McCain: Too Reckless to Lead

[Joanne98]

Posted by Ilan Goldenberg
John McCain has an ad up trying to scare the American people about Iran and saying Obama doesn't take the threat seriously enough. I think it's time to take the gloves off and paint McCain as the reckless and dangerous overeager warrior that he is.

If I was the Obama campaign I would probably go with something like this:

John McCain. He was a cheerleader for George Bush and Dick Cheney's war in Iraq. He has said we should bomb Iran. He's willing to get into major escalations with China and Russia. He thought war with North Korea was inevitable. He even called Germany and France our "adversaries." Is that who we want leading our country? John McCain too reckless to lead (You can see supporting facts below the fold).

In terms of McCain's ad. The whole point is to elevate the Iranian threat to some ridiculous level of fear and paranoia equivalent to the Nazis or the Soviet Union. First of all, the quote is of course completely out of context. Obama clearly takes Iran seriously. All you have to do is read his policies and listen to his positions.

But Iran isn't the Nazis or the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union had thousands of nuclear weapons and controlled all of Eastern Europe. The Nazis took over all of Europe and killed millions. Iran is a country with 60 million people and a GDP the size of Florida. By historical comparison it is simply not the same level threat.

But John McCain doesn't think that way. For McCain every crisis is 1939 and every threat is existential. As Max has so aptly pointed out, this is a very dangerous approach to the world.

Iraq

McCain: Iraq would be a nuclear assembly line for Al Qaeda. “Iraq and al-Qaeda present the United States with enemies on multiple fronts. In World War II, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, we went to war -- against them and against the Nazis, who had not attacked our homeland. We did not have the luxury of fighting one enemy at a time. Sept. 11, 2001 showed that al-Qaeda is a grave threat. Saddam Hussein has the ability to make a far worse day of infamy by turning Iraq into a weapons assembly line for al-Qaeda's network. Does anyone really want to vouch for Saddam, a pathological risk-taker with a history of violent aggression and an enormous stockpile of the world's worst weapons, when terrorists could help him attack us without fingerprints?... Standing by while an odious regime with a history of support for terrorism and hostility to America develops weapons whose use by terrorists could kill millions of Americans is not a choice. It is an abdication…Saddam is an international felon who has repeatedly violated the terms of his parole and is planning further crimes with his terrorist accomplices. He must be brought to justice once and for all.

McCain called for rushing to war – thought Iraq “threat” was incredibly urgent – few months before said war would be “easy” because Saddam was weak. In calling for the immediate invasion of Iraq, McCain wrote in the USA Today, “It is in the nature of democracies to be patient. But as history has shown, they can delay to their peril.” But McCain just a few months before said Iraq was weak, "I am very certain that this military engagement will not be very difficult. It may entail the risk of American lives and treasure, but is vastly weaker than he was in 1991."

Iran

McCain: “Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran.” In April 2007, McCain, speaking to voters in South Carolina, responded to a question about Iran by singing “Bomb, bomb Iran” to the tune of the Beach Boys’ “Barbara Ann.” A man had asked McCain about sending “an air mail message to Tehran.” McCain answered by singing, “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran.” He then added: “Iran is dedicated to the destruction of Israel. That alone should concern us, but now they are trying for nuclear capabilities. I totally support (President George W. Bush) when he says we will not allow Iran to destroy Israel.”

Days after 9/11 and before U.S. forces had even invaded Afghanistan after, McCain was focused on attacking countries that had nothing to do with 9/11 – Iraq, Iran, Syria – said picking which one would be the tough part. “That's where the tough part of this whole scenario is going to begin. And that is that, after the Taliban are overthrown -- which I believe they will be -- I have very little doubt in my mind -- after bin Laden is either taken prisoner or killed and his network is destroyed, then what's next? Obviously, Iraq is still bent on -- Saddam Hussein is still bent on developing weapons of mass destruction. Obviously, the Iranians are still supporting terrorist organizations, as are the Syrians. That's where the tough choices and decisions are going to be made.”

North Korea

McCain thought war with North Korea was inevitable in 1994. "In a chilling message to colleagues on the eve of Memorial Day, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., warned that a major war with North Korea is inevitable unless America finds a way to deter Kim Il Sung, a dictator bent on crashing the nuclear club and unleashing weapons of mass destruction around the world." The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), May 30, 1994

Russia and China

McCain said “we are all Georgians now,” implying he would be willing to take a much more confrontational approach to Russia.

McCain’s calls for enlarging the G-8 would snub China and condemn the G-8 to “failure and irrelevance.” McCain has proposed that the U.S. should expand the G-8 specifically by taking in India and Brazil—but pointedly excluding China. Fareed Zakaria notes: “To reorder the G-8 without China would be particularly bizarre. The G-8 was created to help coordinate problems of the emerging global economy. Every day these problems multiply—involving trade, pollution, currencies—and are in greater need of coordination. To have a body that attempts to do this but excludes the world's second largest economy is to condemn it to failure and irrelevance.”

France and Germany

McCain threatened and bullied our allies before the start of the Iraq War. “Speaking at an international security conference in Germany a month before the war, a frustrated McCain lashed out at our European allies, calling them "vacuous and posturing." Later that year, in an interview, he referred to the French and Germans as "our adversaries." He said that former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder "looks little like the ally that anchored our presence in Europe throughout the Cold War. ... A German Rip Van Winkle from the 1960s would not understand the lack of political courage and cooperation with its allies on the question of Iraq exhibited in Berlin today." McCain also unleashed on two other critical players, accusing France and Russia of putting their "commercial interests above international law, world peace, and the political ideals of Western civilization."

http://www.democracyarsenal.org/2008/08/mccain-too-reck.html