HEROES VERSUS HAMS: MCCAIN WAS A POW FOR LONGER THAN OBAMA HAS BEEN IN THE SENATE

WIKI:

In August of 1968, a program of vigorous torture methods began on McCain, using rope bindings into painful positions, and beatings every two hours, at the same time as he was suffering from dysentery.^[47][43]

Teeth and bones were broken again, as was McCain's spirit; the beginning of a suicide attempt was stopped by guards.^[43] After four days of this, McCain signed an anti-American propaganda "confession" that said he was a "black criminal" and an "air pirate",^[43] although he used stilted Communist jargon and ungrammatical language to signal that the statement was forced.^[51] He felt then and always that he had dishonored his country, his family, his comrades and himself by his statement,^[58] but as he would later write, "I had learned what we all learned over there: Every man has his breaking point. I had reached mine."^[47]

His injuries to this day have left him incapable of raising his arms above his head.^[13]

Two weeks later his captors tried to force him to sign a second statement, and this time, his will to resist restored, he refused.^[47] He received two to three beatings per week because of his continued refusal.^[59]

Other American POWs were similarly tortured and maltreated in order to extract "confessions".^[47] On one occasion, a guard surreptitiously loosened McCain's painful rope bindings for a night; when months later the guard later saw McCain on Christmas Day, he stood next to McCain and silently drew a cross in the dirt with his foot^[60] (decades later, McCain would relate this Good Samaritan story during his presidential campaigns, as a testament to faith and humanity^[61][62]).

On Christmas Eve 1968 [COINCIDENTLY, THE DATE UPON WHICH KERRY'S CAMBODIAN FANTASY WAS "SEARED, SEARED" INTO HIS MEMORY - RELIAPUNDIT] , a church service for the POWs was staged for photographers and film cameras; McCain defied North Vietnamese instructions to be quiet, speaking out details of his treatment then shouting "Fu-u-u-u-ck you, you son of a bitch!" and giving the finger whenever a camera was pointed at him.^[63]

McCain refused to meet with various anti-war peace groups coming to Hanoi, such as those led by David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, and Rennie Davis, not wanting to give either them or the North Vietnamese a propaganda victory based on his connection to his father.^[47]

^{EVEN AT SEVEN DECADES, MCCAIN IS TEN TIMES THE MAN OBAMA WILL EVER BE.}