Republican Convention Plan: All POW

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There is a question to be addressed about the POW issue. This is perhaps callous, but McCain, during his pre-captivity days in the Navy, was a showboating slacker. It is the reason he was not promoted to Admiral. Indeed, McCain was perhaps not a hero at all, but just a victim.

And the provocative question out of that is, where is the demarcation between merely doing a job and heroism?

Max Cleland lost three limbs during Vietnam and everyday he he struggles mightily to get around. McCain stood idly by while his party accused Cleland of being a crypto-communist. McCain, for what he went through, at least recovered to the point where he could have a normal life.Cleland never will. So is Cleland more of a hero? What word should we use for that? Is the term being degraded by today's tendency to overpraise people in the name of promoting self esteem?

My late grandfather, who my mom barely remembers, was killed fighting for the U.S. at the Battle of the Bulge. Was he a hero or a victim? He didn't have a choice to fight or not. He was drafted.

Then you have guys who REALLY were heroes, Congressional Medal of Honor winners. The dichotomy of warfare isn't between victim and hero, but survivor and decedent. And these people chose to put everything on the line so that many more could live. McCain? Not so much. So just when should we use the word, "hero"?

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