A sketch in the sand, a loosened bond

I've recently come across reports of the Presidential Faith Forum in California in mid-August.

John McCain referred to a guard who had come in and loosened the ropes that bound him so tightly, before returning to tighten them four hours later. This puzzled me when I first read about it, and I didn't initially interpret it as showing kindness to the enemy. Actually it occurred to me that this act might simply have been a variation of the good cop/bad cop scenario, with the same guard playing both roles. But I've since found the transcripts of this forum online and the additional details make it clear that this 'qualifies' as kindness to an enemy in a relatively recent war. (As ever, I hope to come across more recent kindness towards enemies. Today, last week, last month, last year...)

Following the transcripts of the Forum Responses, it seems it was the same guard who approached McCain, while he was praying on Christmas Day, and who drew a cross in the sand with his sandal, leaving it visible for a minute before rubbing it away.

Come to think of it, did McCain ever return to Vietnam?

Did he ever try to track down that guard?