While Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton continue to bash away at each other here in the states, John McCain has left the country to burnish his foreign policy credentials. Foreign affairs and defense are generally regarded as McCain's strong suits to begin with, so it comes as a surprise that he continues to repeat the same gaffe-if indeed it is a gaffe.
Why does McCain keep saying (in four different speeches and news conferences as of this writing) that Iran is supporting al Qaeda? Shiite Iran is a mortal enemy of fanatically Sunni al Qaeda. Joe Lieberman even whispered in his ear and McCain then turned back to reporters and corrected himself about this in one of his press conferences. Is the supposed foreign policy/defense expert unaware of the lack of connection and indeed enmity between Iran and al Qaeda? Is age making him continually confuse this basic fact? Is he so eager to establish a justification to attack Iran that he will say anything about them?
As for the first question, it doesn't seem possible that McCain is ignorant on the subject. Many of the most spectacular bombings in Iraq are acknowledged to have been carried out by al Qaeda in Iraq against Shiite neighborhoods and mosques. The accepted reason for this is to provoke continued hatred between the rival sects in the hope of fomenting Shiite reprisals against Sunnis, thus driving them into alliance with their fellow Sunnis in al Qaeda. All the intelligence briefings McCain has received in the Senate have reiterated this. He cannot fail to be aware of it.
Is it age? That's doubtful. He has not been reported making similar misstatements on other subjects. One could see him having a slip-up once or even twice. But four times in the course of a couple of days? If anything, it's reminiscent of Dick Cheney, who kept repeating it was "pretty well established" that Saddam Hussein was in league with Osama bin Laden even after all intelligence reports had publicly debunked that argument. Cheney successfully operated according to the principle that if something is said often enough a lot of people will believe it.
The last scenario, that it is intentional, unfortunately therefore seems to be the most likely. McCain has been rattling the saber against Iran with regularity for some time. He has even made a joke of it, singing "Bomb, bomb Iran" to the Beach Boys' tune "Barbara Ann." The recent state visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Iraq, in which he was warmly received by Iraqi President and fellow Shiite Nouri al-Maliki, underscores the danger neoconservatives and McCain may see ahead. The prospect of having invaded Iraq, toppled Saddam, and waged a five-year guerilla war to pacify the country only to see it fall into the Iranian orbit cannot be a pleasant one for the diehard pro-war senator to contemplate. What better way to prepare the American people for a new military adventure than to play the al Qaeda card yet again?
Whichever it is, this strange repetition of the counterfactual does not bode well for McCain's capacity, judgment, honesty or intentions. If he is elected and widens the war into Iran, don't say he didn't warn you.
3 comments:
Yes, we have been warned. He appears to be setting the stage for his first term as president - we're gonna get 'em where ever they may be, even if they're only in my dreams.
Cheney's recipe, to repeat ad nauseum fooled a lot of the people the first time around. If you hear it enough, then it must be true right? Especially if you see it on the Internet, then it's definitely true. Maybe that's the strategy?
Fool us once, shame on you, fool us again, shame on us. As Abraham Lincoln noted, you can fool all of the people, some of the time and you can fool some of the people, all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. We can't be fooled again.
"Won't Be Fooled Again" is also one of the great rock anthems by The Who.
McCain seems to be taking notes from the Bush White House on this one. As webfoot said, it's Cheney's recipe. Make the accusation again and again and again, until it can't not be true. It's this mind set where ends justify means, to horrifying extents. Outright lies being the means in this case, and eliminating all traces of terrorism in the Middle East being the end. Or is it to make under-qualified private contractors rich until they start defacating money bricks, I get the two mixed up. At any rate I thought we were done with these blatantly deceptive strategies, but I guess McCain is going to try to keep that Bush feel alive for some time to come.
The thing I don't understand is why he's taken the Bush Administration's ideologies and made them his own come campaign time. Or maybe his pro-war ranting started before then, I'm really not sure. But I remember 2000 McCain to some degree, and I remember he was fairly sane, with a good head on his shoulders. Not to say he's a dumbass now, but he became this conservative fanatic, and maybe i'm wrong, but I don't think he was like that before. One thing I know for sure, is that Bush smeared the bejesus out of McCain in the 2000 election. He called him certifiably insane due to his time in a POW camp in Nam. So now, why is McCain buddying up to Bush and his policies, when it's not even politically the smart thing to do. I think there was some shadowy meeting between the McCain and Dubya that the rest of us were not privy to. Still not a good idea for McCain. Your not gonna win the election toting the same bag as the guy with the thirty some percent approval rating. At least at one point it was that bad, I don't know what Bush's approval is now. I don't see how it could have gone up. But I gues that's what Fox is for.
Sometimes it does seem like McCain's going senile, but then that went samesies for all of the GOP candidates, and Romney wasn't that old. But I don't think McCain is really going senile. He can still be cogent. I guess that just makes him stupid or evil. Only half joking.
And I think The Who named "Won't Be Fooled Again" what they did because you keep getting fooled into thinking the song is over, when it never is. Not a bad song though. I'll definitely tip my hat to the new revolution.
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