A Bellicose McCain

As I posted earlier John McCain has become rather bellicose of late. It is a sign of his own desperation, but it's also a sign of his own attitudes. Joe Klein, who spoke about this on CNN the other night, writes in Time about the same issue. The essay is entitled: "Blowing His Top: McCain's bellicose against-all-enemies foreign policy is collapsing -- and not a moment too soon."

McCain has tried to place himself out front as the experienced leader, the one ready to be commander-in-chief, but as Klein points out his verbiage suggests that he would continue the neo-con foreign policy that has put the USA in such a hole these past 8 years. He's rattled sabers against Iran, Russia, and China (just to name a few). He's made much of the surge, but seems unable to deal with the Iraqi desire to see us gone.

Klein notes that while McCain has been correct on some tactical issues (surge), he's been wrong strategically or doesn't seem to have strategic understandings. He writes:

Neoconservatism in foreign policy is best described as unilateral bellicosity cloaked in the utopian rhetoric of freedom and democracy. McCain hasn't always sided with the neocons — he opposed torture, wants to close down Guantánamo — but his pugnacity seems a natural fit with theirs. He has been militant on Iran, though even there his statements have been tactical rather than strategic: his tactic is not to talk to the bad guys.

And what is his goal for his foreign policy? Klein writes:

His notion of a "League of Democracies" seems a transparent attempt to draw a with-us-or-against-us line in the sand against Russia and China. But that's the point: McCain would place a higher priority on finding new enemies than on cultivating new friends.

I think we're more in need of friends these days than enemies. It was Bush's "us against them" rhetoric that cost us support gained after 9-11. Now, it seems at times that McCain is more inflexible and stuck in a time warp than GW. So, with such verbiage, it should not then surprise us that overseas people prefer Obama to McCain (handily). And perhaps more importantly, will a McCain presidency make us safer or less so?

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