McSame As Bush: McCain's Road To Iran

Senator John McCain "hates war," because he knows "very well and very personally how grievous its wages are." This was Senator McCain's preamble to a speech he gave in March on the imminent threat that Iran poses to the United States. This "straight talk" opening had the irony of a recovering alcoholic doing Johnny Walker ads. Dubiously, the meat of his speech was meant to sell us on the idea that Iran plans to provide terrorists with WMDs because "they share with terrorists the same animated hatred for the West." McCain made no reference to the dizzying turnabout by US intelligence agencies, which had agreed months earlier that Iran neither possesses WMDs nor has the immediate capabilities to manufacture them.

But McCain's dangerously spurious logic wafted over the heads of Corporate Television news, at least until recently, when Senator Lieberman was forced, on camera, to correct McCain's assertion that Shia Iran is aiding Sunni Al Qaeda-- a mistake he later attributed to "jet-lag." This so-called mistake illumines the motivation behind McCain's recent barrage of anti-Iran rhetoric that justifies Bloomberg News labeling McCain as more hawkish than President Bush.

The Real News has taken a fresh look at Sen. McCain to connect the scattered dots of his foreign policy strategy.

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Comments

[lvdragonlady]

These to clowns (shrubie and mac) are determined to wage a war on Iran.
Let's just cut our loses and get our troops out of Iraq. Do none of you Bible thumpers read the book you are so ready to quote???
Read the book of Revelations!!!!

[Puller58]

The repub playbook counts heavilly on several things. 1. The evangelical base is gung ho on WWIII in order to bring about the return of Jesus. 2. The muddled, befuddled middle doesn't understand foreign policy, and will yield to national defense arguements. 3. Big business loves war profiteering. That ensures campaign funding. 4. Ultra-conservative jewish groups will throw big bucks in defense of Israel by a proxy war on Iran. 5. Too many dems are cowed over the war, and will either meekly object or be voted out by slick repubs. 6. Obama and Hillary will be dogged by their respective baggage. 7. The MSM can't bring itself to cover either McCain or the war honestly. 8. Despite the economy, people will fail to connect the dots and won't show up at the polls to make a difference. 9. Nadar will either siphon votes from the dems, or cause people to skip voting. 10. The bottom line is that the dems have failed to take advantage of the mid-term elections and will have no support. That means McCain and the war on Iran are coming.

[Neef]

First of all, your #1 cracked me up. nice one!

Second, the key to this election will be the viral campaigning, not the Party Message. Whichever side gets out the crushing YouTube videos first, will win it.

Both the Dems are video fodder, expect to see "sniper fire" and Wright over and over. But McCain, I have a hard time seeing how he and his advisers are going to bridge the generation gap, and take advantage of the medium. He is going to be portrayed as a warmongering, doddering old man in skit and satire.

Barak will be portrayed as a militant, Hillary as a liar. But McCain will be portrayed as a fool, and we don't easily forgive that. Remember Gerald Ford.

[mamacat]

Watching the interview at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, I was struck by the realisation that even many of the Republican Senators are now disillusioned with the lies justifying this war.

Nevertheless, I believe that almost none of the Republican Senators or Representatives have the courage to go up against the very powerful neo-con machine controlling the Republican party. When push comes to shove, almost all of the Republican politicians in Washington will fall in line with the RNC, and instead of voting their conscience, they will vote as they are told to, much to the harm of the country and the world.

I am convinced that it is of the utmost importance to remove the right wing extremists from their current position of power in our country, and the most practical way to do that is through direct action at the ballot box. Since there are currently no national Republican leaders willing or able to lead us with sanity and morality, there really is no alternative to voting for whoever the Democrats finally nominate.

[julieeiluj]

How many of our elected officials in Washington will lift a finger to try and stop a rapidly approaching war with Iran? I count 6. Not enough.

[MajorKong]

So, Iran is an "imminent threat" but we can take them out with three days of airstrikes. You can't have it both ways. They can't be a huge threat and a pushover at the same time.

This is the same twisted logic that got us into Iraq. They were a "grave threat" yet the invasion was going to be a "cakewalk".

[nsiah7]

Bring it on. Let us see how far Amricans can go in Iraq. Listen to Obama and be diplomatic in the Arab World. Force cannot win and it has never won.

[stlswest]

Great ?