This is from a column I wrote locally on September 16th 2006 and highlights just how out-of-touch and ridiculous John McCain can really be:
News has been leaked that torture is happening at one of the nation's service academies, namely the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD. "Torture at a college in America, impossible!" you may say with righteous indignation. Yet according to the definition of torture posed by many people in the country these days, it is a "fact"!
One of these people is Senator John McCain (R-AZ), who along with myself, is a graduate of the "Boat School" as we like to call it. Put simply, McCain feels that types of "degrading and humiliating treatment" should not be applied to captured TERRORISTS who are undergoing interrogation by the CIA because this is akin to torture and violates agreements in the Geneva Conventions Act. Although THIRTY years stand between our attendance, this blurred distinction includes some of the same treatments the Senator and I received during our plebe (freshman) years at Annapolis.
Thus, following the logic of McCain and others, torture is occurring at a nation's service academy and the institution should be shut down until the behavior is investigated and stopped. This week, I will be writing letters to local newpapers and the Secretary of the Navy, asking for this to happen ASAP. What's fair is fair! If we are going to blur the lines and use backwards logic with captured terrorists, we must use that same logic with our own citizens. Midshipmen are being "tortured" at Senator McCain's alma mater and he's done nothing about it!