Trump was right

Technically speaking, Donald Trump was right, John McCain is not a war “hero.”  Getting shot down and being a POW are not really acts of heroism.  But McCain has exploited that image for years to boost his prosperous political career and to lend credibility to his belief that every foreign policy problem can be solved with military action.  Whether you like Trump or McCain—and I dislike them both—when the Donald called McCain on this (“He got shot down!”) the tiff between them exposed another absurdity in today’s American politics.

The very word “hero” has become so overused and overworked that it has become meaningless:  Now everyone who has ever served in the armed services is a “hero;”  all first-responders—whether at the World Trade Center on 9/11—or in your local fire department are “heroes;” teachers who endured seeing their grade-school students slaughtered are “heroes;” anybody who has had cancer and is still alive is a “hero;” and just about anybody the evening news deems worthy, like someone saving a kitten up a tree or tutoring an underprivileged child is a “hero.”  One of my local tv stations even has a segment called “The Hero Next Door”—it’s kind of your hero du jour.

It is now an absolute requirement for politicians—Republican and Democrat—to proclaim all service personnel are “heroes.”  If they don’t, they are immediately vilified and branded “un-American” or “unpatriotic.” Most of the Republican candidates never served because the draft was abolished for everyone born after 1953 so they are even more emphatic in exalting the "heroes" since they didn't have to become one.

This has led to the practice of people going up to uniformed soldiers in airports and thanking them for their service.  There have been numerous articles and interviews where soldiers themselves have stated how much they despise that.  They know it is insincere and actually means, “I’m glad you’ll get your ass shot off and not my kid.” 

Just consider the fickleness of Americans.  During John McCain’s time in service, if he had walked through an airport in uniform people would have spit on him because that’s what patriotic Americans did to our service people in those days. 

Instead of fostering this artificial hero worship, perhaps our politicians would be better advised to figure out ways to keep our fine young men and women, and they are fine young men and women make no mistake about that, from getting into wars that kill and maim them in the first place.

And perhaps Donald Trump’s rabble rousing might cause the American public to begin insisting that presidential candidates start talking about how they propose to solve our very serious problems.

 (In the interest of full disclosure, I served as an officer in the United States Navy from 1959 to 1962.  I state unequivocally that I was not then, am not now, nor have I ever been a hero.)