Saturday, February 2, 2008

McCain changes his position on Iraq (again)





To hear some of John McCain’s media admirers tell it, “McCain, whether you agree with him or not, has been entirely consistent about the war.” To hear his campaign tell it, “John McCain has mainted [sic] a consistent record on Iraq since the very beginning.”



But pesky little details like reality keep getting in the way.



Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has long supported a 50-year troop presence in Iraq — or the “South Korea model” — set forth by President Bush and Gen. Petraeus. “We have had troops in South Korea for 60 years and nobody minds,” he said in June. On the Charlie Rose Show in August, McCain said the Korea model was “exactly” the right idea.



Yesterday on Charlie Rose, McCain changed his position, arguing that the Korea-like presence is not an “analogy” he would use for Iraq. Recognizing the “nature of the society in Iraq,” McCain suggested that Iraqi opposition to a permanent U.S. occupation may make the South Korea model implausible.



McCain added that the “nature of the society in Iraq” and the “religious aspects” of the country make it inevitable that the United States “eventually withdraws.”



But if you suggest five years of failed policies is long enough, you’re a cut-and-run coward who embraces defeat, loves al Qaeda, and hates our troops.


I have a very hard time understanding how it is this guy earned a reputation for “consistency.” The only thing consistent about McCain’s policy towards Iraq is that it changes every few months.Of course, that fits into a pattern with the senator. Long-time readers know what this means: it’s time to update the list of John McCain Biggest Flip-Flops.



* McCain used to champion the Law of the Sea convention, even volunteering to testify on the treaty’s behalf before a Senate committee. Now he opposes it.



* McCain was a co-sponsor of the DREAM Act, which would grant legal status to illegal immigrants’ kids who graduate from high school. Now he’s against it.



* In 2006, McCain sponsored legislation to require grassroots lobbying coalitions to reveal their financial donors. In 2007, after receiving “feedback” on the proposal, McCain told far-right activist groups that he now opposes the measure.



* McCain has been both open and closed to a redeploy-to-perimeter strategy in Iraq.



* McCain said before the war in Iraq, “We will win this conflict. We will win it easily.” Four years later, McCain said he knew all along that the war in Iraq war was “probably going to be long and hard and tough.”



* McCain said he was the “greatest critic” of Rumsfeld’s failed Iraq policy. In December 2003, McCain praised the same strategy as “a mission accomplished.” In March 2004, he said, “I’m confident we’re on the right course.” In December 2005, he said, “Overall, I think a year from now, we will have made a fair amount of progress if we stay the course.”



* McCain went from saying he would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade to saying the exact opposite.



* McCain went from saying gay marriage should be allowed, to saying gay marriage shouldn’t be allowed.



* McCain criticized TV preacher Jerry Falwell as “an agent of intolerance” in 2002, but then decided to cozy up to the man who said Americans “deserved” the 9/11 attacks.



* McCain used to oppose Bush’s tax cuts for the very wealthy, but he reversed course in February.



* In 2000, McCain accused Texas businessmen Sam and Charles Wyly of being corrupt, spending “dirty money” to help finance Bush’s presidential campaign. McCain not only filed a complaint against the Wylys for allegedly violating campaign finance law, he also lashed out at them publicly. In April, McCain reached out to the Wylys for support.



* McCain supported a major campaign-finance reform measure that bore his name. In June, he abandoned his own legislation.



* McCain used to think that Grover Norquist was a crook and a corrupt shill for dictators. Then McCain got serious about running for president and began to reconcile with Norquist.



* McCain took a firm line in opposition to torture, and then caved to White House demands.



* McCain opposed a holiday to honor Martin Luther King, Jr., before he supported it.



* McCain was against presidential candidates campaigning at Bob Jones University before he was for it.



* McCain was anti-ethanol. Now he’s pro-ethanol.



* McCain was both for and against state promotion of the Confederate flag.



* McCain decided in 2000 that he didn’t want anything to do with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, believing he “would taint the image of the ‘Straight Talk Express.’” Kissinger is now the Honorary Co-Chair for his presidential campaign in New York.



Now, it’s worth noting that there are worse qualities in a presidential candidate than changing one’s mind about a policy matter or two. McCain has been in Congress for decades; he’s bound to shift now and then on various controversies.



But therein lies the point — McCain was consistent on most of these issues, right up until he started running for president, at which point he conveniently abandoned practically every position he used to hold. The problem isn’t just the incessant flip-flops; it’s the shameless pandering and hollow convictions behind the incessant flip-flops.



It’s a shame what running for the Republican nomination will do to a guy, isn’t it?

24 comments:

Ivory Bill Woodpecker said...

*snort* Wotta picture! :)

Gerald said...

If we have an election and the voting machines are not rigged which they will be, the Dems have a good chance of winning the White House.

McCain is a flip flopper. Good ammunition to use on him!!!

Cynthia McKinney (sp) is supposed to head the Green Party ticket. If she is, she has my vote. I hope to be voting for a woman in this election and probably every election that I can. Women are our planet's last hope.

capt said...

I think the future holds a time where gender and race will be of as little import as the color of a candidates eyes or hair.

Take off the table gender, race and as many broad stroke generalizations as possible. Consider the issues and positions distill a conclusion, sublimate a your support and act and vote accordingly.

Gerald said...

Move On's email has been added to my "blocked" list. The endorsement should have come before the general election.

Gerald said...

Dear Lou and Jack

Gerald said...

America Today

This is a good article but it would have been a better article if the name, Ron Paul, was omitted.

Gerald said...

Nazi America's top exports: WMD's, DU, and...

Gerald said...

Remember: every two seconds, somewhere on the planet, a child starves to death. Meanwhile, the US spends one million dollars per minute on war. Do the math: How much of our money was spent on war and how many children starved to death while your read this article?

We often hear the question: "Why do they hate us?"

We give them an excellent reason every 2 seconds and a million more reasons every single minute.

capt said...

"Angels dancing on the head of a pin dissolve into nothingness at the bedside of a dying child."
~ Waiter Rant, Waiter Rant weblog, 06-21-05

Gerald said...

Doctor Dog

Love is a two-way street. That’s certainly true when it comes to owners and their companion animals.

An American Animal Association survey found that three-quarters of pet owners cite affection as their pet’s most endearing quality. StanfordUniversity research shows that the love is returned, suggesting that our altruistic behavior makes caring for pets beneficial.

Marivic Dizon from Stanford reports that adults and children who feel empathy towards their pets manifest stronger feelings of empathy toward other people.

In another study, elderly persons who had a pet felt better – mentally and physically – than their pet-less counterparts.

“There are great benefits to appreciating and nurturing animals,” concludes Dizon, “and they are good for the animals as well as for us.”

Giving and receiving love makes the world go round the way it should.

If I... do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal... I am nothing... I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:1, 2, 3)

What joy I find in experiencing Your great love directly and through other people and creatures, Loving Lord!

Gerald said...

Nazi America is one screwed up loon!!!

Gerald said...

The United States under Bush has in the service of larger goals largely abandoned its commitment to democracy. President Bush’s recent trip through the Middle East is particularly illustrative, where he was much more intent on mobilizing autocratic Sunni regimes against Shiite Iran than pressing for democratic reform. The “war on terror” and the campaign against Iran are far more important than civil liberties or fundamental human rights for the Bush crowd.

Gerald said...

Killing off of the animal and human populations

Everything is interconnected in the world. We must love the environment in order to survive.

capt said...

"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority."

~ E. B. White (1899 - 1985)

Gerald said...

Resistance

Gerald said...

It has become chillingly clear that democracy is nearly dead in the United States. The government is now controlled by those who have ceased even to pretend to believe in it: "[Mukasey] repeatedly endorsed patently illegal behavior — including torture — and refused even to pretend that he cared what the Senate thought about any of it. He even told Republican Senators that they have no right to pass a whistleblower law allowing federal employees who learn of lawbreaking to inform Congress about it, because such a law would infringe on the President’s constitutional powers. In Mukasey’s worldview, the President has unlimited power and Congress has none." - Glenn Greenwald, "Mukasey’s Radical Worldview Is Now the Norm", Jan. 31, 2008.

Gerald said...

"Virtually every Democratic Senator, after expressing some 'disappointment' in Mukasey’s answers, then proceeded to lavish him with praise, eagerly assuring him that they did not want conflict and were not attempting to be partisan or acrimonious." But resistance is partisan and acrimonious, as was Jeremiah and Ezekiel in similar situations. These are the noises made when submitting to autocratic power - to lavish praise on the emperor's minions and beg for his favors. "Mukasey would nod politely and acknowledge their pleas, assuring them that he wasn’t offended by their questioning, almost embarrassed at times by how obsequious they were." - Glenn Greenwald, "Mukasey’s Radical Worldview Is Now the Norm", Jan. 31, 2008.

Gerald said...

We must reclaim our power, but not by pouring our God-given life into the channels which empire has provided to siphon off the energy of justice. "The biblical response - again, an answer which also has empirical authority - is that hope is known only in the midst of coping with death. Any so-called hope is delusory and false without or apart from the confrontation with the power of death, whatever momentary or circumstantial form at may have. It is a person's involvement in that crisis in itself - whatever the apparent outcome - which is the definitively humanizing experience. Engagement in specific and incessant struggle against death's rule renders us human. Resistance to death is the only way to live humanly in the midst of the Fall." - William Stringfellow, "An Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens in a Strange Land."

Gerald said...

Hitler Bush and Hitler McCain's Displaced Ardor for War

Gerald said...

McCain, like Turgidson, has a disturbing displaced ardor for war. Although he'd be the oldest person ever elected president, he doesn't need Viagra -- he's got Iraq. Call your doctor if your erection lasts longer than four hours -- or your war lasts longer than 100 years.

Bush and McCain's tried-and-failed approach to matters of war and peace offers an important reminder that whatever difference the Democrats may have -- and how still more heated and divisive their race may become -- when it comes to Iraq, the two parties are heading in wildly different directions. Clinton, Obama, and the Democrats are all looking to the future while Bush, McCain and the GOP remain mired in a Neanderthal past.

Gerald said...

The Nazis' Big Lie

Gerald said...

McCain and other demagogues such as those residing at Fox News state and repeat a fulsome lie when claiming that those who favor ending the Iraq War are advocating “surrender.”

They in fact are the proponents of a type of surrender by advocating this falsehood, seeking to equate their position with protecting the nation from external enemies. This surrender involves the U.S. Constitution as well as the basic precepts of international law, not to mention fundamental decency.

The Iraq War was conceived in fraudulent deceit, resting on the disputed and ultimately proven lie stated and restated by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and other members of the administration that it was necessary to attack Iraq to prevent Iraq’s dictator Saddam Hussein from unleashing weapons of mass destruction on America.

Another massive lie equated with the ultimate attack of Iraq that has been sadly repeated by many progressives is that the conflict constituted a “pre-emptive war.” Wars falling under that category are conflicts involving self-defense and are justified under international law, including the Geneva and Nuremberg protocols.

The war that is being waged in Iraq, which was devoid of legitimate proof, is defined as “preventive war” by a deceitful administration.

Preventive war is a violation of the international legal precepts that America had a major shaping hand in creating relating to Nuremberg and Geneva respectively. To wage preventive war is to risk, should the force of international law be carried out, trial at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

The charge is that of “war criminal defendant” and all that pursued such a pattern along with the aggression that resulted should according to international law be subjected to trial.

Gerald said...

When I read the article, "America's Top Exports," I timed myself and in the time I finished reading the article, 90 children had starved to death and $3 million was spent on the war. What a waste of lives and money!!!!!

Gerald said...

I leave this computer to pray and meditate in place of watching a gladiator sport. I read an article sometime back that said Nazi Americans are lulled into forgetting about their problems through entertainment. Do not let entertainment lull you away from the real life of helping the poor, the disenfranchised, and the excluded from our world. Please spend time working to help the poor. We all can help through deeds, almsgiving , and prayer. Please also remember that we are all God's children.