Why the Pakistan Gaffe Matters.... (McCain doesn't know what the hell he's talking about)

[ProSense]

Why the Pakistan Gaffe Matters....

by Walden Ponderer
Fri Sep 26, 2008 at 07:56:21 PM PDT

Why does it matter that John McCain doesn't know what the hell he's talking about? He said Pakistan was a "failed state" when Musharaff took over. He was wrong. Musharaff took over in a vile coup like any banana republic thug... and he couldn't have done it without complicity on the part of American incompetence (I'll spare you the details, as Democrats don't historically come off any better in re: Pakistan than Republicans do... but the chief part is, McCain just proved beyond all shadow of a doubt that he is, bluntly, an idiot).

More below the fold...

Musharaff was supported over and over by Bush/McCain. Never mind that his ascendancy was decried at the time as extremely dangerous, even potentially deadly woldwide.

He was the second coming of Muhammed Zia ul-Haq.

If you don't know who that was, don't worry. John McCain is evidently in the same boat as you. If you've got the time that McCain doesn't, and want a good primer on Pakistani extremism, you could, oh, I don't know, study the history of military suppression of democracy in the country.

On John McCain's supposed area of expertise, he essentially just said "Poland is not under Soviet influence." Seriously. If you don't know what that references, then google "Gerald Ford" "Poland" "Debate".

Now.... why does it matter?

It matters because the fundamental difference between "strategy" and "tactics", which McCain flubbed just as badly, is that "tactics" requires knowledge of terrain, knowledge of particular weapons, knowledge of weather conditions on the ground.

"Strategy" requires knowing your objective... and WHO THE FREAKING ENEMY IS!!!!!!! McCain may think that the politically ineffective Sharif's coalition party was a "failed state" but it was, in fact, a DEMOCRACY that should have been supported through a difficult time, not turned out to dry, leaving a power vacuum for the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

al-Qaeda is in over 60 countries now, but their leadership is in one region and one region only -- the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and John McCain doesn't get it. The reason why they are in that particular place? Because that particular place is peppered with islamic fundamentalists who have been recruited from the poorest neighborhoods in the world and who have learned first hand from the abject poverty into which they were born that the West, and particularly the Americans, don't give a flying flip whether they live or die. Why would we expect these people to feel anything but contempt for us?

The way to root them out? Deny them recruits. How? Democratize Pakistan. How? By opposing brutal dictators. NOT PROPPING THEM UP!!!

more

[ray of light]

1. Look, it matters because "You don't understand" doesn't cut it. Strategy is vital

to planning every stage of government. Also you have to move quickly. And you have to move intelligently. And you can't move based on incorrect facts.

[ProSense]

2. Let's see how long everyone

is going to continue pretending that McCain made sense. n/t

[Essene]

3. i wish Obama had called his bluff and demanded he answer the question about striking al qaeda...

[jillan]

4. Pakistan is Biden's area of expertise.

You can be sure we'll be hearing from Joe on this.

[ProSense]

7. Evidently,

Obama is more an expert than McCain.

Biden did great on Countdown.

[ProSense]

5. "McCain seriously misstated his vote concerning the marines in Lebanon."

McCain in Lebanon

Washington Post:

McCain seriously misstated his vote concerning the marines in Lebanon. He said that when he went into Congress in 1983, he voted against deploying them in Beirut. The Marines went in Lebanon in 1982, before McCain came to Congress. The vote came up a year into their deployment, when the Marines had already suffered 54 casualties. What McCain voted against was a measure to invoke the War Powers Act and to authorize the deployment of U.S. Marines in Lebanon for an additional 18 months. The measure passed 270-161, with 26 other Republicans (including McCain) and 134 Democrats voting against it.

I’m not even really sure why McCain felt the need to lie about this. It is, however, interesting that he brought it up at all. Back in the 1980s, McCain hewed more or less to a realist line that’s very different from the neoconservative foreign policy he’s adhered to for the past 10 years.

McLiar.

[ProSense]

6. The MSM was actually trying to give McCain a pass on a

host of gaffes and lies using the BS claim that he's an expert in foreign policy.