Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
McCain's Fantasy League of Democracies
John McCain's strategy was transparent. Over and over again, on various foreign policy issues, he said Barack Obama did not "understand" them, was "naive" about them, or simply didn't "get it."
But there was a curious moment in this first debate that was a boomerang on that tactic, for anyone with the least bit of memory about the last 7 1/2 years. McCain said he would put pressure on Iran by forming a league of democracies, a group of nations with whom we share interests, ideals, and values.
A league of democracies? McCain was fortunate that Obama did not walk all over that one.
McCain's Republican Party, under President Bush, did everything it could in these last two terms to tell the world that we were in our own league. We either make all the rules, such as unilaterally invading Iraq under false pretenses, or we ignore the will of the world, such as on climate change.
We barely acknowledge the United Nations, except to bully it into our position.
So that made something else transparent.
If foreign policy has anything to do with who the next president is, McCain is banking on Americans thinking only of the here and now - he sees the surge in Iraq as working while hoping voters forget that he was for the most disastrous military blunder since the Vietnam War.
He wants people to believe he can actually form a league of democracies at the same time that he said he would continue the Iraq policies of a president who has given America a bad name in much of the rest of the world.
McCain is hoping that the voter doesn't understand what has happened to the reputation of America.



10 Comments so far
Show AllThe Surge Was A Success! Says McSame
Obama doesn't even know enough about Iraq to argue this. He's got "deer in the headlights" syndrome!
He should of brought up the fact that the "TERRORISTS" are the ones policing the country and Iran is in charge!
SUCCESS!
There is no question that as a tactic, the surge was sucessful. Now what?
The League of Democracies? We call that a "senior moment," McCain sometimes wanders.
In one instance, McCain is right. I will paraphrase him in my own colorful language.
Most Americans are morons and do not read or at least comprehend. For most, that is not their fault.
It is the fault of how we have let our educational systems falter and not serve this country well. No reading, writing, or critical thinking allowed. Only tests, testing and more tests so that the schools get their operating money from the present administers of this government.
They have just about sufficiently dumbed us down enough to take over completely.
It is the fault of how we have let our educational systems falter and not serve this country well. No reading, writing, or critical thinking allowed. Only tests, testing and more tests so that the schools get their operating money from the present administers of this government.
Totally agreed. It's time to put some education back into teaching.
Now I understand why it is commonly known that McCain has anger management problems. In order to keep himself from coming completely unglued during the debate, he had to avoid contact with Obama - in fact he never once made eye contact with Obama. Even after the debate, Obama had to walk across the stage to McCain's side to shake his hand. You could tell by the look on his face that McCain was really angry about debating Obama.
Also, how many times did McCain repeat "I'm afraid Senator Obama doesn't understand."? His debate prep team must have drilled that into McCain for days and told him to use the phrase with every response. What a putz. The man is just another George Bush - let's hide in our own pretend fairyland and pretend there are no problems outside of our borders, and we'll be fine.
Did you notice McCain didn't even try to defend his tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy?
Next week's debate between Palin and Biden should be great fun. Let's hope there are lots of questions about religion so that Palin shows what a complete moron she is.
"Also, how many times did McCain repeat "I'm afraid Senator Obama doesn't understand."?"
It takes a rapier sharp mind like pre-President Palin's to really understand McCain.
But Obama didn't counter him and he let Mccain TRASH him ! Nader, Barr, Mckinney, etc ... should also have been allowed to debate those two losers !
The League of Democracies will be the Unites States' diplomatic version of the Better Business Bureau which is an oxymoron (emphasis on "moron") to begin with. The BBB is a blood bank run by vampires and the LOD will never get off the ground because once McCain is elected, the nations of the world will smile politely and furtively start looking for the nearest exit because a country that has suffered eight years of the Biblical plagues of George Wanker Bush and Cheesedick Cheney and then turns around and blithely elects two Lyme disease carrying ticks like McCain/Palin can no longer be considered a place that is playing with a full deck, that is wrapped tightly, that has all its marbles. "Darling, I've got a terrible headache", the rest of the world will be telling us, like a bored and long suffering wife whose husband's only idea of sex is wham bam, thank you, m'aam.
The 'democracies' with whom this crime gang roll included the likes of Saudi Arabia, China, Name-a-stan, et al. Hell, the U.S. was for Saddam Hussein before it was against him.
Meanwhile, Venezuela is a 'rogue state' (and Obama couldn't climb on that bandwagon fast enough after McCain set it in motion).
Can't wait to see the actual makeup of McHoover's League of Hooligans.
Saying the surge in Iraq is a sucess, is like saying the seatbelts on the Challenger shuttle worked perfectly, or all the lifeboats on the Titanic sucessfully deployed.
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats