Quote of the Day

"What I'm about to write isn't especially insightful, but given that our foreign policy debate these days is almost entirely played out between people who think wars are really great and those who think wars are like totally awesome, perhaps it needs to be said.

There's this attitude out there where one's foreign policy abilities are judged by whether you supported the right wars, with people like Peter Beinart checking off their little lists. The foreign policy hawks see supporting wars as courageous acts, as if sending other peoples' kids off to die and voting for massive defense budget increases requires courage instead of a healthy possession of sociopathic tendencies.

Wars are failures. A primary purpose of sensible foreign policy is to stop them. When wars happen, our foreign policy has failed. That isn't to say there's never a point when they're necessary or justified, but that point is simply an acknowledgment that the people in charge failed."
--Blogger 'Atrios', yesterday

Speaking of people of who think wars are like totally awesome, Sen. McCain was the guest on a recent 'Hardball' episode during their college tours. Sen. McCain discussed his plan for winning the war in Iraq, which was as vague, unspecific, and wish-fueled as every other. It mostly seems to just involve sending an additional 100,000 troops there, which will make the Weekly Standard crowd happy, but ultimately won't accomplish anything except increasing the U.S. casualty rate and maybe postponing the inevitable another year or two.

Chris Matthews, to his credit, did try to get at the point of where these extra troops would come from. McCain responded, dismissing the idea of a draft, instead stating "if these young people felt that this nation was in a crisis and we asked them to serve, virtually every one of them would stand up because I have the greatest confidence in the young people of America." Matthews then asked everyone in the audience who supports the Iraq war and McCain's position(s) on it to stand up. A significant number did. Matthews then asked those who "would consider participating in this war" to continue standing. Most immediately sat back down. Seizing this opening, Matthews asked those who still stood exactly how they planned to participate in the war-- if they intended to enlist. All that could be heard was some answers about "support" and "strategy", not "I'm heading down to my local recruiting office today" (it's amazing how many people, as Atrios noted, find merely supporting the war to be a courageous fight of some kind). McCain then whined that Matthews' "bias" was starting to show. Rough translation: 'Please stop exposing my plan as the farce that it is'.

These are the politicians whom we are supposed to respect and look to for 'grownup' leadership. We shouldn't. They are deluded fools at best, and warmongers at worst. If people like Sen. McCain cannot even stand up to the lame-duck Bush/Cheney presidency when they legalize torture and suspend habeas corpus rights, then they should not be trusted to fight wars or lead our nation.

Finally, here's another AP headline that says it all: Bush: I won't change strategy in Iraq

[Semi-related reading: "Ugly choices" in Iraq -- but after the election is over (Salon War Room)]