The Mental Masturbator

Stop Making Me Like You!

As much as McCain frightens me, I have to admit he would probably be an improvement over Bush. Not that that’s a huge compliment, I think it would be hard for someone to be worse than Bush even if they tried. He has a certain way of ruining things that you can’t learn, it’s all instinct. So back to McCain, he gave a speech yesterday before the Los Angeles World Affairs Council where he:

proposed a new organization, the League of Democracies, to “harness the vast influence of more than 100 democratic nations around the world to advance our values and defend our shared interests.”

The League of Democracies? Is that anything like the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, because that movie sucked. Seriously, though, this sounds pretty good. He actually wants to work with other countries, unlike Bushy who likes to go it alone. More from the speech:

Our great power does not mean we can do whatever we want whenever we want, nor should we assume we have all the wisdom and knowledge necessary to succeed

Stop making me like you! Where’s all this reasonableness coming from? Can this be the same man who wants to bomb Iran? Who says things are going well in Iraq no matter what anybody tells him? I can’t tell if this guy is Bush v2 or some kind of relatively reasonable Republican (do those exist anymore?). Here’s another quote:

It would be an unconscionable act of betrayal, a stain on our character as a great nation, if we were to walk away from the Iraqi people and consign them to the horrendous violence, ethnic cleansing, and possibly genocide that would follow a reckless, irresponsible, and premature withdrawal

This is a half-truth in my opinion. On the one hand, horrendous violence and ethnic cleansing will probably occur when we withdrawal. And it’s our fault. And we have committed a horrible sin. On the other hand, I think the longer we stay the worse we make things. The deed has already been done, the sin already committed. We can’t fix what we’ve done with more violence, we can’t fix it with our army, and we can’t fix it by staying there and terrorizing Iraqi citizens. It’s time for us to leave. And we are going to have to make amends for what happens as best we can but not with our army. Ok, more speech:

We must fight the terrorists and at the same time defend the rights that are at the foundation of our society. We can’t torture or treat inhumanely suspected terrorists we have captured. I believe we should close Guantanamo and work with our allies to forge a new international understanding on the disposition of dangerous detainees under our control.

Again, this is reasonable and I agree with it. DAMN YOU MCCAIN! But wait a minute, didn’t you just vote against making the army field manual the standard for interrogations? And wasn’t that essentially a vote permitting the CIA to torture people? What kind of doublespeak is this? I think I can conclude that this guy is pretty scary, he’s just good at charming liberals. Which actually makes him more scary and dangerous. Any final thoughts Johnny?

Only a fool or a fraud sentimentalizes the merciless reality of war

Did he just call Bush a fool and a fraud? I think he did. Remember what Bush said earlier this week:

I must say, I’m a little envious. If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed.

It must be exciting for you … in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You’re really making history, and thanks.

Only a fool or a fraud sentimentalizes the merciless reality of war. Whomever our next president is I know they wont be a fool, but there’s a good chance they’ll be a fraud. I guess it’s a step in the right direction.