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What's the deal with McCain's left arm?

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Not Me Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 09:33 PM
Original message
What's the deal with McCain's left arm?
I know he has had melanoma issues in the past that have left that signature bulge on his left cheek, but what's going on with his entire left arm.
In video, he always defers to the right hand/arm, and rarely raises the left one.
Is there a known reason?
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undeterred Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 09:35 PM
Response to Original message
1. I think the arm was broken when he was in vietnam
and not set properly, so he doesn't have full range of motion with it.
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Not Me Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 09:36 PM
Response to Reply #1
4. Thanks...
I was not aware of the reason.
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Richardo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 09:35 PM
Response to Original message
2. Five years of torture in North Vietnam
Plus an injury upon ejecting from his jet as I recall.

Amazing that he now thinks it's OK, isn't it?
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saracat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 09:36 PM
Response to Original message
3. He was tortured his arm was broken and dislocated and not set. He can't raise if above
Edited on Fri Jun-27-08 09:36 PM by saracat
his waist.
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Contrary1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 09:47 PM
Response to Reply #3
5. You mean "enhanced interrogation techniques"?
Since that is what torture has been renamed by the Bush administration, I figure it applies to McCain too.
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Gabi Hayes Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 09:55 PM
Response to Reply #5
6. that's really a great point. he should be asked EXACTLY what was done to him,
see if it matches what he's said before....it probably won't, because he doesn't know the difference between fact and fiction

even if it does, he needs to be forced (tortured?) to say which techniques he'd consider torture back then, and, as you mention, would said techniques those "gooks" used on him still be considered torture today.

the free ride he's getting, especially considering the electron microscopy to which O is being subjected is beyond laughable
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Bluerthanblue Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 10:03 PM
Response to Reply #3
7. hhhmmmmmmm.....?






His "left" arm was the badly damaged one??












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Bluerthanblue Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 10:29 PM
Response to Reply #7
11. and......
Edited on Fri Jun-27-08 10:30 PM by Bluerthanblue














More mobility in his arms than many a 70yr old I've known.
Not to say he didn't suffer, or that he doesn't have pain. But I think his wounds are sometimes played up for effect.

(edited to remove flashing pic)

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NYC_SKP Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 10:19 PM
Response to Original message
8. Broken arms, leg, shoulder crushed by rifle butt, years of torture including
the types of bindings that leave you broken physically and mentally.

I really feel badly for him or anyone who went through that. I don't understand his flip flop on torture, clearly he's not all there.

Snipped from Wikipedia:

John McCain's capture and imprisonment began on October 26, 1967. He was flying his twenty-third bombing mission over North Vietnam, when his A-4E Skyhawk was shot down by a missile over Hanoi.<34><35> McCain fractured both arms and a leg, and then nearly drowned, when he parachuted into Trúc Bạch Lake in Hanoi.<34> After he regained consciousness, a crowd attacked him, crushed his shoulder with a rifle butt, and bayoneted him;<34> he was then transported to Hanoi's main Hoa Lo Prison, nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton".<35>
Although McCain was badly wounded, his captors refused to treat his injuries, instead beating and interrogating him to get information.<37> Only when the North Vietnamese discovered that his father was a top admiral did they give him medical care<37> and announce his capture. His status as a prisoner of war (POW) made the front pages of The New York Times<38> and The Washington Post.<39>

McCain spent six weeks in the hospital while receiving marginal care.<34> Now having lost 50 pounds (23 kg), in a chest cast, and with his hair turned white,<34> McCain was sent to a different camp on the outskirts of Hanoi<40> in December 1967, into a cell with two other Americans who did not expect him to live a week.<41> In March 1968, McCain was put into solitary confinement, where he would remain for two years.<42>

In mid-1968, McCain's father was named commander of all U.S. forces in the Vietnam theater, and McCain was offered early release.<43> The North Vietnamese wanted to appear merciful for propaganda purposes,<44> and also wanted to show other POWs that elites like McCain were willing to be treated preferentially.<43> McCain turned down the offer of repatriation; he would only accept the offer if every man taken in before him was released as well.<34>

In August of 1968, a program of severe torture began on McCain.<45> McCain was subjected to repeated beatings and rope bindings, at the same time as he was suffering from dysentery.<45> After four days, McCain made an anti-American propaganda "confession".<34> He has always felt that his statement was dishonorable,<46> but as he would later write, "I had learned what we all learned over there: Every man has his breaking point. I had reached mine."<47> His injuries left him permanently incapable of raising his arms above his head.<48> He subsequently received two to three beatings per week because of his continued refusal to sign additional statements.<49> Other American POWs were similarly tortured and maltreated in order to extract "confessions" and propaganda statements, with many enduring even worse treatment than McCain.<50>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain
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csziggy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 10:24 PM
Response to Reply #8
9. But his Vietnamese captors says there was no torture...
Hanoi Hilton warden: I'd vote for McCain
Stephen C. Webster
Published: Tuesday June 24, 2008

Presidential Candidate John McCain's captor, who ran the notorious Hanoi Hilton prison in North Vietnam, has broken his silence in a new story published by the BBC.

Tran Trong Duyet, whom BBC attributes as a retiree and ballroom dancing enthusiast, says the aging Republican is 'lying' about his time in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" during the Vietnam War.

"I don't know how he'd react if he met me again," said Duyet. "But I can confirm to you that we never tortured him. We never tortured any prisoners."

The BBC article goes on to state that Mr. Duyet's version of the events is 'propaganda-perfect,' and should be treated with suspicion as the country's Communist leadership still exercises strict control over media.

"He did not tell the truth," says Duyet. "But I can somehow sympathize with him. He lies to American voters in order to get their support for his presidential election."

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/John_McCains_Viet_Cong_captor_speaks_0624.html



Of course that may be Bush's definition of torture that McCain did not get.
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Contrary1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 10:27 PM
Response to Reply #9
10. "But I can confirm to you that we never tortured him. We never tortured any prisoners."
Maybe McCain's captors outsourced the enhanced interrogation techniques? That way they could say they did not torture.

What a novel idea.
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csziggy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 11:15 PM
Response to Reply #10
13. Yeah, wonder which country did the torture for North Vietnam?
China?
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Bush_MUST_Go Donating Member (378 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 10:29 PM
Response to Reply #9
12. Duyet is using the new fangled definition of torture that bush invented.
I believe them both.
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