McCain Is Taking Foreign Policy Advice From This Guy?
Nothing pleases me more than listening to the sage wisdom of McCain's chief ideologue and foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann. If you listen to him talk enough, your head may develop sore spots from scratching. I don't mind that he never passes up a chance to take a pot shot at Obama -- that's what campaign strategists are paid to do. What puzzles me is his long and distinguished résumé of being wrong on pretty much every major foreign policy issue of our time.
But first thing's first: What's up with his bizarre preoccupation with time, and the order in which Obama events occur? One imagines he is the kind of person who is puzzled that lightning precedes thunder, not the other way around.
Let me explain what I mean: Scheunemann excoriated the Democratic candidate for giving a speech about Iraq before his trip to the country, not afterward. Similarly, as he told Der Spiegel prior to Obama's visit to Europe, Scheunemann is upset Obama "is giving his first major speech in Berlin before having met with French or British leaders. I don't know if it is even delivered before his meeting with German leaders. Clearly he is not taking into account what they say."
Clearly. Obama apparently is the kind of guy who tries to work the VCR before reading the manual, who refuses to ask for directions, and who forms impressions of people and places without ever stepping foot in their shoes or homes. That is basically what Scheunemann is saying.
And he should know something about sound judgment. This is, after all, the same guy who lorded over the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, the neocon effort that hatched the plan to take out Saddam -- aftermath or troop numbers or warnings from nearly every foreign leader be damned. More disturbingly, he is the worst kind of Washington insider, a guy who works on the hill, kisses every ass he can to further his career, and then cashes in on his Capitol Hill connections by -- what else? -- working as a lobbyist for dubious foreign governments. If North Korea were to hand him a briefcase of cash, he probably would buy a condo in Pyongyang.
Like all right-wing foreign policy hacks, he is a fervent believer in the sanctity of American power as an infallible force for good. By extension, America's allies must also be upstanding citizens of this world, which is why he lavished favors on his former client, Georgia, through his connections with, yes, John McCain. I have many Georgian friends and none of them think the government in Tbilisi is honest, clean, or democratic. Perhaps that explains McCain's obsessively anti-Russian stances and his plan to toss Moscow out of the G-8 -- a move that will do wonders for our reputation abroad.
Perhaps that also explains why Scheunemann, as he told the Council on Foreign Relations last March, hopes to admit not just Georgia, but also Ukraine, Albania, Croatia, Macedonia and every Mediterranean isle into NATO, despite enlargement fatigue among most Europeans and the fact that Bulgaria and Romania have barely cleaned up their act since joining the club. Randy, the problem with NATO is not that it needs more members -- it's that its current members do not meet their defense obligations, commit enough troops, or agree on any rules of engagement.
Or take his position on Afghanistan. Scheunemann says "this is by no means a military struggle." Huh? We're not at war there? Nope, he says. Soft power will save the day (neocons are big fans of the effectiveness of American propaganda, never failing to mention how Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty won us the Cold War and how similar efforts can win over Muslim hearts and minds). "In this struggle, scholarships will often be more important than smart bombs." ("Hey ma!" says Afghan school child. "Looks like I'm not gonna join the Taliban and need those roadside bombs after all...I'm heading to Yale!")
Scheunemann is also a big proponent of propping up (read: padding the pockets of) exile governments, like the Iraqi National Congress. He is a BFF of Ahmed Chalabi, Iraq's on-again-off-again oil minister who is under investigation for embezzling $200 million in Jordan. Where is it in the neocon handbook that says supporting these kinds of slippery Syriana-like characters furthers American interests abroad? Just curious.
Now we learn that Scheunemann is -- surprise, surprise -- closely linked to Stephen Payne, the lobbyist who resigned after a "cash for access" scandal, whereby Kazakhstan paid a lump sum of $2 million for Dick Cheney to visit the country and promise not to make any Borat jokes. In fact, he showered President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who like the vice president, is a very, very wealthy man, with nothing but praise. What's a few rigged elections between fellow millionaires?
But Scheunemann, one can guess, is also behind a host of other bad ideas on McCain's foreign policy docket, from moving the American embassy to Jerusalem (that is, before the Palestinians and Israelis first reach an agreement on its final status), to creating a League of Democracies, to ignoring the need for more resources along the Afghan-Iraq...er...Pakistan border. Or wait, maybe that slip-up, too, was Scheunemann's master plan to bring the Afghan conflict to Iraq's borders! I wouldn't put it past him.
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Maybe McCain will appoint RS ambassador to Czechoslovakia.
I'm really and truly frightened. If we have another 4 years of republican authoritarianism, we are doomed. Our democracy will be in tatters and this country will be gone forever just like all the evil empires before it.
From Wikipedia:
"As of July 8, 2008, The Project for the New American Century website is inoperable. A message saying that the account has been suspended and to contact the billing department was put on the site's page."
Yeah, we'll all be paying the bill for this war for years. Thanks, Randy.
"Like all right-wing foreign policy hacks, he is a fervent believer in the sanctity of American power as an infallible force for good."
This is the biggest misconception of all times. We have a lot more in common with our "enemies" than we care to admit.
Doing" good" is not the same as doing well.
WHY, WHY, not publicize the fact that Randy Scheunemann is a member of that treacherous PNAC?? These people's goals will ultimately destroy this democracy, as it almost has with their influence over Dubya. The McCain camp is run by a group of them, so you can see where we are headed. No one seems to be alarmed. The cable MSM uses them on air as pundits. They are ememy propagandists.
It's obvious that John McCain and president Bush are working in unison -
Bush gives an 8:05 am press conference about Iraq on the same day that McCain plans to spend the day speaking about Iraq.
The same thing happened a couple months ago over offshore drilling - McCain came out about offshore drilling, and the very next day president Bush came out about the same.
Bush is working behind the scenes with McCain - his secret agent man. LOL
Are all neocon-artists?
Yes, but no artists are neocons.
He may not be a savory character, but he shouldn't be "parodied' to the point where he is underestimated. He's well connected and accomplished in the role of foreign political affairs.
As for Russia, Democrats should not believe that the former Soviet Union is a "friend." Or, that the Russian Bear can be persuaded to be a good neighbor through raw diplomacy. Russia should be contained and one way to do it is have the fromer Soviet-era satelites of Eastern Europe join NATO. This method denies "re-expansion."
The flip side is that the Russians will continue a military build up.
Democrats never said that Russia was trustworthy, or a friend. it was Bushie that was scrabbling around in Putin's soul and found it good. It was Bushie who has given Russia a free ride.
You guys just love to project your failures onto the Democrats.
If you actually check the FACTS, you know those inconvenient things with a liberal bias, you would find that the GOP has crawled into bed with the Russians, and for profit.
I never mentioned "trustworthy" in my post. Democrats have as a political philosophy of international relations based on liberal realism or the English school or rationalism. As opposed to the Realist school (realpolitique). The former seeks solutions primarily through diplomacy and idealism (how things should be). The latter seeks to understand the world as it really is, the reality of the world. If you haven't noticed, the Russians were not the nicest of people and were bent on our demise. My contention is that some issues can be resolved through diplomacy but not the containment of the Russian state.
As for the "you guys" quip, I'm a Democrat and a pragmatist and an observer of international politics and history. As for "crawling into bed with the GOP," the issue is not about doing business with the Russians, the supra-issue is the relative power each nation state has or projects on a regional and global scale. Not the business deals with multinationals or the Putin cronies.
As for checking facts, you should not write a post without understanding the argument and knowing what you're talking about.
Hiring people like Scheunemann demonstrates poor judgment. Its kinda of sad really. Six years ago, I had a lot of respect for McCain, although I didn't agree much with his policies. Now, I'm not sure if he merely went to the Dark Side to get elected, or if his being "off kilter" enabled the Neocon and lobbyist stooges to hijack his brain and his soul. Maybe both.
The connections between neocon Scheunemann goes back a fair bit:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1999819,00.html
The myth of McCain
Sidney Blumenthal
Saturday January 27, 2007
The Guardian
"As the neoconservatives abandoned Bush's sinking ship, McCain welcomed them aboard."
Scheunemann was one of the chief neocon proponents of the hype, deception and lies that led up to the war in Iraq. McCain, like Bush, can be controlled. Neither are capable of logical nor critical thinking on their own and the neocons know this.
I wonder why the MSM hasn't looked more into this?
MSM won't identify any members of the PNAC, they have them as pundits. The neocon influence rules the cable MSM.
When you typed in the link, only part of it "took" - if somebody wants to read that Guardian article, you have to type in the rest of the link into your browser's box.
Another good introduction to the Scheunemann magic: W.ki.pedia - just look up PNAC - You'll be surprised who all you find there. It's like picking up a rock in the forest, and being revulsed and sickened by the maggots. But realizing that you probably knew it all along, just couldn't quite put your finger on WHY.
I'm not sure why Brother Beehner finds it surprising that the delusional tend to congregate together.
After all who better to understand one's fevered imaginings?
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