By Skip Nichols | Published Sunday, September 7, 2008
"I hate war. It is beyond imagination." - Sen. John McCain, Sept. 4, 2008, presidential acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. Thank you, John. I agree.
John and I share few attributes. He is a Republican. I am a Democrat. He is 72. I am 61,
He was an officer in the U.S. Navy, flying jets off an aircraft carrier. I was an enlisted man in the U.S. Marines, serving as a radio man and Vietnamese interpreter.
We both served in Viet Nam.
He was shot down and served in hell, as a prisoner of war of the Vietnamese. He earned the silver and bronze stars, as well as a Purple Heart.
I survived Tet and came home unwounded, trying to forget the war. But, it has haunted me every day of my life - every day - just as I know it has haunted John McCain every day.
It never goes away. War is beyond imagination.
I feel guilt, guilt that I didn't give the greatest measure of service that so many of my fellow Americans gave in Vietnam. I don't know for sure, but I believe that John McCain feels the same guilt.
He shouldn't. I should.
I wish I could vote for John McCain, simply because of his straight talk, that simple statement that begins this column. I can't, because I believe there is far more than two simple sentences required to select a man or woman to lead this country.
Yet I salute John McCain. He is truly a hero. He didn't let his pain betray his country, his beliefs.
This great country of ours has finally reached beyond the hollow rhetoric of George Bush and Dick Cheney, who did not serve their country as John McCain. In my mind, they are both cowards.
It's easy when you have not felt the forever wounds of war to send our sons and daughters off to fight and die.
It's easy when you can enjoy the riches of our country without an artificial limb or a brain injury to ignore the pitiful health care provided our veterans.
I don't know who will win the 2008 presidential election. I only know that I don't want my daughters or my grandsons to fight in any war.
As Sen. McCain said, "It is beyond imagination."
I salute you, John McCain. We are brothers on opposite sides of this political campaign, but we are brothers from a war that few remember or understand.
Skip Nichols is the managing editor of The East Oregonian in Pendleton, Ore. He is a former editor and assistant publisher of the Wise County Messenger.
