The Fighter Pilot and the Princess

McCain vs. Hillary

The fighter pilot of this story is, of course, John McCain, but the princess is not Hillary Clinton as some readers might have guessed. The princess in the story is Britain’s late Princess Diana.

What possible connection is there between the late Princess Diana and John McCain? Well, as it proves, there are connections of serious importance to American voters and citizens of the world.

There is today an unpleasant but necessary, excruciatingly-detailed inquiry into Diana’s death underway in Britain. It is unpleasant because no one should have every private thought and act exposed this way, but it is necessary because the Princess’s own actions and words left millions believing dark, paranoid fantasies around her death. Her remarks and notes in private about believing she would be assassinated, her batteries of obsessive telephone calls, her reported private fits of moodiness and hysteria, her going public with private marital problems – these and other events point to a person with mental instability. Detailed revelations of the inquiry come as no surprise because many sensed something more than her wonderful public charm and grace, and her family does have other such cases in its history.

McCain has all the signs of a similar personality disorder. He can be charming in public, and he has a reputation as an interesting maverick. He is sometimes bluntly truthful, as when he talked about the Religious Right in his 2000 campaign for the Republican nomination.
But McCain has the same highly inconsistent pattern as Diana in public and private behavior. In private, he is famous for a colossally ugly temper. McCain has made some absurd claims over the years, reminding me very much of Princess Diana’s whispers and notes about people in high places wanting to assassinate her, all the while smiling beguilingly in public.

Recently, McCain told us he would still have invaded Iraq, even without the excuse of “weapons of mass destruction.” He has learned nothing from all that pointless death and misery.

McCain promised voters in South Carolina that he’d hunt down Osama bin Laden, even if it took him “to the gates of hell.” And he swore he knows just how to do the job. Good Lord, if McCain knows, why has he kept it secret all these years?

“The gates of hell”? McCain in 2000 made fun of hellfire Christian fundamentalists’ role in politics, now he’s feeding them their own lines.

I think we know that Osama has long been dead, despite the CIA’s phony periodic tapes released to intensify the public’s paranoia to support the war on terror. The government hasn’t wanted to claim credit because that would make Osama a martyr. His remains are buried under a million tons of rock in the mountains that had the destructive equivalent of World War II dropped on them. And were it possible that Osama did miraculously survive, would hunting him down now be a high priority to a rational person? Two unfinished wars are underway. McCain’s promise is just one for increased destruction and horror abroad.

Recently, he told a crowd in South Carolina that the state “was, hands down, the most patriotic in the nation.” First, what does his utterance mean? Nothing, it is empty rhetoric of the worst kind. Two, keeping Dr Johnson’s dictum on patriots in mind, who cares who is most patriotic? That way is the certainty of more war. Noisy patriotism is a valued characteristic only to the brain-washed, feeble-minded, and aggressors. Three, regardless of the meaning you attribute to McCain’s statement, if you account for the historical facts, quite the opposite is the truth. South Carolina was the state that started secession from the Union at the start of the Civil War. South Carolina was also “hot to trot” back in John Adams’ day under the secret promptings of anti-federal opposition leader Jefferson. Again, in Andrew Jackson’s day, South Carolina pitched the national government into a crisis over a state’s right to nullify federal law. Jackson threatened troops to put an end to it.

Recently, too, McCain told us he would still have invaded Iraq, even without the excuse of “weapons of mass destruction.” He previously had one of his tasteless, juvenile joking sessions before reporters about bombing Iran, complete with vicious, laughing antics. The man has learned nothing from all the death and misery of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Vietnam.

McCain simply loves death and killing, just as it can be argued Princess Diana regularly flirted with death. She had deliberately turned down requests to increase the level of protection about her. She needlessly drove off on wild adventures like the ride in Paris that killed her.

After seven years of the low-grade psychopath, Bush, and the destruction on every front he leaves as his legacy, the last thing humanity needs is the smiling death’s head of John McCain as commander-in-chief.

John Chuckman lives in Canada and is former chief economist for a large Canadian oil company. Copyright © by John Chuckman. Read other articles by John, or visit John's website.

5 comments on this article so far ...

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  1. Gary Corseri said on January 22nd, 2008 at 12:16pm #

    Couldn’t agree more with Chuckman’s concluding paragraph, but how exactly McCain and Princess Di are equatable escapes me.

    I’m sure we all have our demons–even Mother Teresa was known to rub some folks (remember Germaine Greer?) the wrong way. But how does one equate John Wayne McCain’s gleeful calls for a hundred more years of war and hegemony with the public laments and shows of pique of the trapped princess?

    I think we best focus our attention on the contradictions, paranoia, and–dare we admit it?–nuttiness of our “leaders” and contenders. What impositions, manipulations and convolutions of public discourse make such dangerous ninnies viable? If one seeks more apt comparisons, try Caligula and Attila.

  2. Elizabeth said on January 22nd, 2008 at 1:23pm #

    The title of your piece was intriguing, and your article was even more intriguing I found was its nonsensical comparison of a powermongering bully and racist, to that of a woman who was perhaps, as now is being investigated, as a victim of a murder conspiracy, as many have speculatied since her death.
    Diana herself wrote of her fears that her own husband (and perhaps her husbands father) were instigating plans of her death murder via an automobile accident.
    Apparently, there is enough substantial evidence and doubt to initiate a public inquiry into Diana’s death.
    This appears to be a rather thinly veiled attempt to diminish and discredit Diana Spencer, who is not only not here to defend and protect her own name, but is further being victimized by many who wish to further debase and apparently demonize her.
    My question is why? What is so threatening about Diana Spencer that would warrant such inaccurate characterizations?
    For whatever flaws Diana may have had, there is no question she was a compassionate, sensitive person , however much some would wish to portray her otherwise. One would certainly not use such words as “compassionate” or “sensitive” for individuals like John McCain.

  3. SamZ said on January 22nd, 2008 at 8:52pm #

    on the issues of war and peace, McCain is the most dangerous warmongering demagogue of the GOP candidates. Unlike the other pro-war candidates, McCain is a full partner in initiating and prolonging the war. I can see the other idiots distancing themselves from the warlike posture eventually but not with McCain “When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail”.

    But the Media would rather refer to him as straight talker etc… I think he’s senile and a liar. As to Diana, at least she broke with the tradition and championed worthy causes, I don’t see the point of any comparison with this jerk.

  4. Mulga Mumblebrain said on January 23rd, 2008 at 4:15am #

    If only the Vietnamese peasants who captured McCain after his ‘heroic’ attacks on defenseless civilians had terminated his existence there and then. Fortunately for McCain, the Vietnamese peasantry, like most people everywhere, are loathe to kill in cold blood. That talent, so highly valued by our Masters, is innate in some, and can be summoned up from the depths in others. McCain is, I fear, a natural born killer, even more dangerous than Bush, who gets his kicks second-hand. McCain reminds me of Cheney (can he be Vice-President for another President?)and that’s spooky territory. God help us all if McCain gets in, but most of all, God help America!

  5. Jeff said on January 23rd, 2008 at 6:53am #

    Seems to me that those whom wish to hold high power lack abilities most have. Lacking in any form of moral compass they require that most others must be brought down to their level. These power seekers do not seem to have the ability for joy. Like so many control freaks, their inferiority complexes destroy many an individual. They seem to be elected by those whom are looking for something these people cannot offer. Many a poor soul will once again be blinded, they themselves to blame, and vote for something that canot and will not be delivered.