The Courage of John McCain

Today's horror show in Iraq shines the light back on the dishonest candidacy of John McCain, whose dissembling on the conditions on the ground are now thrown into stark relief. Lawrence Korb's report from the Green Zone is even more evidence of this.

We spent the morning listening to briefings from consultants advising the individual ministries on the TATWEER project. Most were American and many spoke Arabic. Listening to the briefings, it is easy to see how people making a quick visit to the region with very little understanding of the situation can go away with the impression that things are getting better and that there is “light at the end of the tunnel.” These men and women believe in what they are doing and are close to their clients.

But if one uses the reports of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction and pushes the briefers, a different picture emerges. The place is a mess and despite the almost heroic efforts of some Americans and some Iraqis it is not getting better. One of the consultants told me not to believe anyone who says that the situation is getting better.

In other words, John McCain is lying.

And McCain himself admitted it last week in a conference call with conservative bloggers, telling them he was "digging for the pony" in hoping that Muqtada al-Sadr would back down on his threats to attack American forces. This was before Sadr's cabinet ministers resigned from the government. So much for the pony.

And this great military strategist has no plan B for Iraq, has no alternative strategy because he can't bear to give an outcome that isn't rosy. The military thrives on wargaming all possible scenarios, not putting all of their chips in one situation and crossing fingers and closing eyes and wishing their best hopes were true. That's the work of a fantasist and not a leader. Of course, McCain could never give an assessment anything less than fantabulous, because it would upset his consistent worldview of warhawkery, which has been a part of McCain's outlook from the very beginning of his political life (there's that Matthew Yglesias again).

I think there's oftentimes a tendency to discount the possibility of sincere disagreement in politics. As in assuming that McCain's fantastically stupid views on national security policy represent some kind of grubby and dishonorable act of political expediency. For quite a number of years, however, dating back to the late 1990s at least, McCain has been a consistent apostle of the Bill Kristol school of foreign policy -- all problems should be solved through force, and all problems with the use of force should be solved through the application of more force.

This is just the way he thinks, and America ought to know that in assessing him as Presidential timber. McCain believes in perpetual war as a means for security, bottom line. You can agree with that or not. But you have to understand it. He is far, far to the right of anyone in this government, in line with Dick Cheney and the neocons, on foreign policy. And on economic issues he promises the moon by claiming to make Bush's tax cuts permanent, balance the budget, end all earmarks and raise no new revenue while fixing Social Security and Medicare. Sounds like just the same fairy-tale plan as he has in Iraq! I guess there's no Plan B. And on social issues, he doesn't support hate crimes legislation and lines up firmly with the NRA and antiabortion activists.

Maverick!