Robert Gentel wrote:"What will you like most about the McCain Presidency?"
Everything other than his hawkish side.
And to be specific, I applaud him for his "surge" support. I think he's closer to right on Iraq in specific details than many others, but I am very wary of his overall hawkishness, as this is the exact brand of stupidity that opened up the Iraq mess in the first place.
Being hawkish on foreign policy and being a war-monger are two entirely different things.
McCain is a veteran of war and has suffered from it as much as anyone. He is hardly the sort of "Chicken-Hawk," that we have become accustomed to getting the US into wars:
Woodrow Wilson - Dem - WWI
FDR - Dem - WWII
Harry Truman - Dem - Korea
LBJ - Dem - Vietnam
Bill Clinton - Dem - Bosnia/Kosova
George W Bush - Repub - Iraq
I hasten to add that I believe all but Wilson and possibly LBJ made the right decision to involve America in these conflicts.
Nevertheless, some patterns seem to emerge.
I'm sure McCain will carry a big stick, and I am also sure that if he believes America goes to war he will wage that war to win, but I do not at all believe that he will be inclined to use war as a political tool---quite the opposite.
WWI, Korea, Vietnam, Bosnia/Kosova, and Iraq were for America, arguably, political wars. This doesn't mean they were not justifiable, but only WWII was existential (despite the crack-pots who argue England had Germany beat when America entered the war for profit --- they never seem to have an argument about Japan).
Actually, I expect, if he is elected, McCain to receive criticism in certain intellectual circles because he not likely to appreciate war as a political tool, and will constrain its use to existential threats to the US and its allies. Of course, if you believe that McCain views a comments by Hugo Chavez as an existential threat you'll be worried. You'll also be an idiot, but you'll be a worried idiot.
As much as Operation Pink and MoveOn.com would like to strike it, hawkish foreign policy is not a function of ideology, it's a function of common sense. If the art of negotiation is some part of your livelihood, you readily understand that you will find yourself in the Poor House if you do not, more times than not, negotiate from strength.
If the lone superpower on the planet announces to the world that it will never use our stupendously overwhelming military advantage, it will immediately place itself at the international power level of Switzerland, Germany, Japan et al. A position, I might add, below that of China, and possibly the resurgent Russia.
If the world knows we aint going to use our military might to get our way, why have the most powerful military on the planet?
I know, I know, ebrown and friends will happily argue "You're right! Let's spend the trillions we devote to defense on the homeless and HIV sufferers!"
OK, let's do so. Let's be a "centered" nation and stop all of this testosterone imbued aggression!
Now what happens?
Europe, which relies on our military might to protect their asses maintains the status quo?
Japan, Korea, India,Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia and even Australia that rely on our military might to protect their asses, maintain the status quo?
Saudia Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, the Gulf States that rely on our military might to protect their asses, maintain the status quo?
China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, and any number of other tin-pot dictatorships that stay, to some extent, in check, because of our military might will maintain the status quo?
No, no, no, and no!
Should America retreat from Superpower status, the militaristic arms build up that would ensue around the world will make the pre-WWI planet look like third-graders playing Dodge Ball.
So-called Progressives in America have been longing for a One World Government as long as I have taken breath, and yet do they really want it? Not as long as America is at the core!
Not so if the One World economy runs afoul of Progressive American labor unions.
Ideology is idiotic without common sense. Left-wing ideology is without common sense and thus idiotic.
There was a time when Left-wing ideology tried to trump common sense with visionary passion.Heroics! Who is immune to that cultural influence? Not me, and I entered The Left when it was gasping for ideological air.
Now though, there is only the efforts of Leftist romantics to resurrect a long gone time.
The manufacture of righteousness (How dare the NYC Fire Dept refuse employment to a 5' 1" woman weighing 110 pounds) repelled me from the Left
You know what? You Progessives won, and then some. Our society makes ridiculous concessions to "minorities", but that aint good enough for you, is it?
Why isn't it? Because you all want to feel like fiery rebels.
How utterly pathetic.
The Left in the developed world is a feeble antique, manufacturing cause for which to fight.
If you Progressive want your own Motorcycle Diaries, leave the US where you are hapless dillitantes, and go fight the good fight in Iran, Zimbabwe, North Korea, Ubekistan, Burma, half the nations in sub-Saharan Africa, Tibet, The Sudan, Bellarus, etc etc etc.
In a world where eagles are preying upon the flock, how pathetic is the hero that wages war against mosquitos?