Maggie's Farm

I was listening to the McCain speech and thinking I couldn't have stood up to that kind of torture. I'm really into that pain avoidance thing. When I was in the Navy, there was all sorts of snarky things going around about the other services (still is), but the one I (partially) remember went something like:

In the Air Force, if captured, Officers will give name, rank, and serial number. Airmen will give name, rank, serial number, numbers and type of aircraft, how many, what weapons, passcodes, whatever, just don't hurt me.

All snark aside, any man will break under extreme torture. Some will give up and die. Some will give up and retreat into madness. And some will use it to solidify their character. I was proud of JM standing up there and admitting he broke. But he wasn't beaten by that, he used his torture to solidify his character and go out and do something, anything, to make a difference.

It made me proud to be an American. (A lot of the rest of the speech I thought was too boilerplate stump speech material....but after the previous night's performance by Sarahcuda, what else could he do?)