McCain: I'd Have Been 'Reluctant' To Start Iraq War If I Won In 2000

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60. Baloney! Here's what everyone needs to remember - ALWAYS - about these people:

Last edited Sat Jul 19, 2014, 01:32 AM - Edit history (3)

It's not just them. It's who they have around them, who's advising them, who'll coach them in debates, who'll research or even write their position papers, speeches, and legislation, it's who funds them - ALL OF WHOM can easily find their way onto the candidate's coattails to ride into office with him or her. I will never forget avowed and unapologetic PNAC-er randy scheunemann - who advised mccain on foreign policy after being one of the people leading the cheerleaders from behind the scenes to get us into war in Iraq during bush/cheney. He's been lurking in that sewer the whole time. And he wound up as sarah peabrain's debate coach on foreign policy issues. One SMALL bit of sweet justice - he stumbled away from that experience shaking his head and needing to grab something to keep his balance, she was THAT bad and THAT insufferable and THAT stupid. But make no mistake: THERE HE WAS, ANYWAY.

Fiends like him ALWAYS look for the way back in. They literally infest the CON side. They proliferate like nukes or cockroaches, whichever group overruns us first. They abound on that side of the aisle - always going for the brawn over any brains. ALWAYS spoiling for a fight. ALWAYS wanting to flex their muscles in foreign policy and assert America's "Alpha Male'ness" what a tough-guy nation we are - and how we need to stay on top by force or else... or else... or else...

Seems to me, though, that kind of approach ALWAYS invites people to say - "oh YEAH?" ALWAYS seems to bring on somebody wanting to knock #1 off the top spot. It's the same people who encourage scoffing at science and evolution, while they practice it and advocate it in foreign policy to their last breath. The problem with being the presumed First nation among the First World is - you're always gonna have people coming after you, trying to knock you out of first place. And they can do it through economics and trade and monetary policy, and/or they can do it with hackers and internet spies and technological espionage, and/or they can do it with guns 'n' ammo. There are other nations competing with us who are even now, even at this very moment, aiming at us with their educated populations that are free to learn about and explore the sciences without religious imposition. There are better-educated young people coming out of there, and brain-drains leeching some of our best away. The barbarians are always at the gates, so to speak, wanting into that nice secure gated community - which in this case, is the former Fortress America.

Seems to me we need some new thinking on this. A new kind of national dialogue. DO WE REALLY want to be the first among equals? DO WE REALLY? Can we take a look at what that costs? I'm not just talking financial costs. I'm talking social costs, religious costs, philosophical costs. Ego costs. Would the extremist religiosos in this country ever be willing to move the Bible over to the side to make room for legitimate objective science texts? Would they be willing to relinquish the foothold they've gained to force the teaching of Genesis into classes about evolution? Probably not. Would the professional CONS and the CON-leaning non-pros be willing to cough up more in taxes because we're now increasingly the proud owners of Third-World-quality roads? Would those mccains and kristols be willing to loosen their embrace on "war first, ask questions later"? Are we willing to continue to eat all of this increasingly foolish thinking and 19th-Century imperialistic aggressive tendencies or should we begin to consider functioning in this world WITHOUT an empire to maintain? Is it time to give that up? Since so much of America refuses to pay taxes to support public schools, and finds it no real problem that students are choking in debt if they get into college - which soon enough will be priced WAY out of the reach of most of them? Is it okay with the penny-wise/pound-foolish crowd to be proud owners of an increasingly poorly-educated population? How do we maintain any sort of world leadership under those conditions? Has anybody on that side even paused for a moment to think about this?

A lot of this - MOST of this - comes from the GOP side. The CON side. And they're not giving it up. The PNACers still think that with enough guns 'n' ammo and muscle and big-ass toys they can control and sublimate the world and humble, convert, or do away with all our adversaries! And they find a lot more fertile ground to spread their greed seed among the GOP, far more there than among Democrats. Of course, they all stay home in their luxurious gated compounds and those well-funded big-ticket think tanks and corner offices til they have to go down to the studio and do their talking head or guest loud-mouth thing. OTHERS get to go do the dirty work. But they look for people who can get them back into power so they can implement all their shitty "ideas" about American conquest and unquestioned domination of the world. (Yet another reason never to vote republi-CON! Our side doesn't have anywhere near the nonstop idiot chorus of bad ideas that those across the aisle do! NEVER FORGET: all that idiot chorus wants to do is sing in the Oval Office - or in some high-profile or high-potential governor's/senator's/congressperson's/legislator's/mayor's office - again.)