McCain... Bush on Steroids

Because of his service to our country and years in captivity as a POW in Hanoi, Sen. John McCain is respected, even revered, by many.

But, unlike others who have experienced war.... for instance President Eisenhower, who as U.S. General of the Army and commander of allied forces in Europe during WWII, ever after abhorred war and warned of the "military-industrial complex" taking the country into war.... McCain is daily making it increasingly clear, he'll be a war president.

Talking about the casualties of war at a campaign stop Sunday, and what will be the need for more medical facilities for the many anticipated "combat wounds," he gave his straight-talk assessment.... "There's going to be other wars," and repeated "I'm sorry to tell you, there's going to be other wars. We will never surrender but there will be other wars." (YouTube video)

Other wars? Never surrender? Is this a presidential candidate or a latter-day Dr. Strangelove?

For those looking for a president who can, and evidently will, keep us in costly wars.... McCain's your guy. It's not like we had no idea that war is his shtick. After all, he gave us his rendition of a Beach Boys song last April.... "Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran." (YouTube video)

And, let's not forget his opining that he would support having troops in Iraq for a 100 years.

Of course, some of this macho talk is to divert the campaign rhetoric away from our limping economy.... an economy in trouble in no small part due to the devastating cost of the Iraq war.... because his strongest opponent Mitt Romney claims expertise in the economic arena while that admittedly isn't McCain's strong suit.

For those who bemoan our very long campaign season, look at it this way. The constant campaigning spotlight will eventually illuminate the nooks and crannies where each candidate ticks.... and, in McCain's case, we are slowly realizing it's not a pretty picture.

Chicken Hawks Sqawk

Like winter-starved sparrows pouncing on June bugs, the righty talking heads flew into full dudgeon at Sen. Barbara Boxer's pointing out to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that neither of them would "pay a particular price" in Iraq because they didn't have children of military age.

Neither of them have "The Lives on the Line," of their family members.... a barbed reminder by Boxer that those making the decisions to go, stay and escalate, escalate, escalate the war in Iraq are armchair hawks.

The spin over Boxer's statement spewing from the wingnuts and the White House propagandist-in-chief Tony Snow was framed as.... "a great leap backward for feminism,".... and, as Rice whined.... "I thought it was okay to be single."

Do they really think the "Way Forward"-jaded electorate can't see their obvious obfuscation? .

As Fred Hiatt points out in his editorial in the WaPo.... "It matters that we not allow the troops to serve only as props and political fodder - that we keep in our minds the real people in Iraq and Afghanistan....."

Boxer is picking at the scab of the Bush administration's Iraq war policy because it's a fact that those who have experienced war.... like Rice's predecessor Colin Powell, or WWII Allied Commander President Eisenhower.... know the ugliness of war and are loathe to rush troops into combat as a foreign policy centerpiece.

On the other hand, neither The Decider nor snarly puppeteer Cheney (or their children) have experienced the hell of war, .... nor has Rice tasted the horror she so marmishly sloganeers about.

The only thing taking a "great leap backward" with the newest troop "surge" is an Iraq policy in touch with the real lives and the real cost of The Decider's war of choice.