McCain faced torture in notorious gulag
In defining heroism, Garry Rogers (letter July 23) certainly takes a refreshing approach — although others might call it obtuse or worse.
Sen. John McCain is not a hero, apparently, because he was “not in the line of fire,” even though his jet was shot to pieces around him, and he subsequently endured 51/2 years of torture at the hands of North Vietnamese captors in a notorious gulag. All for love of country.
If only Sen. McCain had been smart enough to have engineered a military deferment like so many of his peers — Donald Trump, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and Bill Kristol, for example, and filled himself with that kind of empty bravado and hypocrisy.
What was he thinking? He could have held his head up without shame. He could have stood tall. What a loser. Yeah, right.
Ed Miller, Fresno
This story was originally published July 31, 2015 at 4:47 AM with the headline "McCain faced torture in notorious gulag."