The Q and A last Saturday night at Rick Warren's church brought a moment which I think very much defines John McCain. When asked about evil in the world, he pounded his fist on the table, said that Al Qaeda has made their decision to make Iraq the center of the war on terror and that, as president, he would stay there until the troops came home in victory.
This would be a fine example of why he should not be president. All of our national intelligence estimates point to Pakistan and Afghanistan as the epicenter of Al Qaeda and those who would use terror as a weapon. A recent article in the Christian Science Monitor details this quite clearly. So why doesn't John McCain get it?
In fact, this is the area of the world that has always been the problem and our current president has largely ignored what has to be done over there, both militarily and diplomatically. I guess McCain just can't operate outside of a certain parameter, in this case the Iraq one, which is about a one centimeter box. I'm not sure he is capable of forward thinking when it comes to Al Qaeda and Barack Obama needs to take advantage of this.
Take a look at the first sentence in Obama's plan to fight the war we need to win.
The first step must be getting off the wrong battlefield in Iraq and taking the fight to the terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
No shit. This plan is the main reason why I am voting for him. McCain's only advantage over Obama is on defense and he is being terribly backwards in his philosophy. His position just doesn't make sense. If someone can explain it to me, I'm all ears.
7 comments:
McCain seems to be stuck in that neverland of the Post-Viet Nam era of recriminations over who lost that war. He can never be seen as being wrong on the war in Iraq, even though it's obvious that we're leaving Iraq in the relatively near future.
But if you look at the results of us having "lost" Viet Nam, everything the doomsayers claimed would happen did not. Communism has all but disappeared with Russia, China and Viet Nam becoming capitalist dictatorships.
Even more worrisome are McCain's pronouncements over Georgia. He claims to be speaking to "Misha" Saakashvili on a daily basis. If this is the case, why didn't McCain advise the Georgians against invading Ossetia on Aug. 7th?
During the Soviet days, Ossetia and Abkhazia were "autonomous" republics within the territory of Georgia, populated by Ossetians and Abkhazians (non-Georgian, non-Russian ethnic groups), plus lots of Russians, Georgians, Armenians, etc. The USSR made these republics autonomous to give the smaller ethnic groups a degree of independence from the larger ethnic groups who they felt would oppress them. Sort of like letting Texas be Texas. (Chechnya is the same sort of thing, only it wants independence from Russia.)
After the USSR broke up, Georgia tried to assert control over Ossetia and Abkhazia. A peace deal was brokered and Russian peacekeepers have been on the ground for years now. A lot of Ossetians and Abkhazians have taken Russian citizenship (50-80% of the population) as a hedge against Georgian invasion.
On Aug. 7th Georgia broke the truce and invaded Ossetia. Russia claims that Russian citizens were killed and they were forced to occupy Ossetia to protect their citizens, and destroy Georgia's capacity to attack. Very much like Bush's claims for our invasion of Iraq.
Both Russia and Georgia are in the wrong here. Both have been disingenuous and dishonest. The real issue here is oil (surprise!). Georgia has a pipeline running through it from points east. Russia wants to control it, and so does the West (through its Georgian surrogates).
McCain is only making things worse. He complained about Obama trying to act presidential by just visiting Iraq and Afghanistan (which McCain and Obama had both done in the past). Now McCain is sending personal emissaries (Lieberman and some other senator) to try to diffuse the crisis. McCain is meddling in things best left to people who aren't running for office.
John McCain is a blistering hypocrite, with delusions of grandeur. He's a pathetic old man with severe cognitive deficits (take a look at the clips McCain would rather not have you see).
He is using the the Georgian crisis to bloat his street cred. What's even worse is the possibility that he actually did talk to Saakashvili before Georgia invaded Ossetia. Did McCain manipulate Georgia into invading Ossetia so he could use it to make himself seem more presidential?
With his endorsement of every failed policy Bush has pushed, McCain seems dead set on being Bush III. We've already had one hard-drinking, back-slapping would-be fly-boy in the Oval Office. We don't need another.
Hey, Mark, did you notice how much stuff is on Obama's site? Really in depth papers on key issues. It's not as general as it used to be...one of your recent complaints as I recall.
Nothing on the Olympics?
Lots of great stories…triumphs & heartbreaks. Did you see the interview of Kobe Bryant by Chris Collinsworth? Now, I’m not a fan of Bryant and can’t begin to say how much I dislike anything Lakers (since Magic’s retirement, anyway), but what an absolute class act. Proud…humble…patriotic. Even when CC prodded him with, shall we say, questions designed to provide a bit of controversy… Nice.
Do liberals watch the Olympics or is there a bit too much flag waving going on?
My problem with the Olympics is this. I check the program listings to look for the sports I want to watch and see when they are on. I tune in and wait. And wait. And wait through the most boring sports (equestrian, water polo) and then get 5 minutes of the sport I like. I just can't stand NBC's coverage.
I did get wise this year though and just TIVO. So I zip through 99 percent to get to thing like tennis which I thoroughly enjoyed. Blake beating Federer was the highlight for me thus far. Too bad he couldn't get the Bronze.
I'll be doing plenty of flag waving for him, Roddick and the Bryan Bros in Sept when they take on Spain in the Davis Cup Semis.
It's all about Badminton. I see they now refer to it as the shuttle and not the shuttlecock.
Ping pong was cool to watch.
Loved how the Koreans got busted for doping. The event was the Air Rifle. Doh!
US Volleyball teams, both indoor and beach, are doing quite well.
Field hockey and handball are lame.
The US mens basketball team is doing quite well. Coack K must have reminded them what fundamentals and defense are about and it is showing.
I'm just happy NBC is actually covering an event for longer then 10 minutes. In years past they would cut an event in half to as to show you a bit of this other event.
Clean and Jerk baby...clean and jerk!
I could do with a little less backstory on the athletes. Who was dating who and the betrayals and the coincidences of having the same coaches at different times in their lives...whatever.
Of course liberals watch sports...liberals also wave a lot of flags, just not right now. That will change once dingaling and the circus of idiots is out of office. It will be great to put my flag back up after 8 years.
Here it is - the best article written about the Olympics yet. So this is why they train...oh yeah.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/olympics/article4582421.ece
Post a Comment