Why I will not vote for McCain

[JamesH]

All,

I decided to put this in "Other" since it is mainly opinion and not backed by real concrete facts just my thoughts and observations.

First I would like to tell you about the Military Code of Conduct. These are the rules that you are to follow if you become a prisioner of war (POW):

Code of Conduct I
a. I am an American fighting in the forces which guard my country and our way of life. I am prepared to give my life in their defense.

Code of Conduct II
a. I will never surrender of my own free will. If in command, I will never surrender the members of my command while they still have the means to resist.

Code of Conduct III
a. If I am captured I will continue to resist by all means available. I will make every effort to escape and aid others to escape. I will accept neither parole nor special favors from the enemy.

Code of Conduct IV.
a. If I become a prisoner of war, I will keep faith with my fellow prisoners. I will give no information or take part in any action which might be harmful to my comrades. If I am senior, I will take command. If not, I will obey the lawful orders of those appointed over me and will back them up in every way.

Code of Conduct V.
a. When questioned, should I become a prisoner of war, I am required to give name, rank, service number, and date of birth. I will evade answering further questions to the utmost of my ability. I will make no oral or written statements disloyal to my country and its allies or harmful to their cause.

Code of Conduct VI
a. I will never forget that I am an American, fighting for freedom, responsible for my actions, and dedicated to the principles which made my country free. I will trust in my God and in the United States of America.

This Code of Conduct came in the aftermath of the Korean War. The Chinese and the North Koreans did not follow the Genevia Convention protocal for prisioners of war and there where soldiers that really did not know how they where suppose to conduct themselves as POW and this led to a set of written rules for what you are suppose to do as a POW. You can tell that this is right out of 1950's with D. Eisenhower's stamp of approval on it with the last line of "trust in my God". This is just another step that he took by adding "In God we Trust" to money and "under God" to the pledge of allegence.

As you read the code of conduct you can see that Sen. McCain lived up to the expectations of this code during his time as a POW and I would never question his dedication or intestinal fortitude during that time. But that was 35 years ago in a very different setting.

Now let us move forward to 2004 when Sen. Kerry had the democratic nomination for President. I have read articles in this forum (sorry I can not find them again) saying that Sen. McCain was approached by Sen. Kerry or at least someone on his behalf to be his VP running mate. I remember that in the press this question was raised right before the convention and Sen. McCain let everyone know that he would not be or even consider being Sen. Kerry's running mate.

I think this shows how little he remembers of the Code of Conduct. This country was and still is being held hostage by "evil doers" but they come from Texas not the Middle East and go by names such as Haliburton, Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove.

I believe if Sen. McCain had been a true patriot and put aside his own desire to be President and stood up againt all the corruption in the White House by joining with Sen. Kerry I believe he, Sen. McCain, would have gone down in history as one of the greatest Americans to have ever worn the Navy uniform, served in the U.S. Senate or been a citizen of this country.

It would have been nice if he might have reflected for a short time on the Code of Conduct and think about who are the captors and who are the prisioners and who did he want to side with. I believe he decided to side with our captors.

This is why I will NEVER vote for John McCain. He was a patriot at one time-a very long time ago-but he is no more.