committed any act of violence on U.S. soil, or, until Americans invaded their country, against any American. Yet the United States rained death and destruction from bullets, bombs and chemical agents on that small impoverished nation for 10 years. McCain was an active participant in destroying that country, indeed, he volunteered to go there.

[madrchsod]

19. he faced the demon and won

he was in hell while george was high , drunk, and hiding out.