Senator Rockefeller of West Virginia feels compelled to defend his endorsement of Barack Obama. Fair enough, he’s a far better judge of the tides and currents that run below the surface of his party than I am. If endorsing one candidate over the other needs defending, “play on,” says I.

But strangely the senator couldn’t leave it at that, he felt compelled to lash out at John McCain’s record of military service, among other things:

Rockefeller believes McCain has become insensitive to many human issues. “McCain was a fighter pilot, who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit.

“What happened when they [the missiles] get to the ground? He doesn’t know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues.”

People of privileged backgrounds who themselves haven’t worn the burden of their country’s cloth ought to try to choose their words precisely. Alternatively, they should consider sticking to what they know.

McCain was not a fighter pilot, but an attack pilot. That was back in the day when attack pilots had to grovel in the SAM and AAA envelopes of highly defended targets in order to score a hit. Light attack jets like McCain’s A-4 were not equipped to carry laser guided bombs. Being on “government time” wasn’t merely a focusing technique but meant flying through lethal flak bursts as if they weren’t there. Because if you flinched, someone else would have to come back and do it for you; risk his life to complete your job.

Some of those that did so got shot down, were captured and spent years living the filth, degradation and torture of a North Vietnamese prison camp, trying to maintain a shred of dignity and all of their honor. Trying to keep faith with their fellows and their countrymen in the face of fierce physical and psychological abuse. While certain of their peers were working in the Peace Corps in Washington, DC, rubbing elbows with presidents. Caring about people.

(H/T to Michael Goldfarb for the story)

Update: Credit where it’s due.