But for some of us, McCain’s American hero narrative has long fallen flat. Permanent atrocity is out of sight and out of mind, ensuring that those who mourn McCain today won’t have to acknowledge his violent legacy tomorrow. McCain’s victims ― the millions who have suffered and died in accordance with his war hawk policies and positions ― who are already invisible in popular discourse in the U.S., are now deemed wholly unmentionable. Was he a great American when he insisted the surge was a necessary investment and that maintaining a military presence in Iraq might be necessary? Was he a great American when he sang “bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” to the tune of the Beach Boys’ “Barbara Ann” at a campaign stop in 2007 or compared the country’s then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to a monkey in 2013?

Source: Huffington Post August 27, 2018 15:56 UTC