[Jayems]

I think there's a lot more to know about why the word is used. Like mentioned, soldiers generally refer to their enemy using slang.

The term g**k was first used as a slang term used in the 1950s in the Korean was to identify N. Korean fighters. "Hanguk" is the Korean work meaning "Korea" from which the term is derived. It was later transferred to the Vietnam war in reference to the NVA — the force repelling the U.S.

As you know, McCain was held in a prison camp as a POW for over 5 years, where he was supposedly tortured. I think soldiers have a different meaning associated with the word. To me, the term is racist. To McCain, it maybe means something different. Combatant. Enemy. Captor. To pass off why he uses the word as 'weak' without looking into why McCain may use the word is, well, weak.

In WWII, Germans were referred to as Krauts. In Iraq, it's Hajji. In each war, the enemy is always referred to using slang, which usually is derived from a word that isn't racist to begin with. It is generally accepted as racist later, proabably due to people not associated with the war using the word as a blanket term for a race or country of people.

Kraut, usually seen as a derivative from popular German Sauerkraut, finely shredded cabbage.

Hajji, is from the word Hajj, the word for the pilgrimage to Meccaa, the fifth pillar of Islam.

I think if McCain used the n-bomb, he'd definitely be referring to an entire race of people, whereas I can see how an airman who fought in Vietnam can make claim that 'g**k' only represents combatants.

That's the most logical explanation I can gather as to why he feels it is acceptable to use the term.

I'd also hope that you'd hold the same values that if Obama dropped the n-bomb, he'd be held as equally responsible as McCain would should he do it.