Yesterday Democracy Now reported that “Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain might have attracted some ridicule last week when he falsely insisted Iran is training and supplying al-Qaeda in Iraq. McCain corrected himself after independent Senator Joseph Lieberman stepped in and whispered in his ear”
A video clip followed which showed the following little exchange (text from video transcript):
SEN. JOHN McCAIN: Well, it’s common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran. That’s well known. And it’s unfortunate. So I believe that we are succeeding in Iraq. The situation is dramatically improved. But I also want to emphasize time and again al-Qaeda is on the run, but they are not defeated.
SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN: [whispering] You said that the Iranians were training al-Qaeda. I think you meant they’re training in extremist terrorism.
SEN. JOHN McCAIN: I’m sorry, the Iranians are training extremists, not al-Qaeda, not al-Qaeda. I’m sorry.
I propose that this is the real McCain, caught in the act, and that the “war-can’t-wait”-attitude and readiness to interpret and misinterpret facts according to already made decisions to fan the flame of US military interventions, are what has won McCain the support of a very dangerous brand of political influencers: the NeoCons.
“While the media focused on the gaffe, there has been little serious analysis of McCain’s foreign policy. In fact, when it comes to the Middle East and establishing US power in the world, McCain might even be more in line with neoconservative thinking than President Bush.”
Amy Goodman goes on to cite Brookings Institution (hardly a left leaning think tank) analyst Ivo Daalder as saying: “If you thought George Bush was bad when it comes to the use of military force, wait ’til you see John McCain.” Can you explain?
People suffering from inability to let go of old grudges, develop psycho-pathologies were their whole lives become focused on the settling of scores. Since the late 1970s, conservative Americans have argued that the US could have eventually brought about a complete military victory over the North Vietnamese army and the Vietcong, and that such a victory would have resulted in a democratic, stable and pro-American South Vietnam. They allege that such an eventual victory would have been possible but was made impossible by the domestic oppostion to the war.
The usage of the term "syndrome", borrowed from psychiatry, strongly implies that public opposition to US military interventions is irrational and a consequence of having suffered a trauma. Richard Nixon in No More Vietnams (1985) called on Americans to "purge ourselves of the Vietnam syndrome" because it has "tarnished our ideals, ... crippled our will, and turned us into a military giant and a diplomatic dwarf."
John McCain is now ready to drag American lives and the whole US and world economy into his personal battle against the Vietnam Syndrome.
And he is made use of by the puppet masters working behind the stage to expand the war in the Middle East during the next presidency.
I think to this day, McCain thinks that the Vietnam War could have been won if we had just stayed another five or ten or fifteen years, and he seems exactly prepared to do that in Iraq, despite all evidence to the contrary that we can’t do anything in Iraq other than sit on a very ugly stalemate that, you know, continues to blow up and flare into violence.
Do not allow him to use for this purpose the powers of the Executive.
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