Monday, March 10, 2014

Why Does Anybody Care What John McCain Thinks?

by Nomad

Once again, Arizona Senator John McCain is telling us what he thinks about foreign policy. Again he is criticizing the Obama efforts at avoiding an unnecessary war. But the real question is why is anybody in their right mind even listening to McCain?

A couple of days ago, it was reported that John McCain has pushed out Mitch McConnell as being the most unpopular incumbent politician in the United States. in his home state, McCain is unpopular with Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike.When you think about how low the opinion is of Congress at the moment, that's quite an achievement. 
When one considers the constant propaganda from Fox News and how short the attention span is of the average American, it's even more shocking. 
"Saddam Hussein is on a crash course to construct a nuclear weapon"
Still worse, he kept misleading the public all through the war. In March 2003, he stated that the conflict would be “relatively short." A few months later, as things went from bad to worse, he said, 
"I would argue that the next three to six months will be critical."
 By December of 2005 he was still repeating the same things, 
"We will probably see significant progress in the next six months to a year."
Two years later he went on a carefully choreographed stroll around an Iraqi market and declared that
"Things are better and there are encouraging signs. I've been here many times over the years. 
For reasons (which are totally inexplicable), nobody has asked him to explain how he could have been so wrong, so often. None of the TV interviewers have requested McCain to "man up" and to take responsibility for his reckless statements. And nobody- not even the families of lost soldiers, nor the families of innocent victims in Iraq, nor the permanently disabled veterans, none of them have demanded an apology from John McCain, the war hawk.

In more recent days, he has (supposedly on the permission of the State Department) to wander into Syria and later into Ukraine, interfering in very delicate foreign matters. Not only has he put his life in danger- a kidnapped US Senator would certainly be a diplomat problem and an international crisis- he has made directly and indirectly made commitments to sides in war zones.
"“I believe there are ways to get weapons to the opposition without direct United States involvement..I am in favor of weapons being obtained by the opposition.”
Never mind that international law tends to frown on the arming of rebel groups. If done at all, it should never be public policy. This problem is compounded by the fact that the arms would be given to groups that would have used them to commit human rights violations is illegal. 
As Foreign Policy website notes, there was no shortage of evidence that rebels had committed atrocities, even as McCain was shaking hands and making promises. 

In addition to that, the Senator from Arizona has constantly called for war with Iran regarding its alleged nuclear ambitions. Speaking of Obama's attempts to find a diplomatic solution, McCain has declared that it was "watching a train wreck." The same could be said, his critics note, of McCain's entire political career.

Whether in Libya or in Egypt, McCain has called for aggressive action time and time again despite the evident lack of public support for any more military adventures. Given his abysmal track record, his unpopularity at home, the lack of support for any of his foreign policy views, why on earth is this man on TV? How can he still be able to show his face in public at all? 

Most importantly, why does anybody care what Senator John McCain thinks about anything?