I saw a headline (though I did not read the article): “Donald Trump: Warrior Male Extraordinaire.” And I couldn’t help thinking of John McCain, and Trump’s denigration of him.

Let me do just a little Wikipedia quoting:

He [McCain] was flying his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam when his A-4E Skyhawk was shot down by a missile over Hanoi. McCain fractured both arms and a leg ejecting from the aircraft, and nearly drowned when he parachuted into Trúc Bạch Lake. Some North Vietnamese pulled him ashore, then others crushed his shoulder with a rifle butt and bayoneted him. McCain was then transported to Hanoi’s main Hỏa Lò Prison, nicknamed the “Hanoi Hilton”.
Although McCain was badly wounded, his captors refused to treat his injuries, beating and interrogating him to get information; he was given medical care only when the North Vietnamese discovered that his father was a top admiral. …
McCain spent six weeks in the hospital while receiving marginal care. By then having lost 50 pounds (23 kg), in a chest cast, and with his gray hair turned white as snow, McCain was sent to a different camp on the outskirts of Hanoi in December 1967, into a cell with two other Americans who did not expect him to live a week. In March 1968, McCain was put into solitary confinement, where he would remain for two years.
In mid-1968, John S. McCain Jr. was named commander of all U.S. forces in the Vietnam theater, and the North Vietnamese offered McCain early release because they wanted to appear merciful for propaganda purposes, and also to show other POWs that elite prisoners were willing to be treated preferentially. McCain turned down the offer; he would only accept repatriation if every man taken in before him was released as well. …
In August 1968, a program of severe torture began on McCain. He was subjected to rope bindings and repeated beatings every two hours, at the same time as he was suffering from dysentery. …
McCain refused to meet with various anti-war groups seeking peace in Hanoi, wanting to give neither them nor the North Vietnamese a propaganda victory. …
Altogether, McCain was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for five and a half years. He was released on March 14, 1973. His wartime injuries left him permanently incapable of raising his arms above his head.

Okay. I know that Trump doesn’t consider McCain a hero, because McCain was captured. Fine. We’re all entitled to our opinion. But McCain flew 23 bombing missions in this war. Strapped himself in, all those times.

How many missions did Trump fly? How many would he have flown? How many would I have flown?

The other week, I couldn’t get an exit-row or a bulkhead seat on a trans-Atlantic flight, and sulked like a girl about it.

When he was shot down, McCain fractured his arms and a leg, and almost drowned. How would Trump have coped with that? How would I?

Several days ago, I stubbed my toe in the middle of the night. Cut it, somehow. I’ve been bitching about it ever since. I have a couple of Band-Aids on that toe, and it’s slightly uncomfortable when I near the end of my walk in the woods and meadows around Salzburg.

McCain was tortured, for years. How long would Donald Trump have survived that? A day? An hour? Twenty minutes? How about me? Fifteen minutes? Ten?

My friend Eddie once said, back when we were in college, I think, “Jay’s idea of roughing it is a weekend without The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour and Nestlé’s Chocolate Quik.”

McCain was in solitary confinement for two years. How would The Donald have dealt with that? He likes him his PR and his celebrity. I would too, if I had them.

Then there was the refusal of early release. Would Trump have done that? Would I? Would you? You sure?

Anyway, I couldn’t help thinking of all this when I read the headline “Donald Trump: Warrior Male Extraordinaire.”