When you have list members who write:
"instead of being beaten and tooth-broken while bound by rope with his arms behind him, thus leading directly [again, I'm sorry to say, according to the experts who are of course (at least this is my sense) just stooges in McCain's lifelong quest for power] to his current, permanent condition; and being forced to stand for days..."
one needs to repeat the fact that no one can know with certainty that McCain was tortured. His injuries are consistent with torture but they are not inconsistent with the injuries one can sustain exiting a damaged aircraft. No doctor in the world can assert positively that McCain was tortured they can only assert that his injuries are consistent with the torture he reported being subjected to. Those doctors do what most doctors do, assume the patient is telling the truth unless their injuries or illness is inconsistent with what they claim. The doctors who treated McCain weren't truly investigating his claim. They assumed he was reporting factually. I can't imagine Jordan believes those military doctors don't come into McCain's assessment with lots of baggage. The belief that the bad guys (NV) torture the good guys (Americans), that officers are less likely liars and shirkers than enlisted men, etc. No stateside doctor can prove McCain stood for days because his captors forced him to. That his arm injuries weren't sustained ejecting. That his stab wound wasn't the result of his trying to kill peasants who surrounded him. Pretending we have ironclad evidence that McCain was tortured is to deny reality. We take his word for it because we have no compelling conflicting evidence and it fits preconceived ideas.
John Thornton