Almost every American knows that John McCain spent almost six years as a POW, some of the captivity in the 'Hanoi Hilton' prison camp. The pregnant question is what that nightmare experience--full of physical hardship, torture, deprivation and emotional turmoil--had on his psyche. (Interestingly, the North Vietnamese did not consider downed US airman to be prisoners of war but "pirates" and "brigands" or in today's more obtuse parlance, "unlawful combatants"). We used to think that our military men were immune to psychological damage thanks to their training, religious beliefs, and values as citizens of a democracy. But we have been sorely disabused of that notion after troops returning from Korea, Vietnam and now Iraq and Afghanistan have displayed symptoms of readjusting to civilian life and the after effects of combat. The question is even more urgent since the office of the President of the United States sits atop a military command structure that has the means to destroy the planet.The Arizona Republic, one of the most conservative dailies in the country, has said,"Many Arizonans active in policy making have been the victim of McCain's volcanic temper....McCain often insults people and flies off the handle." The editors bleakly concluded there is reason "to seriously question whether McCain has the temperament, and the political approach and skills, we want in the next president of the United States." The lengthy Mount Graham controversy in Arizona provided a clear indication of John McCain's "volcanic" personality and insulting behavior. The Federal government wanted to put an observatory on top of the mountain. The San Carlos Apaches said that an observatory would be inappropriate because the mountain was sacred to them. Dzil nchaa si an, or Big-Seated Mountain, is the home of the ga' an spirit dancers. There are also shrines and burial grounds there. Environmentalists objected to development because the mountain is the unique habitat of an endangered subspecies of red squirrel. In 1992 two respectable physicians and environmentalists went to McCain's office to discuss the issues. At the mention of the name Mount Graham, according to the doctors, the Senator burst into a raging fit of anger, shouted obscenities and waved his fists at the shocked visitors for ten minutes. After experiencing the explosive tirade, one of the doctors formed an opinion: "To my mind, McCain's the most likely senator to start a nuclear war".[1] The Senator makes a great effort to cloak his short fuse with humor (he refers to covering journalists as "jerks"), but it seems that John McCain's long years as a prisoner of war did not have a salutary effect on his ability to control his anger.
[1]Alexander Cockburn, Counterpunch, February 23,2008