‘McCain created his own surge’

I read a poll the other day that said 48 percent of voters admit they’re tired of reading and hearing about Obama. So am I. So let’s take a look at the other guy, you know, “the old, wrinkled white guy” as Paris Hilton described him. Kyle-Anne Shiver at American Thinker writes about Sen. John McCain with a flashback to last year when he was virtually a solitary voice in Washington, calling for a “surge” of troops in the Iraq war.

On April 19, 2007, Harry Reid, new Senate Majority Leader, had stood upon our Capitol steps and declared for all the world, especially our enemies, that this "war is lost." Congressional Democrats were acting like banshees demanding withdrawal timetables for Iraq, and pronouncing the surge a failure before it ever had a chance to succeed.

And as Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, a certain junior Senator from Chicago and a chorus of others demanded defeat for our troops, McCain looked liked a defeated presidential candidate.

In June 2007, the press were all but writing obituaries on McCain's presidential campaign. The campaign was basically broke, donors were looking elsewhere, and it was a time for reassessment.

When his political chips were down, McCain created his own surge.

…John McCain decided to leave the whole mess behind, and embarked on a no-fanfare trip to Iraq to spend the 4^th of July with our troops. As one of the most vocal initial backers for the troop surge in Iraq, McCain continued to believe that premature withdrawal would be devastating, not only to the people of Iraq and the Middle East, but to our ability to fight the war on terror around the globe.

John McCain flew to Iraq to celebrate Independence Day in the privileged company of those he has always loved best, his fellow men and women in America's Armed Forces.

In July 2007, McCain and the troops were both beginning a surge to turn events upside down, politically and militarily, despite the nay-sayers.

Then Kyle-Anne Shiver flashes even further back to 1967, the year I dropped out of college and joined the Navy. The Vietnam War was raging and young Navy pilot John McCain was shot out of the sky and ended up in the famed Hanoi Hilton, the worst POW camp in North Vietnam.

Over the course of five years in a Hanoi prison, two of those years in solitary confinement, John McCain discovered his inner strength, his maverick spirit, and his determined will to never succumb to a loss of what makes us human. Our free will.

Every time I hear John McCain speak now, I am reminded that he has faced this horror. When I see that he walks stiffly, I know it's because his leg was broken in October 1967, and he didn't wind up in an efficient, well-equipped American medical facility. He ended up in a Hanoi prison instead. He was told that if he gave them military information they might fix his leg and his arms. Instead, the "medical treatment" the communists gave him nearly killed him. His body has never properly healed.

Every voter, in my opinion, ought to read Senator McCain's First-Person Account of his captivity, published in May 1973, now available online.

When the North Vietnamese learned they had the son of the naval admiral, who was about to be given command over our entire Forces in the Pacific, they wanted John McCain to accept early release.

When McCain's father took over as CINCPAC, the communists tried to persuade John again to accept this favoritism.

McCain refused, saying he wouldn’t come home until all prisoners were released. Five years later, the POWs came out together, bloody but unbowed.

I prefer John McCain's idea of patriotism. Love of God and Country first. Before personal gain. Before personal glory. Before personal gravitas. Before politics. There are some things upon which there simply can be no compromise. For John McCain, the non-compromising item appears to be personal integrity.

McCain's Country-First life is a winner. I'm not sure we deserve him, but I sure do hope we get him for our next Commander In Chief.

Me too, Kyle-Anne, me too.