McCain Inherits Bush Ideology
We all know John McCain is hardly a Conservative. Republican voters are trying to convince themselves that at least with McCain, they're getting about 50 to 60 percent for their vote. With Hillary and Obama, it's less than zero.
If Republicans and Independents demand their representatives hold McCain's feet to the small-government-fire (is that considered torture?), he could be forced to bring true conservative reform. But on foreign policy matters, McCain has been passed the torch of ideology.
At a town hall meeting in New Hampshire, McCain said the following:
Yes, John. We have been in Japan, Korea, and Germany. Let's not forget 13,000 troops in Italy, 12,000 in England, 11,000 in Afghanistan, 5,000 in Kosovo, 3,000 in Bosnia, 1,600 in Qatar, 1,000 in the Philippines, and the rest of the United States military inventory consisting of 702 bases in about 130 countries.
And this is a conservative estimate; many believe the real number of American bases is closer to 1,000, including installations in North Africa, Central Asia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf, and the Balkans.
Casualties are not the largest problem -- just the one a nation feels the most. The problem is sustaining the entangling alliances and imperialist global troop presence necessary to carry out an impossible ideological mission: to democratize the most unstable region in the world at the point of a gun.
If the Iraq War had been presented as a mission in nation-building, the American people would have never supported it. Do you think Pakistan is ready for a democracy? The Palestinians showed they were more than ready by voting in Hamas' murderers. And why is Saudi Arabia, one of the most repressive theocracies in the world, somehow exempt from the expectations Bush has for the world?
In a speech to the National Endowment for Democracy, in 2003, Bush said the following:
Global democratic revolution? Why is this America's most important mission? We have trade deficits, we borrow from our grandchildren, and Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid spending makes up over 40% of our federal budget. These are not the rosy times of the great American century. We are losing our country, yet we are still spending fortunes on the future of Third World nations as we sink into ever-increasing dependency and ever-mounting debt.
John McCain doesn't seem to get it. Here's his response:
We need a president to get us out of this ideological disaster with honor. We need not be defeatists, but we need to dissolve the notions carried forward by Bush's ideology and hubris.
Pat Buchanan, senior adviser to three American presidents, put it bluntly in an MSNBC interview:
If Republicans and Independents demand their representatives hold McCain's feet to the small-government-fire (is that considered torture?), he could be forced to bring true conservative reform. But on foreign policy matters, McCain has been passed the torch of ideology.
At a town hall meeting in New Hampshire, McCain said the following:
And this is a conservative estimate; many believe the real number of American bases is closer to 1,000, including installations in North Africa, Central Asia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf, and the Balkans.
Casualties are not the largest problem -- just the one a nation feels the most. The problem is sustaining the entangling alliances and imperialist global troop presence necessary to carry out an impossible ideological mission: to democratize the most unstable region in the world at the point of a gun.
If the Iraq War had been presented as a mission in nation-building, the American people would have never supported it. Do you think Pakistan is ready for a democracy? The Palestinians showed they were more than ready by voting in Hamas' murderers. And why is Saudi Arabia, one of the most repressive theocracies in the world, somehow exempt from the expectations Bush has for the world?
In a speech to the National Endowment for Democracy, in 2003, Bush said the following:
"The establishment of a free Iraq at the heart of the Middle East will be a watershed event in the global democratic revolution."
Global democratic revolution? Why is this America's most important mission? We have trade deficits, we borrow from our grandchildren, and Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid spending makes up over 40% of our federal budget. These are not the rosy times of the great American century. We are losing our country, yet we are still spending fortunes on the future of Third World nations as we sink into ever-increasing dependency and ever-mounting debt.
John McCain doesn't seem to get it. Here's his response:
Pat Buchanan, senior adviser to three American presidents, put it bluntly in an MSNBC interview:
"If we're in Iraq 100 years...we will be fighting 100 years of war just as the British, if they stayed in our country 100 years, would be fighting the Americans for a century. What John McCain is telling you is what he is promising you."
American casualties are not the only problem with positioning troops in the heart of the Arab world, but they will always be a problem. The slogan "democratize or I'll shoot" does not resonate well in the Middle East, yet is never scarce in Arab media.
There will always be evil people in the world, and we need to build our military might back up to the level it was in the mid 20th century, so that when confrontation comes, we can end it swiftly and powerfully. We don't need to perpetuate the imperial overstretch currently straining our fighting forces, putting more of our boys in harm's way, and ignoring the real culprits and nerve centers of radical Islam.
You can bankrupt your country with four more years of wars or you can do it with universal health care and endless entitlement spending. Make a choice, America.
American casualties are not the only problem with positioning troops in the heart of the Arab world, but they will always be a problem. The slogan "democratize or I'll shoot" does not resonate well in the Middle East, yet is never scarce in Arab media.
There will always be evil people in the world, and we need to build our military might back up to the level it was in the mid 20th century, so that when confrontation comes, we can end it swiftly and powerfully. We don't need to perpetuate the imperial overstretch currently straining our fighting forces, putting more of our boys in harm's way, and ignoring the real culprits and nerve centers of radical Islam.
You can bankrupt your country with four more years of wars or you can do it with universal health care and endless entitlement spending. Make a choice, America.
Labels: Election 2008, Iraq, Terrorism
Friday, February 29, 2008
Chris, this is an excellent article. I like what you said and the way you said it.
Initially, when I read your article, your comment about imperialism, I thought to myself, that's not the reason that we station troops overseas. We're not trying to take over these countries where they are stationed.
Then I read your article again and realized what you were saying. It's not an imperialism where we march in and take over, but an "imperialism of ideas", namely, democracy.
My dad once told me that democracy is not for every one. He's right.
We don't even have a democracy in this country, thank God! We have a republic. Pure democracy is nothing more than mob rule.
We're trying to export something that we don't have and shouldn't want.
If we export anything, it should the the idea of "rule by law" or a republic. Tell people about it, yes, persuade them, yes, but force it on the world with guns, no. The world must choose this for itself.
It's inherant in the idea.
Thanks for a great article
Oh, one more thing, I'm firmly convinced that we should redeploy our troops and quit providing "military welfare" to prosperous countries like South Korea, Great Britian, Germany, etc. top