Running for War President at Any Cost

Just great! Nuclear-armed Pakistan is falling apart, Iran's nuclear program is unchecked and congressional legislation on cooperation with the Russians on controlling nuclear proliferation is now dead in the water. Horrid news except for Sen. John McCain, who thrills to a repeat of the danger lines of the Cold War, and now stands a good chance of being our next president.

A very good chance, if the Russian recognition of the independence of two breakaway Georgia provinces can be elevated to the status of a major challenge to the security of the United States. It is an absurd claim: How can one justify uncritical support for the independence of Kosovo from Serbia earlier this year while denouncing a similar claim by a Georgian ethnic minority? It is also difficult to ignore that it was Georgia's president and close McCain friend, Mikheil Saakashvili, who upset the status quo by invading first.

Saakashvili's attempt to compare the Russian response with that of the "Stalinist Soviet Union" is a nutty reference to a Georgian-born tyrant who ruled Russia and who is still revered in much of his native Georgia. But when you need a new Stalin to get a Cold War going, President Dmitry Medvedev and the elected members of a unanimous Russian parliament will have to do. And McCain is very happy to have this card to play.

McCain can win only as a war president. He neither knows nor cares much about the economic meltdown, which is the consequence of the deregulation mania that he has supported at every turn during his career in the Senate. If McCain had to run on his economic policy record in the Senate, he might be a loser even in his home state of Arizona, whose residents are suffering mightily from economic disarray presided over by the Republicans. Better to dwell on the dubious success of the surge in Iraq than on the surge in home mortgage foreclosures and the price of gasoline that has crippled Arizona's and the nation's economy. Still better to change the subject to the Russians and Georgia rather than dwell overly long on the disaster of Iraq, which has cost our nation trillions of dollars and where the prime minister now is far more zealous than Barack Obama in calling for an early withdrawal of U.S. troops. But whatever McCain's problems from cheerleading for Bush's war, they pale in comparison to his vulnerability on the most pressing domestic issues.

Instead of learning the hard lessons of the need for stern government oversight of the financial sector from his own compromised involvement as a member of the Keating Five in the 1980s savings-and-loan scandal, he voted to have more of the same. McCain became a booster for all of the banking deregulation legislation advanced by the Senate Banking Committee's then-chairman, Phil Gramm, who, more than any other legislator in the past decade, should be held responsible for the current mess.

Instead of recognizing that Gramm had pursued a disastrous course as the subprime mortgage scandal was exposed, McCain appointed the former-senator-turned-banker to be his campaign chair. McCain fired Gramm over a verbal gaffe but has not retracted any of his key votes liberating the financial community to fleece those desperate to become homeowners, and, were that the subject of the presidential campaign, he would lag way behind in the polls. This is not the season for laissez-faire corporate capitalism.

That's why he needs a new Cold War, but it's a bad fit for the world we face. The danger from Russia is not that it has imperial ambitions driven by the remnants of an expansionist communist ideology. Even China, which is still a communist-run state, knows that old-fashioned imperialism doesn't pay. What drives nations to madness these days is not ideology -- communist, Muslim or any other flavor of the month -- but rather an assortment of nationalist and religion-fueled grievances. In the case of Russia, the evolution of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin from the man Bush so admired to the one McCain despises was driven by hostile U.S. policies -- from NATO expansion to placing anti-missile rockets near Russia's borders.

The first step in adjusting U.S. foreign policy to a multipolar world is to recognize that other nations, as well as the United States, have causes and concerns that may be legitimate, even when they differ from our view. The hope of the Obama campaign was that a less U.S.-centric view might be in the offing, but that might be too great an expectation in the midst of a presidential campaign.

Robert Scheer is author of a new book, "The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America."

Comments

[TonyNYC]

With the Bush administration taking us to war in Iraq on a lie where they literally manufactured the evidence which never ring true to me for one minute, although they fooled the majority of Americans.
With this administration creating false color coded alerts during the 2004 election to which Tom Ridge admits to.
With this administration able to release Ben Laden video on the eve of an election
With the president of Georgia trying to promote Mc Cain while h is country was under seige.
With the president of Georgia yet to explain why he invade South Osettia.
With the president of Georgia talking as if he expected Europe and America to come to his aid.
As an American I hate to say it , Putin sound more credible than the warmongers in the Bush administration and the Republican party.
I will put nothing pass them, especially with the fact that McCain seems to have some prior knowledge of the invasion and was able to send members of his shadow government to Georgia followed by his wife. It appears that he has some vested interst in this conflict after all " we are all Georgians" yet we are not "citizens of the world."
I am sure in a year or two after the election the truth will come out but it will be too late. The democratic party must act now to inform the people of what is at stake if this guy becomes president.

[seanseamour]

Do we really want another cowboy good at shooting from the hip, with limited and so often erroneous knowledge of the world beyond conus, or a well learned and knowledgeable leader who knows how to select his advisers, believes military might is a measure of last resort when diplomacy has no recourse. Beyond the choice of McCain we must take into account the fact that he represents the neo-conservative movement, the genesis of unilateralism and preemptive military intervention that has weakened our credibility and has de-facto isolated us from collaborative action. This group includes trigger happy hawks willing to use military power to advance the economic and political interests of the same special interests that have high jacked our democracy and made us a black sheep to much of the world. I am not fond of BC but did catch a noteworthy phrase in his speech last night to which I adhere as an expat living abroad "People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power"

[Berettasskeeter]

Mr. Scheer, in your praise for Russia's support for the two "breakaway" provinces, you neglect to mention that this support grew through Russia's seeding of the provinces with ethnic Russians, who then asked for help from the Rodina. This is exactly what Hitler did in his actions in the Sudetenland and Rhineland. Your support for Russia certainly pre-dates this particular post!
Semper fi

[larry278]

Whomever becomes POTUS #44 is fated to be a cold war president. He'll be remembered for keeping the USA out of a hot war with Putin's Russia, if he accomplishes that. 2008 reminds some of the USA in the early 1950's. Life will be interesting as in the Chinese curse.

[TRIATHLON]

OPEN HAND OR CLOSED FIST?

Larry228: Whoever becomes POTUS #44 is fated to be a cold war president. He'll be remembered for keeping the USA out of a hot war with Putin's Russia, if he accomplishes that.

TRIATHLON: Which of the two becomes the (IP/MIC) Imperial President of the Military Industrial Complex, has to make a complete attitude change in the (MIC). This is not the (20th) Century of Pox America, it is over. And, there is going to have to be a complete reevaluation of its relationship to the State of Israel. Is the State of Israel the (51st) State or is it an Independent Sovereign Nation? The (MIC) must begin alter its positions between Israel and the (1B) One Billion Muslim World Population.

Without a return to the (UN) United Nations, as a member and not as its director we are doomed to continue down the road of confrontation, with the (21st) Centuries New Power The New Soviet Russia. Or, the game plan looks to be (The 20th Century US/MIC & Israel) Vs (The 21st Century New Soviet Russia & Islam).

The difference between the (1950’s and the 20th Century), and (2008 and the 21st) Century is we believe a Nuclear War was (MAD) Mutually Assured Destruction, the (MIC) of the (21st) Century see’s a First Pre-emptive Strike Nuclear War as Winnable.

[Rule Of Law]

In the case of Russia, the evolution of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin from the man Bush so admired to the one McCain despises was driven by hostile U.S. policies -- from NATO expansion to placing anti-missile rockets near Russia's borders.

And does anyone reading here today not believe that these moves are all set pieces in an elaborate international ballet designed to prop up the Elites in both countries/

[SamEllison]

Is it a coincidence that McCain's buddy in Georgia tried to draw attention away from Iraq's agreeing with Obama's troop redeployment plan by attacking areas under control of Russian peacekeepers?
No, I don't think it a coincidence.
Georgia should change lobbyists.
Cain't get much wronger than that.

[Rule Of Law]

If that's true, then we had better have the X-men and the League of Super heroes guarding our voting machines THIS fall, because that sort of military manipulation makes rigging an election (ooops--Another election) look easy.

[MPeter]

War President, alright. Take a look at this McCain.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlX9l1g1ZE0&eurl

[renatam]

This is WHY McCain (and Neocon Lieberman) is so dangerous. Yes, dangerous. We will need Joe Biden to take him on in a BIG WAY -- and, not depend upon the self-centered former Democratic President - Bill Clinton -- to join the roster of other former Presidents on taxpayer-retirement doles and lifelong Secret Service while globetrotting -- from George H. W. Bush to Jimmy Carter -- to do the right thing (finally, after 7 years) and focus on WHY John McCain can never become President.

Bill Clinton's post-Presidency is about MAKING MONEY and his unvetted Foundation is a cover for that priority. If he really wanted to do something important, he should have been challenging the current President's policies for years, but that would have interfered w/his international DEALMAKING. No domestic public service, here. Only unvetted PR "Foundation" work - out of his Country, which is in desperate trouble.

SELF is the Clinton prism.
SELF is the McCain prism.
SELF is the Bush prism.
SELF is the Cheney prism.

MONEY is their game. Hedge fund families -- all -- w/empires of lobbyists. Clinton will do only so much to do the right thing - triangulation of interests where we get some of what is best, but not all of what is best for the American people. We no longer have to COMPROMISE for something that is a little better than Bush Sr. and Bush Jr -- otherwise known as the Clinton/Lieberman DLC.

Let's change this dangerous game, America.

[mjc]

Tried earlier to respond to you Clinton hate speech but no luck. The dangerous game in the United States is allowing people like you, filled with hate for American leaders for unknown reasons, to spew it out on forums like this. Bill Clinton was president for 8 years and those were years of a budget surplus and peace and prosperity for the most part. His work since then has been on behalf of AIDS and bringing attention of the world to areas in Africa and in South Asia where poverty is completely overwhelming. If Bill Clinton's successes and Hillary Clinton's successes as a Senator from one of the biggest states offends you, we do not need to know about it.

[mjc]

Think you are quite right about McCain and you could substitute any Republican of recent years and perhaps future years in that category. What worries me most, however, is how Barack Obama will fit in that category, even with the help of Joe Biden. He supposedly has the help of 300 advisors of more or less stature, but recognizing that Russia MIGHT have a legitimate interest in the two provinces would have to be tempered with a concern about the oil pipelines that run through them to the sea. No question that the present administration allowed a lull in Russian interest to slip in and Putin took complete advantage of it. Not as sure as you are about McCain preferring war to some sort of detente; maybe I'm wrong but at the moment just not sure of that. I'll not be voting for Obama unless there is some issue like this that shows he knows what is going to do. But that will probably mean that McCain will win in my state: New York.

[RobertHenryEller]

When you talk about McCain as the WAR president, you should point out the difference between a WAR president and a DEFENSE president. There is a difference, and McCain is NOT the latter. WAR presidents make us less safe. DEFENSE presidents make us more safe. Bush has been a WAR president, not a DEFENSE president. McCain will be a WAR president, not a DEFENSE president. We need a DEFENSE president. If you understand that we need a DEFENSE president, please do not vote for McCain.

[TRIATHLON]

FULL-SPECT­RUM-DOMINA­NCE (WWIII)

Zbigniew Brzezinski developed the theoretical doctrine of Full-Spect­rum-Domina­nce, in dealing with the New Soviet Russian. But, unlike the PRE- (US/MIC) United States Military Industrial Complex, Imperial Presidency Government which rejected any First Strike Doctrine, the (US/MIC) that now exists, both factions of the (US/MIC) Democratic & Republican embraces the concept of Full-Spect­rum-Domina­nce, which includes military superiority, and not military equivalence, and a belief that (MAD) Mutual Assured Destruction, is out dated an a Preemptive Thermo Nuclear Strike can and should be the new policy.

It's not about Defense or War, its now about who preempts who, does the (US/MIC) preempt the (21st) Century New Soviet Russia Century or does the New Soviet Russia preempt and and the old (20th) Century (USMIC) ?