We ‘lost’ Vietnam: does this make John McCain’s captivity less heroic, his military service less ‘honorable’? And if it doesn’t, why is he impugning the honor of our military heroes serving today in Iraq with his repeated suggestions that their service is for nothing unless and until they've achieved the specific result demanded by him?
"...Sen. Obama would have brought our troops home in defeat. I'll bring them home with victory and with honor..."
"We will succeed and we will bring our troops home with honor and victory and not in defeat." -- Senator McCain, Second Debate
John McCain’s remarks are offensive in their implication that honor is the opposite of defeat, and success the opposite of dishonor. How does he get away with thanking soldiers for their service to their faces, then denigrating their service in the political arena?
If a return from Iraq sooner rather than later is the difference between dishonor and honor, whose shame or honor is it? It is certainly not the shame or honor of our armed forces -- our soldiers will return with honor whenever they come home.
Senator McCain was distinguishing Iraq from Vietnam when he said:
"...we will win this one and we won't come home in defeat and dishonor.." -- First Debate
It seems we are really talking about Senator McCain’s shame, which is rather sick: Our soldiers have to remain in the line of fire to validate John McCain’s policy choices, electoral goals, and life decisions?
This personal sense of shame clouds what one might think Mr. McCain would know better than anyone: The nobility of our soldiers' service to our Nation requires no validation by any particular result, and their service is especially immune from the charge that it is meaningless if they fail to attain 'victory' as redefined at will by Candidate McCain and the current Administration. Instead it is Senator Obama who understands:
"No U.S. soldier ever dies in vain because they're carrying out the missions of their commander in chief. And we honor all the service that they've provided. Our troops have performed brilliantly. The question is for the next president, are we making good judgments about how to keep America safe precisely because sending our military into battle is such an enormous step." - Senator Obama, First Debate
Furthermore, the idea that discussing withdrawal from Iraq whether on a 'timetable' or an 'aspirational time horizon' sends the wrong 'message' to our troops or to our enemies, or to claim that discussion of competing policy ideas puts our 'honor' at stake is ridiculous. It is particularly difficult to credit the idea that al-Qaeda and 'the terrorists', organizations we have been repeatedly assured care nothing for honor or shame, are suddenly going to respect us less or hate us more because we have a national discussion about whether an ongoing military occupation of Iraq is an effective tool in the War on Terror.
Senator McCain seems determined to gamble with our soldiers’ lives that he can slightly lessen the perception of the failures of the US in the Middle East through military means, in the face of abundant evidence to the contrary. Surge or no surge, we have lost the Iraq War in the important sense that we have destroyed our credibility as a ‘force for good’ in the region. We have also exhausted our soldiers and their patience with us, perhaps irreparably.
"Your plan is a white flag of surrender in Iraq and that is not what our troops need to hear today, that's for sure." -- Governor Palin, Debate
Governor Palin, what our troops need to hear is a substantive national political discourse which dignifies their sacrifices for our democracy. Your ticket's conflation of the honor of our soldiers' service to our country with specific political desires or outcomes (not to mention your personal refusal or inability to discuss policy at any depth under the guise of 'maverickiness') doesn't fit the bill, and is an insult to everything important about our military and the principle of civilian leadership.
Political office, popularity, parties' fortunes – not one of these is more important than the life of a single one of our soldiers. But if John McCain really believed in 'honor' or 'country first' he would be running a very different campaign. Instead, for political gain, he is insulting our troops with the suggestion that they could ever leave Iraq with 'dishonor'.
The shame is yours Senator McCain, because of your political failures and those of your party – leave our troops out of it.