The Politics of War: McCain's Reaction to the Crisis in the Caucasus

If last week's Georgia crisis showed anything, it is that John McCain should not be president. There is a Cabinet post for which he is well-qualified: that's Secretary of War. Too bad it's been abolished.

Seriously, look at McCain's reaction to the crisis in the Caucasus. It was crystal clear. "We are all Georgians," he declared in the Wall Street Journal. He was proposing a confrontation with Russia. Maybe not a military confrontation just yet, but McCain saw this in black and white. Georgia is good. Russia is evil. And we must fight evil to defend this young democracy.

To be fair, there is a lot of truth in McCain's argument. Russia under Vladimir Putin has taken a turn for the worse. It is more modern but not more free. It is richer but not more civilized. It wants to be respected by the West, but it has yet to adopt Western values. Its invasion of Georgia was an outrage. But neither the American people nor any of our Western allies are ready to go to war with Russia over the Georgian province of South Ossetia.

That is why "we are all Georgians" is so troubling. John Kennedy was right when he said "Ich bin ein Berliner." And America was prepared for a military confrontation with the Soviet Union to defend the people of West Berlin in the early 1960s. And Le Monde was right in its famous headline "we are all Americans" after the attacks on 9/11. Sure enough, France and most of the world joined the United States in the war in Afghanistan.

I was proud to accompany Madeleine Albright to Bosnia in 1994, some months before NATO finally used military force against the Bosnian Serbs. At the time, she was a lonely voice for using air power to defend Bosnia. And I suspect there were more than a few administration officials who winced when she told the people of that besieged city, "I am a Sarajevan."

There is a time for that kind of powerful rhetoric. And in international affairs, there is a time and a place when war is justified and necessary. It's just that Georgia is not the place and now is not the time for a war against Russia.

This isn't the first case in which John McCain has sought to convince America that war is the answer to some international problem. Most biographies of McCain say he is a reluctant warrior -- and, as a former P.O.W., someone who hates war as only a soldier who has seen battle can. That may have been true early in his career. But at least in recent years, he has been one of a handful of politicians arguing for the use of force in nearly every major crisis.

There was North Korea in 1994. At the time, the Clinton administration was faced with a crisis that now seems quaint. Pyongyang was threatening to go forward with a nuclear weapons program and kick U.N. inspectors out. Washington was calling for sanctions but offering an agreement to freeze the North's program in exchange for a series of incentives. McCain didn't want a deal. He proposed air strikes to destroy their reactors, arguing that the North would absorb the strike rather than fight a war. We'll never know if his cosmic roll of the dice would have worked. President Clinton rejected his idea. So did President George W. Bush. Under the Bush administration, of course, North Korea has tested a nuclear weapon and made the material for a dozen or so more.

Then there was Syria, Iran and Iraq after 9/11. McCain was one of a few talking about taking the military fight to these three rather than just Afghanistan. Given the difficulty we have had in Iraq over the last five years, it's hard to imagine what would have happened if we also attacked Iran and Syria.

McCain has continued to make the case for war with Iran. He is one of the few who has put his cards on the table, saying the only thing worse than the use of force against Iran is an Iran with nuclear weapons.

The point is not that he is wrong every time. What is so troubling is that I can't think of any other senior politician who seems to always argue for war. For John McCain, then, military force may not be the first resort, but it's not the last either.

Over eight long years, the United States has been led by an administration that has shown little or no facility for solving international crises through diplomacy. The Bush team has also diminished America's historic role as peacemaker. Remember those days when the White House lawn was a virtual rehearsal hall for a Nobel Peace Prize?

The next American government must be able to marry America's military power with the power of its diplomacy. That means not only working to restore respect for the United States but also showing that we are peacemakers, too. America simply can't afford a third administration run by a "War President." That's why it can't afford a McCain victory.

Comments

[Cybershaman]

Now that we have forced Poland to accept the Missile Defense plan, how long do you think it will be before we have a return of the Cuban Missile Crisis? The Bush League has now acheived one of their wet dreams. A return of the cold war.
I wonder what King George II really saw when he looked into Putins eyes. I know what Putin saw...cluelessness with a furrowed brow.
Ya think the Russkies are helping the Taliban in Afghanistan so we bankrupt ourselves just like we did to them aka: Charlie Wilson.
Nobodies talking about Ossetia and what Georgia was doing there. Funny how the Bush League creates the very monsters we eventually have to fight. Guess it's because it's the only thing they can get elected on.

[Arden701]

If Mr. Obama has any hope of winning in November, all he needs to do is speak out against the anti-Russia and anti-China drumbeat! If we keep this up - we'll have the Tibet lobby and the Georgia lobby with us - and McCain in the White House! Hasn't this guy any cojones? Why doesn't he take a stand? Is he really on the Russia bashing team?

If we reached out, the three super powers could actually spend a bit of time going after our mutual enemy - the Islamic crazies! But if we want the Tibetan monks and the Georgians to love us, we'll keep going until we fall off the cliff! Is there anyone out there?

Arden

[GrannyForObama]

Well isn't it just a marvelous wag-the-dog coincidence that just months before the election, with Senator McCain behind in the polls and an advisor who moonlights as a lobbyist for Georgia (or vice-versa), we have a made-to-order crisis in Georgia that allows his campaign to pour on the cold war revival fear mongering big time and announce from sea to shining sea that only Senator McCain is ready for the showdown in the ok corral. Imagine that.

You can't make this stuff up.

Quite frankly, however, if I wanted someone to fight my battles, I would pick Senator Obama any day. but then he is smart enough to have a foreign policy that would have avoided this Grade B movie scenario in the first place. Senator McCain is a drama-king. I want a President.

[bushlies]

McCain is open to reinstating the draft. That alone should rule out any chance of him being elected President. How many wars do these damned Republicans want anyway? Or are they just planning on nuking everyone and ending the whole works once and for all.
Sounds like "Vote for us or we'll kill you!"

[dbm1966]

All this sabre rattling is insane. How many wars does this man want to fight? Because of this man's wars we don't even have enough soldiers to go into Georgia. Putin must have had quite a chuckle over McCain's empty threats.

And did you hear the latest? Last night a woman at one of McCain's town hall meetings suggested to McCain that with all that is going on the world, it's probably necessary to bring back the draft. HE AGREED!

I don't want a war president. I want one who can deal with the wars that we currently have and also engage in diplomacy. I don't think McCain could spell diplomacy.

[BushSunkOurShip]

If you were Russia what in the h... would be going through your mind and type of actions would you be taking ,,, when Bush comes into your world with his lies , BS , invasion countries at his will , supplying military intelligents arms to your neighbors which attacks others.
Talk of surrounding your country with military bases and neighbors which they turn against you.
Bush stated that he was a war president before his invasion of Iraq. Then he wishes in attack Syria , Iran and all around the world like Columbia his is trying and overthrowning governments left and right.

Russia has seem Bush disarm a country like Iraq and then attack them killing over 1,000,000 of their citizens while destroying their country and setting up military bases.

We didn't stand for Russia to put missles in Cuba.....

Bush and McCain are no different they both are looking for glory , power and wealth and will do it at anyone's expense...

[KarlaElisa]

The John Wayne mentality is alive and well in America Government with the McCains. Me? I would prefer to elect the jelly donut.

[VANDERGRAAFK]

How on earth do you explain this leap in logic: It's just that Georgia is not the place and now is not the time for a war against Russia? Oh, that's right. There is no argument here.

Second, why must we assume that war is the only option. Perhaps the intoxication of power in accompanying Madeleine Albright to Bosnia or whereever has clouded the vision.

It is possible to achieve a desired result without the actual usage of military power. Alas, neither McCain nor the Chicken Hawks understand that. One would hope that Obama understood this. In this respect, the Kennedy analogy might be apt. For Kennedy came in as a novice and agreed to a foolish use of military power "the Bay of Pigs Invasion", learned his lesson, then showed great skill in defusing the issue of Soviet missiles in Cuba by resorting to an ultimatum. That's classic 19th century politics, one that could be of use in the Georgia-Russia dispute. It would require a big power to step forward. Certainly, one cannot expect the blowhard Bushidos and Bomb Bomb Iran McCain to judiciously exercise power. Meanwhile, Russia digs in and interprets the ceasefire accords to its liking.

Hitler could have been stopped in the Sudetenland crisis. He wasn't. And a lot of people paid a much larger price later. Putin is no Hitler, but that doesn't mean his near abroad doesn't pose a problem for Europe.

[baghdadjoe]

Why aren't McCain and Bush as interested in bringing democracy to America?

[idest]

It would cut into the profit margins.

[BaltimoreSteve]

Jamie,
I agree with you 100% on the policies, approach and position for McCain, but disagree on what you should be doing now.

Now is not the time for people of your stature who are democrats to be making logical, detailed arguments. We need to insure a Dem in the White House come January. I would rather hear you on CNN or the other MSM saying that McCain is acting like a Secretary of War, that he wants confrontation, and is unfit for the presidency­....period­. I know it is hard for a statesman to not get entangled in the details, but now we need you as a democrat. Please use your ability to gain exposure to make bullet points, and let's win this election.

A Secretary of State Rubin can only occur if Obama wins.

[Donald Wolberg]

History can be a marvelous teacher, or a myst that obscures reality. Mr. Rubin's vision is obscured and he forgets that it was the judgement that Mr. Kennedy was ineffective and inexperienced, demonstrated by the Bay of Pigs debacle where Mr. Kennedy refused to support the invasion he approved, and led to Mr. Kruschev's aggressive missiles in Cuba and a Berlin Wall. Similarly, Mr. Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner," remark was a bad move except at home. In idiomatic German, the comment means "I am a jelly donut." The irony of course, is that Mr. Kennedy "learned" and was prepared to bring the world to the point of nuclear war with the Soviets to get the missiles removed from Cuba.

Of course Mr. Rubin is a loyal Democrat and hopes Mr. Obama will be victorius in November. Unfortunately, the American people have seen Mr. Obama as a candidate with too much luster and not enough substance and amazingly without portfolio on issue after issue, not the least of which is the current Russian aggression in a democratic nation that is Georgia. To accuse Mr. McCain of being too strident, neglects the fact of history that Mr. Kennedy was ready for war over Cuba, and then helped overthrow the Viet Nam government and inject U.S. presence into that nation. Mr. Rubin should look to the history of WW II; a case can be made that not standing up early enough led to the miscalculations of the Japanese and Hitler.

[research]

Since you are still getting the "Jelly donuts" thing wrong, I doubt the rest of your comments as well.

"helped overthrow the Viet Nam government and inject U.S. presence into that nation. "?!??!

Preemptive war, lying to start war, are war crimes, the worst war crimes, because left unchecked they cause unending world war.

GEORGIA ATTACKED OSSETIA!

READ THE HISTORY OF OSSEITIA!

[Donald Wolberg]

Unfortunately "a Berliner" is idiomatically, a jelly filled pastry, and the correct German is as reprted: "Ich bin Berliner" and oddly, Mr. Carter, as you should remember, did not improve much with his bad Polish translator. Mr. Reagen had the good sense to stick to English when he implored: "Mr. Gorbachev, knock down these walls."

There is of course an internal a logic to not having the strength, mostly moral but somethimes physical as well, to refuse to allow corrupt leaders such as Mr. Putin and the Russian neo-imperialist urge, to defy all that is right. Mr. Russell, the mathematician and philosopher said and wrote many interesting thins but, unfortunately, hallowed cowardice when he said, " better Red than dead." Similarly, we should stand with Mr. Churchill in his strident reaction to fascism, not the appeasers in Britain or Mr. Charles Agustus Lindbergh the U.S. The world instead yielded to Hitler in the face of Anschluss and theft of the Sudetenland. Mr. Obama's and Mr. Rubin's failings match those of Mr. Bush in their shortcomings: to reason with corruption is to yield to it in fact and in action. Mr. Bush saw Mr. Putin's soul as you recall. Mr. McCain, looking into the same eyes relates that he, "saw KGB." I prefer the Democratic tradition of FDR and Mr. Truman and it is appropirate for America to oppose the brutality of the small by the evil of the bully. If not us, then who?

[research]

Oh please:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_bin_ein_Berliner#Jelly_doughnut_urban_legend

[research]

"In fact, Kennedy's statement is both grammatically correct[4] and perfectly idiomatic, and cannot be misunderstood in context. "

from the link

[VANDERGRAAFK]

Well, this ought to be explained. In German, a Berliner is a type of jelly donut. The issue arises from Kennedy's use of the word "ein". Normally, I would say: ich bin Mannheimer. That is, I am from Mannheim. A Berliner (a resident) would say: Ich bin Berliner. Use of "ein" does not automatically make Kennedy a jelly donut. It just makes the phrase ambiguous and suggests that the speaker is not native. Most Germans chuckle and move on. Only Americans bring up this hopeless canard.

I agree about your other comment. Apparently, this person shows little or no understanding of the Cuban Missile Crisis. May I recommend Michael Dobbs' recent book, including new source material, on that crisis. Titled One Minute to Midnight, the book is excellent.

[AspenFreePress]

War with Russia won't happen. We only get into wars with countries that we know we can whup.
Sterling Greenwood
Aspen Free Press

[Donald Wolberg]

That of course is wildly absurd. No other nation has stood for and with the abused of this world for 100 years, and we saved Europe in two wars, and defeated the greatest threat to Asia in 1000. We live in a time and place where even the ridiculous can be spoken years. But that luxury was purchased with the lives of many.

[idest]

Wow, your sense of history is entirely jingoistic. Let me ask you this, do you think America has done anything WRONG in its history, and if so, what?

[sprite]

Oh really? Like Iraq? We will never whup them! They want us OUT and will fight indefinitely until many of ours and theirs are killed.

[BushSunkOurShip]

By this arrogant bs coming from McCain , Lieberman and this administration is suppose to also help the 100 year war man McSame to be "RE"-elected of 4 more years.

Let face it McCain is a terrible person for president,
He can not remember for one minute to the other what he has said, and is glad he doesn't and thanks the news media for censoring it.
McCain doesn't have a background for the presidency of our country and it is only BS and propaganda coming from the republicans.
McCain doesn't even know or give a damn was it is like to be in the other 80 percent of Ameicans which wealth have been stolen by Bush , Cheney and McCain's policies in the last 7.5 years.
Bush is building up the Black Sea with his NATO force. So all this news about Georgia and Russia will cover his move to strike Iran and Syria.

Oil and big business runs this administration and their policies or there are no cows in Texas...

[Babydoc]

Diplomacy, as well as statecraft, alliance building, and the ever-present implied threat of force, should all be part of any leader's skill set. Most importantly what's needed is long-range thinking regarding the goals a nation needs to set for itself. Otherwise we’re doomed to react to threats as we lurch blindly into the future.
Russia and Iran have an implied mutual defense pact. Any military action against Iran may be viewed by Moscow as a hostile act against Russia. The Russian military has twice recently indicated that preemptive nuclear attack is part of its strategic doctrine (stated specifically in regard to the Polish missiles, but presumably also valid as regards Iran). While Russia's "diplomacy" therefore falls well below what one would expect of a major nation (but not much below what one would expect from the kind of gangsters who would thrive in Gazprom and the KGB), to respond to this with ad hoc threats, militant bluster, or vain posturing is not going to take America into any kind of future where we have control over our own national interests.
The Bush/Rice foreign policy – absorbed with the mindless pursuit of the Iraq debacle - has left us directionless and adrift as regards the world other nuclear superpower. McCain doesn't get it. He seems to be utterly clueless as to what a coherent foreign policy might actually look like. Can anyone seriously see McCain as "the One" to forge a sound policy?

[DanBest]

"It is more modern but not more free. It is richer but not more civilized." I could say that about the USA. We have become a nation of misinformed hypocrites. Pot, meet kettle. And for the idiots who think we need to start a war with Russia? Guess what, geniuses? We can't even successfully occupy one, let alone two third world countries with no air force or standing armies. What do you think is going to happen if we tangle with a country like Russia? Are you ready for the draft and endless war? War as an instrument of foreign policy is dead. The sooner this country figures this out, the sooner we can regain our sanity. War is good for nothing and good for less than nothing in the world we live in now.

[jim mcshane]

pjean--great posting....Why doesn't Lou Dobbs know this fact regarding majority voting takes to pass bills? He keeps whinning about Democrat's aren't doing anything since they have been in office.. Or, is he just playing dumb to support the other party? Another point McCain supports is banning abortion and birth control---He will have more young people to fight his wars in years to come---Republican's believe in wars to make the economy grow-- of course it does, look at our country. They also like cheap labor, people over burdened with a large family will take any paying job, more likely jobs to raise their families. Where are the thinkers here??? McCain did not vote to support bills for Vets... go to search and ask.

[BushSunkOurShip]

Lou dobbs is a republican in Independent clothing. He is an arrogant hater of democrats and Obama.
He states facts that Obama receives 2 times the coverage as McCain but he fails to tell you that the news coverage about Obama is attacks on him from McCain and other republicans lies and misquotes like the Washington Post taking one sentence from Obama's statements and making it say something he didn't say.

News personal should have to tell the facts or be expelled from the news organization.

Look what happen to Dan Rather when he spoke the truth ,they fired him
It was because the article said something about the corruption or activities of Bush.

It has been proven not only about Fox news , Rush the pill popper , Ann Coulter (voter fraud and BSer) but all the news media will print or censor what is good for Bush no matter what the subject is about.
The news media personal has been replaced , militrary leaders have been replaced , the Judicial system have been places , as our constitution has been replaced , as our laws and courts have been replaces , as illegal spying has been started on our citizens to do the will and wishes of Bush , Cheney and this administration and if you go against them you find yourself in court or jail....
Say Hi to the Decider, who controls what everyone may do or say.....

[BushSunkOurShip]

If the past 7.5 years have not shown Americans that the republican believe in a two tier country , then they are beyond hope. A working class that receives the crumbs if any are let from the elite.
This is why McSame is attacking Obama on BS and "LIES" because they can not stand up and run on their corruption and destruction done to our nation which they are responsible for.
McCain looks as if he has something missing upstairs and we are not talking about his hair.
McSame makes bush look smart , and that is hard to do.
The news media when ever faced with McCain's lies , corruption and BS ,,, will say this is not like McCain...;... "But" it is the real McCain and it is His actions , policies and lies they are talking about.
The Best you can say about McCain being a straight shooter is by saying he uses crooked bullets,, personally McCain tells lies and is not a good person.