McCain's War Record Needs No Defense

Recently I wrote about the campaign to denigrate John McCain’s heroism as a PoW. In response, Peter Brimelow -- who runs VDare.com -- questioned my belief that McCain is a man who puts his country ahead of his own personal ambitions.

Recently I wrote about the campaign in the U.S. to denigrate John McCain’s heroism as a Vietnam PoW, in efforts to oust him as the Republican candidate in Arizona primary for the Senate.

J.D. Hayworth is the preferred Republican candidate of ultra-conservatives and the Tea Party movement. Hayworth is largely unknown in Canada, and I apparently erred when I said he put his wife on the government payroll – it was on his campaign staff. My mistake.

One who takes issue with my defense of McCain, is Peter Brimelow who runs VDare.com, and who I once hired as a Sun columnist and who remains (I hope) a valued friend with a lively, distinctive, combative mind.

Brimelow suspects McCain betrayed Vietnam PoWs who are Missing in Action – the 600 or so PoWs who were unaccounted for when some 591 were released after the war. Their fate remains a mystery. Various sightings have been reported and Bill Stevenson’s and Monica Jensen’s book, Kiss the Boys Goodbye, probed the mystery.

As a former PoW, McCain disbelieved anyone was still alive, and felt giving false hopes to relatives was misleading and cruel. Efforts to undermine McCain in favor of Hayworth, include depicting him as one who sold out fellow PoWs.

In his VDARE blog, Brimelow implies David Frum “has wheeled out his father-in-law. . . (me) . . . to try and quash questions about John McCain’s record as a PoW and his subsequent blocking of MIA inquiries.”

C’mon Peter, you can do better than that!

I have a lot of use for Peter Brimelow, and am inclined to agree with his view that mis-managed immigration is damaging to both Canada and the U.S. Certainly Canada’s policy towards illegal immigrants verges on the lunatic – illegals able to claim refugee status when caught trying to enter with fake passports. Years pass, while they stay in Canada awaiting disposition.

McCain has flip-flopped on Mexicans illegally entering Arizona, and his tougher line now is because Hayworth and the Tea Party movement have momentum. Arizonians have had a bellyful of illegals getting a free pass.

In light of Washington’s refusal to do anything, Arizona has taken it upon itself to require people to prove their identity and citizenship, which human rights zealots view as profiling and a cardinal sin, which is also nuts.

There was a time when McCain favored amnesty for illegals. Now he sides with those who want a fence built along the Mexican border. This seems not only feasible, but sensible. A fence certainly enhanced Israeli security, and a wall kept West Berliners from illegally entering East Berlin to enjoy the robust night life during the Cold War (a joke, Peter, so relax).

While Brimelow may be annoyed at me for defending McCain (McCain really needs no defense – his record achieves that), I have difficulty believing he truly thinks I’m a sort of catspaw for David Frum. News to Frum, too.

If I can accept that Brimelow thinks immigration is an evil endangering America, why can he not accept that I believe John McCain is a man who puts his country ahead of his own personal ambitions? Or that David Frum is honest in his beliefs?