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In later years, when asked to name his proudest moment in Congress, John McCain would go all the way back to his first year in the House of Representatives to point to a case in which he stood against a Republican president. In 1983, McCain voted against Ronald Reagan's decision to deploy U.S. troops to Lebanon. "I do not see any obtainable objectives in Lebanon," he said at the time, "and the longer we stay there, the harder it will be to leave."43 (1) McCain sees the act as a defining moment: the neophyte lawmaker breaking ranks with his party and his political hero. (The actual vote was 270-161 in favor of deployment; McCain was joined by twenty-seven Republicans in opposition.) (2) The dissenters would later be vindicated when a truck bomber slammed into the Marine barracks in Lebanon, killing 241 U.S. servicemen and precipitating a U.S. withdrawal. "It demonstrated to me that you really have to do, at the end of the day, what you fundamentally know is right," McCain told the National Journal years later.

(1) I would have to disagree that this was his party, or President Reagan was his political hero. Over time that has been born out. John McCain was his political hero. Anyone with a buck was 'his party', even George Soros, Theresa Heinz Kerry, and the Tides Foundation.

(2) You aren't vindicated when something preventable takes place. That truck should never have made it anywhere near the barracks in Lebanon. President Reagan was terribly underserved when logistics on the ground were not set up to adequately prevent something like this happening. And of course there was John McCain basking in the limelight explaining what a sage he was, ignoring the true unfortunate nature of this attack. "See, see, I was right..." Asshole!

That was a long read alright. I didn't have time to go all the way through it. It does look worthy of doing some time though, so I'm saving a link to it.

Thank you.