The passing of John McCain 

I have to post this. Those times were crucial to me.

John McCain was a decent man. But he was an iconic American hawk in foreign policy.

Like too many Americans, he believed in American "exceptionalism", that the U.S. is somehow outside of, or above, or better than, the rules that govern other nations and their histories. And in spite of the fact that he was a brave man, and a devoted American patriot - no one can question those traits in his character - he was sometimes still wrong.

What we need to keep in mind as he is being honored today is that a person can be sincere and brave and smart and kind and still be wrong. The person's read of the facts and her/his chosen response to those facts can be mistaken.

McCain too often was.

America never should have gotten involved in the Vietnam War. No matter how brave, heroic, and patriotic many of the young men who fought there were, their country was in the wrong. They ought to be able to say that by now.

America never should have attacked Iraq in 2003. The attack on Afghanistan almost all civilized nations supported. The ruling Taliban in Afghanistan had given shelter and succor to Bin Laden. He had engineered the 911 attacks. Getting to him seemed only just to the big majority of the world's nations. But such was not the case in Iraq. The Iraqis had had nothing to do with 911. Full stop.

McCain supported all the hawkish foreign policies, including the U.S. attack on Iraq. One can somewhat understand why he had these hawkish inclinations. He'd been tortured horribly by the North Vietnamese during his POW years.

But a blanket policy of "my country, right or wrong" simply does not work. It leads to one's making bad mistakes. John McCain is a clear example of a man who made those kinds of mistakes. Too many times.

But still he was a decent man. And that's the larger point here.

Democracy is supposed to allow a nation of people to see past the errors of any one person to the larger truths. McCain was shiningly civil and decent when he ran against Obama in 2008. McCain also kept repeating how he longed to see a return to civility in American politics. Hear, hear.

So I wept for his passing when I heard of it this morning. I disagreed with him bitterly many times. But he was a clear example for me of how democracy is supposed to work. Honorable men can honorably disagree. Eventually, the people see whose judgement is more accurate and just.

Both sides of the current political scene in the U.S. now need to learn from his example, and enact what they learn, if democracy there and worldwide is to survive at all.

Democracy is much bigger than any one of us.

RIP John Sidney McCain (1936 - 2018)