In Answer to David's Question... Yes Posted by Ilan Goldenberg

I fear David is giving John McCain too much credit.  Parts of his speech give warm fuzzies to all of us who want to see a return to a more sane foreign policy.  But here's the reality.  This is a man who:

• Wants to keep thousands of American troops in Iraq indefinitely
• Started pushing for the war in Iraq as early as late 2001
• Said some horribly offensive things about our allies in the run up to the war - the same allies he now wants to make nice with
• Promoted a policy of "Rogue State Rollback" during his 2000 campaign.  This policy essentially amounted to regime change lite

The list goes on and as David rightly pointed out you can't do these things and build closer alliances at the same time.  McCain's willingness to leave a massive troop presence in Iraq will undermine any other major foreign policy initiative.  It will suck all of the air out of the room. 

It's nice to talk about making friends with allies.  But George Bush also gave a very nice warm fuzzy speech at his second inaugural about spreading democracy around the world and that didn't work out too well either and was completely stifled primarily by the realities of Iraq. 

Comments

[Don Bacon]

Well said, Ilan, and that major sucking sound in US foreign policy (because of Iraq) is now being echoed in the US economy. I am no student of economic/foreign correlations but I would guess that an economic recession, particularly one that is made worse by an incompetent administration, ought to result in a more modest foreign policy. Okay, I'm grasping at straws. In any case McCain is a dangerous man.