In last week’s letter, I compared McCain’s wartime record with that of Trump.
There are similarities.
McCain spent five years in a Vietnamese prison camp and Trump got five deferments.
In a New York Times interview Trump acknowledged that his bone spurs had been “temporary” – a “minor” malady that did not have a meaningful impact on his life.
He did mention visiting a doctor who provided him with a letter which was presented to his draft board, but he could not recall the doctor’s name. This is reminiscent of Trump’s more recent annual, physical checkup in which he dictated the letter for his doctor.
Exactly what did Sen. McCain endure during his captivity?
When in 1968, his father was named commander of all U.S. forces in the Vietnam theatre, he was offered an early release.
He turned it down unless every man imprisoned before him was also released. (Obviously, John hadn’t read Trump’s “Art of the Deal.”)
Then, beginning in August 1968, while suffering from dysentery, McCain was bound and beaten every two hours. While a P.O.W., his left arm was broken, his ribs cracked, he spent time in solitary confinement, and to this day he’s incapable of raising either arm above his shoulders.
In my previous letter, I cited reasons for opposing torture.
An organization(Center for Victims of Torture) is devoted to the rehabilitation of prisoners who have survived torture. Curt Goering is the executive director and he quotes a C.I.A. Torture Report as follows:
“Waterboarding (a particularly brutal form of torture that involves slow drowning) beatings, mock burials in coffins…executions, sensory overload and sleep deprivation for up to 180 hours…Gruesome techniques like “rectal feedings” designed to cause extreme pain by expanding prisoner’s colons with liquid.
People were kept shackled and sometimes hanging from the ceiling for 22 hours per day and naked and hooded in cold cells.:
Psychologists have not only studied the effects of such treatment on the victims of torture, but on those who interrogate and administer the above-mentioned horrors. No one engaged in these events remains psychologically unscathed.
As previously stated, each day Sarah Huckabee Sanders faces a group of reporters who have grown increasingly impatient with her evasiveness.
The first response of the White House was to say: “We respect Sen. McCain’s service to our nation and he and his family are in our prayers during this difficult time.”
This pathetic and inadequate statement was followed by Sanders stating she refused to “validate a leak…out of an internal staff meeting.”
The Trump administration seems incapable of apologizing for even the most tasteless remark. I leave it to the psychiatric community to explain why this president never admits to fabricating and never makes an apology.
The only political tool left in the McCain arsenal came in an announcement from McCain’s associates that Trump would not have a speaking role at the McCain funeral.
Returning to the C.I.A.’s report on torture, the following is damning condemnation of the agency’s practices.
At least 26 of the 119 prisoners held by the C.I.A. were subsequently found…to have been improperly detained…Two innocent persons were jailed and tortured based solely on allegations from another prisoner who fabricated information after having been tortured…One mentally challenged man was held by the C.I.A. in order to persuade family members to provide information.
One of the most shameful cases was that of Gul Rahman, an Afghani man, whose torture by the C.I.A. led to his death. Former Vice President Dick Cheney, a staunch supporter of torture, said on Meet the Press “I’m more concerned with bad guys who get out…than I am with a few that in fact were innocent.”
When a Vice President of the United States does not know that a fundamental precept of democracy is that we are all considered “innocent until proven guilty,” we are in imminent danger of losing that which makes America a beacon of justice.
The study of history is useful insofar as it informs us of how we should behave in the future.
While Gina Haspel has been confirmed by the Senate, we should heed the warning of Sen. Dianne Feinstein – “The United States must send a message to the world that we hold ourselves to a higher standard than our enemies.”
Dr. Hal Sobel
Great Neck
