Wednesday, July 23, 2008

'Authentic' (and scary) John McCain

McCain’s grasp of foreign affairs is abominable.


By PAT MURPHY

When bloggers discovered another of John McCain's smutty, locker room "jokes" -- about a woman raped by a gorilla—a female McCain aide airily dismissed his gutter humor as "authentic" McCain.

This isn't the "authentic" McCain characteristic that should trouble Americans, however. "Authentic" McCain is more of a loose cannon that could create even more crises.

McCain's chief economic adviser, former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, would probably have been Treasury secretary in a McCain White House—despite Gramm creating the loophole that allowed Enron to fleece billions from Americans and his lobbying for international bank UBS that helped create the mortgage crisis. Gramm, who cracked that Americans in financial distress were a "nation of whiners," probably encouraged McCain's drop-dead statement to Americans -- "It is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers" --a position quickly abandoned.

McCain's grasp of foreign affairs is abominable. He cited problems on the "Iraq-Pakistan border." Pakistan is 700 miles from Iraq. Afghanistan borders Iraq. He alluded to "Czechoslovakia," which was dissolved in 1993 and broken into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. He also has difficulty distinguishing between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

His obsession with war is a throwback to the 1950s Cold War hawks mentality that saw solutions through force.

"I know how to win wars," McCain crowed in a speech. "There's going to be other wars," without saying with whom or why. "We will never surrender," he added, suggesting a until-the-last-man bunker mentality.

When Iran's nuclear weapons potential became an issue, McCain instantly called for isolating the nation—a position ridiculed when the State department sent a high-level emissary to talks with Iran and announced it would open an office in the Iranian capital.

McCain's position on not negotiating with tyrants further collapsed when the White House announced North Korea had agreed to begin dismantling nuclear facilities after talks.

However, McCain's worst moments were when Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Malaki agreed U.S. troops should be withdrawn by the end of 2010—the timetable suggested by McCain presidential rival Barack Obama. Even more damaging, President Bush agreed with "aspirational goals" to withdraw troops, an added slap at no-timetable McCain.

For crackpot ideas, however, nothing tops McCain's proposal to boot Russia and China from the Group of Eight economic forum and create a new "League of Democracies."

As Newsweek International editor Fareed Zakaria wrote, "McCain is a pessimist about the world, seeing it as a dark, dangerous place where, without the constant and vigorous application of force, evil will triumph."




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