Tag Archives: John McCain

Can We Leave Now?

12 Monday Mar 2012

Posted by in Afghanistan

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The Afghanistan quagmire just gets uglier and uglier:

“Stalking from home to home, a United States Army sergeant methodically killed at least 16 civilians, 9 of them children, in a rural stretch of southern Afghanistan early on Sunday, igniting fears of a new wave of anti-American hostility, Afghan and American officials said.

Residents of three villages in the Panjwai district of Kandahar Province described a terrifying string of attacks in which the soldier, who had walked more than a mile from his base, tried door after door, eventually breaking in to kill within three separate houses. The man gathered 11 bodies, including those of 4 girls younger than 6, and set fire to them, villagers said.

[…]

The officials said the suspect was an Army staff sergeant who acted alone and then surrendered…A senior American military official said Sunday evening that the sergeant was attached to a unit based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, a major Army and Air Force installation near Tacoma, Wash., and that he had been part of what is called a village stabilization operation in Afghanistan…Another senior military official said the sergeant was 38 and married with two children. He had served three tours of duty in Iraq, this official said, and had been deployed to Afghanistan for the first time in December.”

Republican hawk and supporter of starting yet another war in Iran, Lindsey Graham, shrugged it off as ‘oh well, shit happens’:

“While this is tragic and will be investigated that soldier will be held accountable for his actions under the military justice system, unfortunately these things happen in war,” Graham said on ABC’s “This Week.” “You just have to push through these things.”

“The surge of forces have really put the Taliban on the defensive. The Afghan Army is better equipped and better trained than ever….I hope that the strategy partnership agreement between the United States and Afghanistan will stop the narrative we’re leaving,” Graham said on ABC. “We can win this thing. We can get it right.”

Yes, the Afghan armed forces are well equipped and trained, and are turning that equipment and that training on NATO forces at an increasing rate:

“Afghan security personnel have killed “around 70 members of the NATO force … in 42 insider attacks from May 2007 through January 2012,” Reuters reported, based on statistics provided by the US Department of Defense. Fifteen of the ISAF soldiers, or more than 20 percent, have been killed in the last seven weeks, according to press releases issued by ISAF.”

John McCain, advocate for military intervention in Syria, called the shootings just “one of those things”:

“It’s one of those things that you cannot explain except to extend your deepest sympathy to those victims and see that justice is done,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Cannot explain? Not to in any way excuse the actions of this sergeant, but this is the result of decade long wars requiring repeated deployments by an all-volunteer military. We seem to lose sight of the fact that our men and women in uniform are human beings, not robots. They are subject to human failings, like the psychological toll war takes on those who face death day after day after day, tour after tour after tour, and the actions that can result from that kind of constant stress.

Very few of us know because the burden of war is borne by a very small percentage of our population. Which explains things like this recent Pew poll showing 58% of Americans favor military action in Iran. Of course they do. It doesn’t cost the vast majority of them one dollar or one sleepless night worrying about the well-being of a loved one.
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Two points. First, we need to get out of Afghanistan ASAP. Two more years or ten more years there won’t matter. Al-Qaeda is gone, bin Laden is dead. Mission accomplished, time to bring our soldiers home.

Second, a proposal for Sens. Graham, McCain and the 58% polled by Pew. Any US military intervention in any country from this point forward will be accompanied by a draft and a 10% income tax surcharge to pay for it. Let’s see how hot they are to go to war then.

No BOP for Palin’s Mouth?

24 Monday May 2010

Posted by in Deepwater Horizon, Gulf Oil Spill, McCain, Politics, Sarah Palin

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If there is an afterlife, where the deeds done during one’s time on earth are the basis for either reward or punishment, I wouldn’t want to be one John Sidney McCain. His payment for unleashing upon an unsuspecting country the natural disaster known as Sarah Palin will surely be severe, and deservedly so.

To use a comparison to another ongoing national tragedy, Sen. McCain drilled a well in a remote area without any means of shutting off the flow if the worst-case scenario occurred. As is the case in the Gulf of Mexico, the blowout preventer on Palin’s mouth is broken and her ignorance will apparently continue to gush out and pollute our airwaves for years to come.

The latest from the egomaniacal, self-serving, self-aggrandizing, money-grubbing, ‘it’s all about me,’ funeral crashing, camera hound, that is the former half-term Governor of Alaska. The Deepwater Horizon of politics:

“Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul is feeling what it is like to be Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice presidential candidate said Sunday, comparing the media’s preoccupation with Paul’s recent statements about the 1964 Civil Rights Act to her own treatment in the press.

Palin said that Paul is seeing firsthand how “gotcha” politics work after the libertarian-leaning Republican spent days on defense spelling out his support for the Civil Rights Act and the government’s role in regulating how private businesses can deal with their customers.

“One thing that we can learn in this lesson that I have learned and Rand Paul is learning now is don’t assume that you can engage in a hypothetical discussion about constitutional impacts with a reporter or a media personality who has an agenda, who may be prejudiced before they even get into the interview in regards to what your answer may be — and then the opportunity that they seize to get you,” Palin told “Fox News Sunday.”

First of all Sarah, I doubt you can spell hypothetical, much less have an iota of an inkling of a clue as to what it means. Stick to simple words for simple minds please. Stuff like ‘You betcha’ and ‘drill, baby, drill.’

Moreover, Rand Paul and Sarah Palin are two of a kind. Whether it’s Paul spouting his views of a make-believe libertarian utopia to his Ayn Rand inspired followers, or Palin in her Tea Party cocoon where dim-witted crowds lap up her inane babblings, both seem to take offense, and run away, when asked to explain and defend their statements. Or in Palin’s case, when confronted with a tough, ruthless, agenda-driven, prejudiced interviewer like Katie Couric, and asked those “gotcha” questions like what newspapers do you read or name a Supreme Court decision.

McCain: Miranda Rights for U.S. Citizens a “Serious Mistake”

04 Tuesday May 2010

Posted by in Bill of Rights, Dick Cheney, McCain, Politics, Republicans, war on terror

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John McCain has taken the baton from Dick Cheney as drum major in the crazy parade. McCain said today it would have been a “serious mistake” to read the suspect arrested in connection with the May 1 attempted Times Square bombing his Miranda rights.

“Obviously that would be a serious mistake…at least until we find out as much information we have,” McCain said during an appearance on “Imus in the Morning” when asked whether the suspect, 30-year-old Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized American citizen from Pakistan.

“Don’t give this guy his Miranda rights until we find out what it’s all about,” McCain added.”

Sen. McCain, I know the suspect doesn’t have a good old ‘Murrican name like John, or Cindy…or even Sarah, but he is a United States citizen and he is entitled to Constitutional rights.

Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns, and Money asks this:

“Did John McCain strenuously object when Scott Roeder was read his Miranda rights?   If not, I wonder what criteria McCain is using to determine which American terrorists are entitled to their constitutional rights and which aren’t?”

But the Arizona Senator didn’t stop there. He’s already assessed the death penalty—despite not knowing the charges:

“There’s probably about 350 different charges he’s guilty off — attempted acts of terror against the united States, attempted murder,” said McCain, cautioning that he’s not privy to the charges with which Shahzad might be charged. “I’m sure there’s a significant number to warrant the death penalty.”

And not to be outdone, New York Rep. Peter King also questioned the Justice Department with this:

“Did they Mirandize him? I know he’s an American citizen but still,” King said.”

I’ll leave it to your imagination what Rep. King was thinking but left unsaid.

President Obama’s Iran Policy is the Right One

17 Wednesday Jun 2009

Posted by in McCain, Obama, Politics, Uncategorized

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Proving that they have learned absolutely nothing from our experience in Iraq, the neo-conservative interventionists, led by former Republican presidential candidate, Mr. Bomb, Bomb Iran himself, Senator John McCain, are beginning the drumbeat of “do something” following the fraudulent Iranian election.

And naturally the cries of “weak” and “appeaser” in reference to President Obama and his non-interventionist policy are also being heard.

Mitt Romney saying:

“It’s very clear that the president’s policies of going around the world and apologizing for America aren’t working. … Look, just sweet talk and criticizing America is not going to enhance freedom in the world.”

Noted neo-con and former presidential advisor Richard Perle:

“Normally, when you unclench your fist it benefits the hardliners, because Obama appeared to be saying we can do business with you even with your present policies.”

Frank (the president is a closet Muslim) Gaffney:

“It underscores the folly of the president’s basic premise that the problem we have with bad actors around the world is that they don’t understand us. These people are thugs and they have been emboldened by our weakness.”

But President Obama’s course of action is exactly the right one. The Wonk Room explains it best:

“Were the U.S to clumsily wade into this Iranian political crisis, as McCain would have us do, it would support Ahmadinejad’s main arguments against his domestic opponents, and likely provide the perfect pretext for a more intense crackdown. In other words, the preferences of hardliners in Iran and the U.S. are pretty closely aligned here.

As with McCain’s impetuous response to the Georgia crisis last summer, his first reaction to the events in Iran is condemnation and a call to “act.” Fortunately, we have an administration in power that understands that knowing when not to act is as strategically important as knowing when to do so, and that the most productive thing the United States can do for Iran’s reform movement -and human rights- at the moment is to keep itself, to the extent possible, out of the equation.”

Read the words of another well-known “appeaser” and “apologist” and tell me if his views on foreign policy more closely resemble those of President Obama or Senator McCain.

“Observe good faith and justice towards all Nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential, than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular Nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated.

The Nation, which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest.

The Nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the Government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The Government sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would reject; at other times, it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives.

Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest.”

George Washington’s Farewell Address, September 17,1796.