I was planning to maintain dignified silence during the farce of American elections since it is absolutely of no consequence which hand-puppet the Neo-nazi Masters of America choose to cast as their starring arsehole for the next four years. However, something bugs me in the McCain’s profile so much that I just have to rise from my peaceful slumber and swat the damn bug so it stops buzzing at last.

His credentials seem to lie mainly in his so called service to the country by way of his “heroic” participation in the Vietnam War – “Later that year while on a bombing mission over North Vietnam, he was shot down, badly injured, and captured as a prisoner of war by the North Vietnamese.” (Wikipedia).

It appears that based on his war effort, he can be trusted with the highly morally demanding post of the future President of America. The Americans must regard him as one of them, the so called boy-next-door. They all must have great empathy with their hero: he fought, he was shot down and kept prisoner by the wicked Vietnamese terrorists. Ooo-ha!

All I find slightly disconcerting in his saga of heroism is this:
1. He was flying a bomber, about to go and drop napalm on some hapless Vietnamese village whose inhabitants begged to disagree with his views on world order; and
2. He fought in a war that had been condemned worldwide as unjust, cruel and serving no purpose other than establishing (with pitiful effect) American hegemony in a distant part of the world where America had no inherent interests to protect.

So here we have a callous executioner, murderer of civilians from an episode of American history of which even the Americans are (or should be) ashamed, and against all odds, it is on the strength of that criminal record that Mr. McCain rises to Office. His spin-doctors use that very shaming part of his CV to appeal to the American nation to win their support and trust. What does that say about the prevalent moral standards in that nation I dare not contemplate.

I think Britain should learn something from her prodigal daughter - If you want a strong leader who ain't afraid of no blood even if it is on his own hands, release one of hardened lifers from your well-overcrowded prisons and send him to 10 Downing Street. The polls will skyrocket when he starts telling the nation how he butchered his victims and how badly he was then treated in jail. It will be so much more interesting than talking about being cautiously optimistic about an economy that is dying one-hell of a boring, natural death.