John McCain and al Qaeda

Historians of early 21st century American politics will remark the degree to which radical forces, usually called neoconservatives, perverted language as recommended by the National Socialist Party in 1930s Germany. Continue to demonize liberals, blame them for all social and economic problems, and soon enough no one will be willing to admit to being a liberal. Claim that liberals and Democrats are too soft to combat terrorists and soon enough a majority, even in the oldest democracy on earth, will believe it. Open up entire electronic networks, such as Fox, and chains of radio stations, such as Clear Channel, and buy enough newspaper chains, and make all these media available to pre-programmed neoconservative ditto heads, and sure enough a subculture will emerge which distrusts its own government and believes that an entire political party is not to be trusted.

This has all happened before. And where it has happened, authoritarian government emerges.
Worst of all, a formerly "maverick" Republican, one who was sensible enough to understand the dangerous perversions involved in this radicalization of American politics, will find himself repeating the idiotic mantra that we are "fighting al Qaeda in Iraq so we don't have to fight them here."

John McCain knows better. I know he knows better. But it is appalling when a serious patriot like McCain is forced to fall into line with these radical perverters of language, one of the most dangerous things that can happen in a democracy, in order to lead a party that is so far off the mainstream rails that it will take decades to return to civility and normality.

If John McCain seriously believes we are at war with al Qaeda in Iraq, that alone is such a serious error in judgment as to rank him with George W. Bush at his worst and therefore disqualify him from any chance to govern this country.

John McCain is intelligent enough to know that our tragically flawed invasion of Iraq has indeed kicked open a hornets nest, a 1300 year old hornets nest of violent rivalry inside Islam, and that for us to put all the hornets back in the nest will take decades and trillions of dollars, that it will assure the decline of the American republic, and that it will represent a grasp at empire that would cause all of our founders to revolve in their graves.

Why then would he, a combat veteran, a courageous prisoner of war, permit himself to be captive to the perverters of language? Does he want to be president so badly that he will join that band of radicals who have seriously damaged American democracy, who have tortured and lied, who have twisted our very Constitution so wrongly that it is hardly recognizable?

I refuse to believe it. It is not the John McCain I have known for 30 years.

John McCain can redeem himself and redeem the soul of his party by admitting once and for all that what is flawed about Iraq is not our military strategy, not our lack of will, not our failure of national commitment. It is that we chose the wrong war at the wrong time with the wrong enemy. John McCain's problem is not al Qaeda. His problem is George W. Bush and the people he chose to advise him.

We will pay for their arrogance for years to come. Our 35,000 casualties are paying with their lives and their futures.

Comments

[JackLivigni]

John McCain is a hero for having resisted the years of prison and torture in vietnam. Does this excuse everything wrong he is and has done since? Does this mean his policies, his interests, his devotion are to the common American?

Actions speak louder than words in response to the above questions, and those answers aren't looking very heroic.

[chad413]

Mr. Hart,

Thank you for pointing out the fact that John McCain is no more ready to lead this country than an average 7 year old child. Thank you for the time you have taken to get involved to help educate this country at it's most critial time. Thank you for pointing out that John McCain is intelligent enough, that he is a combat veteran, that he is courageous and in essence a great American.

But most of all Mr. Hart, thank you for pointing out to the world that John McCains problem is George Bush. He can not seperate himself. To do so at this point would alienate himself from the base of the Republican party. He is adrift in a sea of dispair. he has no compass. He has no map. He has no direction in which to redeem himself and the Republican party. He has no plan for this country. I feel for John, I really do. He is a good senator, and a good representative for his constituency. If he were not, he would not have been a senator since 1982.

I know you have supported Barack. My hope is that you are using every avenue possible to continue to educate America and the world about Obama's message of Hope and Change. You may very well be. Please continue if you are, the world can not afford 4 more years of Bush policies wrapped up in the patriotic flag of McCain.

[Thorn]

You've actually stooped to Nazi comparisons? How sad.

[TexanJane]

Well, Thorn... you know what they say....

...If the jackboot fits....

[BCM75]

Senator Hart has always had a knack for being the one to say that the emperor has no clothes. I'm glad he is calling out the Ghost of McCain Past. Let's all remember that back around 2002 or 2003 there was serious consideration by some that McCain could be nominated to be the DEMOCRATIC presidential candidate in 2004 if he would campaign for and accept it. The McCain we are seeing now is hardly recognisable compared to his own self of just a few years ago. That McCain is as much forgotten now as Osama bin Laden, the fellow who actually brought 9/11 on us and was once declared "wanted: dead or alive" by G.W. Bush. When we first considered invading Iraq more than five years ago, Sen. Hart asked four questions: 1) How long will we be there? 2) How much will it cost? 3) How many casualties are expected? and 4) Who's going with us, meaning troops on the ground, not just holding our coat? Those questions were not answered then and if we'd known what the answers would turn out to be in 2008, millions of people who initially supported this war (Hillary Clinton included) would not have. Are any other countries even holding our coat in Iraq anymore?

Brian C. McCarthy, Esq.
Little Neck, New York

[jethrock]

Dear Mr. Hart...

Your analysis is flawed. You fail to recognize that McCain was ahead of the game by pushing for a war with Iraq prior to Bush's first inaugural speech (several years before).

I'm sick of the "Hero Worship"

I' sick of people comparing McCain as a President as Bush's third term when in fact he would expand the war to Lebanon, Iran and Russia... and who ever else ruffles his feathers. There is nothing "Heroic" about McCain's voting record in regard to our military, torture, cival rights, the environment, aid for natural disasters.­.. The list goes on and on.

McCain would be worse than Bush... PERIOD

[lungfish]

I liked your comments about the Neocons. However, I think you are a bit too kind to Mr. McCain. His military career has the same "party
boy" quality as Bush's early years, He cracked up four aircraft and did 20hours of combat
flying before he was shot down after graduating at the bottom of his class. In many ways this
is similar to the life of our current POTUS who also was a low achiever who tanked every
opportunity that came his way. Even Ronald Reagan thought that GWBush was a "ne'er do
well", and said so in writing.
Mr. McCain is, like Hillary Clinton, running for President for himself with very little concern
about the good of the country. He has adopted the NeoCon agenda fully and has said things
and then denied them so many times that he has no credibility with anyone who is actually
paying attention to him.
He clearly knows little to nothing about the Iraq situation or Iran/Iraq. His administration would
be a foreign policy fiasco and he would end his term in the same poor form that GWB is....
I am not sure that John McCain knows better Not sure at all. However, I think the rest of your
commentary is spot-on.

[jbatch]

Senator Hart:

On at least four occasions, McCain has confused Shites and Sunnis, and exhibited an appalling lack of knowledge about Iraq, the Muslim religion, and the roots of hate and violence in the mid-east.

So why are you so sure he knows better?

Either way, he shouldn't be in the White House

[Rashnak]

57 states?

[billwetzel]

Seriously, is that all you got?

[NAMI]

POLITICAL AMBITION has blinded McCAIN....­..........­..he sounds as pathetic as

[NAMI]

Thank you Mr Hart
They have created this enemy so they can use them to terrorize the American people to vote Republican to the end of time......­..........­..........­...permane­nt Republican majority.!­!!
ha ha ha how many times will they try to fool us........­....
everytime Bin Laden and his fellowship see Americans wait in line and forced to take off their shoes at the airtport..­..........­........th­ey laugh at us . they are having fun ..........­...while we feel so miserable waiting in line for a trip.
They have succeeded they have changed our lifestyle. The terrorists succeed when they have terrorized us, so we waste hours upon hours of our precious time. TIME IS MONEY

[SeaBlood]

It's hard to believe that the Bush presidency has brought our republic to the brink of extinction---- just when we were flying so high ! You'd think that that alone would put the Kibosh on idiotic Republican ideation. But, alas, they still persist in their delusional thinking.

[FogBelter]

Senator Hart, I wholeheartedly agree with all your observations, but please, sir ... please, let us all moderate our tone towards Senator McCain for the time being. He's such a cornucopia of political opportunity ... let's let the good Senator stew in his own juices for a while and then cook the turkey come November ...


Just a thought.

[Wildspirit]

Fogbelter has the right idea...com­e November..­.
and Veteran1964, Jim McCoy, too.
I'm a 1964 Vietnam veteran and retired USN myself.
Remember, there was no 'Al Qaida' in Iraq prior to our occupation!
(I can't remember why we were in Vietnam now, either.)

[LorettaSingbiel]

"(I can't remember why we were in Vietnam now, either.)"

...to fight them (communists) there, so we don't have to fight them here.

...and NOW they OWN us!?


None the less, we shall stay the course (CURSE), steadfast in our struggles to "spread democracy" one drop of blood (AND OIL) at a time...if it's the LAST thing we do!

...because the surge (SCOURGE) is working,

...and victory (VIOLENCE) is just around the corner (CORONER)!

From a distance you look like my friend,
even though we are at war.
From a distance I just cannot comprehend
what all this fighting is for.

OBAMA '08! (IF it's not too late!)
HOPE & CHANGE!

Stay safe, healthy and happy,
Love, Loretta

[Canadienne]

This is a good piece that highlights an under-discussed point about McCain, conservatives, and the failure to understand that supporting the troops does not always mean supporting the war.

I am curious, though: to which country is the author referring when he says "the oldest democracy on earth"? I would hope it is a figurative statement.

[JulieSA]

The US is the oldest democracy on earth. Name one other country that's had a democratic government since 1776.

[Skepticat]

USA first democracy?
Ah that depends on definition doesn't it. The Greek city states for a while had "direct democracies" where every male citizen voted directly on issues. Rome for a while had a republic where the male citizens could vote.
In 1776 the future USofA women couldn't vote - most blacks were slaves. The white guys had about the same voting rights as they had in Britain at that time which was a constitutional monarchy. The framers of the constitution thought people were too irresponsible to elect a president - thus the electoral college - given Bush - they might have been correct.
In most of the Native American tribes the men chose the leaders, The Iroquois confederacy had operated by a consensus process. The Swiss cantons had male voter elections.

[RichLiberal]

Neocon Obama wants to fight Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and anywhere else they show up except Iraq. But if they show up in Iraq then he will fight them there, too.

In the unlikely event that Obama wins the election, I expect he will not bring home a single troop. He'll be so busy trying to prove that's he's tough that the military is going to start fighting everywhere.

[Deni]

And your sourcing on this?

[lungfish]

Al Qaeda isn't the problem, They are a minority force in all three countries. The problem is with the ethnic militias that are in a civil war. Heck, many of them are fighting Al Qaeda. To attack Al Qaeda in
Pakistan or Afghanistan would not require much in the way of resources. Bring the Iraqi army to do
the muscle with the oversight of US military advisers doing surgical strikes with special forces/special police. Moqtada al'Sadr has sixty thousand armed militia, I doubt that there are 5000 Al Qaeda fighters in Iraq. The majority are in Afghanistan, working with the Taliban, and there are some in Pakistan. We take em out ten or more at a time with Predator drones. We have decimated their leadership. The reason for the muscle in Afghanistan is to fight the Taliban which has tens of thousands of troops.
If we were only fighting Al Qaeda instead of the Taliban and the Iraqi ethnic militias, we would be able to fight them with special forces and the Iraqi army, Pakistani Army and the Afghan army/UN...
So...... Obama could draw down a lot of troops and bring a lot more force to bear on Al Qaeda if the
US reduced its overall military strategy to fighting Al Qaeda and getting the Iraqi army in gear to take care of the civil war matter in line with the Iraqi government­...

[jsmedia]

"He'll be so busy trying to prove that's he's tough" Obama knows his history and he knows that was one of Kennedy's mistakes. He will avoid "trying to prove that's he's tough" with other people's lives.

[JIM08now]

This is why I like Sen. Hart so much! Great response to McCain's wierd antics. Plainly lays out the case that McCain has sold out. After the savage attack on him in South Carolina in years past, he responds by becoming like his attackers. "Maverick" no more. What is Hart doing these days? What a great asset he could be in the cabinet of the coming democratic presidency.

[tomasagee]

Senator Hart today is:

-- Chairman of the Council for a Livable World, a national organization devoted to ending nuclear weapons forever.

-- Chairman of the American Security Project, a national organization that has just prepared a new international security manifesto for the next administration in Washington.

-- Leading an effort based at the University of Colorado to present the next president with a blueprint for overcoming global warming and becoming energy independent.

-- From 1999 to 2001, was co-chair of the U.S. Commission on National Security for the 21st Century, which conducted the most comprehensive review of national security since 1947, predicted the terrorist attacks on America ala 9/11, and proposed major revisions of U.S. national security structures and policies to address current and future realities.

-- Has written 18 books, the most recent of which is "Under the Eagle's Wing," a national security blueprint for the next president.

-- Earned a philosophy doctorate at Oxford in 2001 and is a scholar-in­-residence at the University of Colorado in Denver.

Etc., etc., etc.

[JIM08now]

Thanks for that, tomasagee. And there you have it. Hart has more knowledge and has generated more thought and ideas from one, single mind than everyone in this entire administration has in 8 pathetic years of neglecting real government. It is criminal. If one thinks government is useless, then they would staff it by picking unqualified cronies to diddle around, as these guys did. This administration did not run to govern a nation, they ran to advance an extreme agenda being championed by a minority. Now that they are exposed, those that followed because they were robots and had no ability to learn and form an original opinion are slowly starting to jump ship. I can just imagine the many books that will be written by former insiders exposing the total ineptness, corruption, and disdain for "ordinary" Americans that was the hallmark of these goofballs. I trust that we as a nation will learn from our (not mine, though) mistakes. I stilll cannot explain how the nations elected these people. It looks now that the nation is beginning to awaken. Nov 08 should be an overwhelming democratic success at the presidential, senate and congressional levels. Obama or HRC, it doesn't matter to me. Both will do more for America in the first few months than "Cheeney" and the gang of miscreants have accomplished in 8 yrs. That's good because it will take years to correct on a worldwide basis the disastrous mistakes and stupidity we lived and are living through.

[Balloonman]

Absolutely!