No John, No

From the desk of Elaib Harvey on Sun, 2008-02-03 19:35

What vision does John McCain have for Europe? A good friend pointed me to this long piece in last month’s Foreign Affairs magazine.

The United States did not single-handedly win the Cold War; the transatlantic alliance did, in concert with partners around the world. The bonds we share with Europe in terms of history, values, and interests are unique. Unfortunately, they have frayed. As president, one of my top foreign policy priorities will be to revitalize the transatlantic partnership.
 
Americans should welcome the rise of a strong, confident European Union. The future of the transatlantic relationship lies in confronting the challenges of the twenty-first century worldwide: developing a common energy policy, creating a transatlantic common market tying our economies more closely together, and institutionalizing our cooperation on issues such as climate change, foreign assistance, and democracy promotion.

Oh my giddy aunt. The transatlantic alliance did indeed take part in the winning of the cold war. Mostly NATO and a certain bit of Thatcher, Reagan teamwork. Indeed most of what is now the EU was on the other side, or sitting with their broad subsidised arses pinned firmly to the fence.
 
"Institutionalizing our cooperation". No John, no, no, no. What you are saying here is putting our cooperation into an institution... bedlam.

Democracies get the political leaders they deserve

Submitted by Monarchist on Thu, 2008-02-07 13:06.

Democracies get the political leaders they deserve Mark Steyn

I agree, all those Clintons and Bushes are well deserved. In Europe we have the same, democracies don't deserve for anything better. Miraculous happen rarely.

McCain is a RINO neocon everything but conservative. He loves to back-stab the party from the left. As we can see from this article, die-hard globalist. Romney would not be better anyway. Hopefully Ron Paul goes third part and spoil the party of RINO party. Perhaps shock therapy with Hillary will be more helpful to rebuild conservative base than electing pseudo-conservatives to White House.

@ Atlanticist911

Submitted by traveller on Tue, 2008-02-05 16:31.

Thanks, I had read she was against him but I didn't see this.
On lvb.net some people attacked me because I had no "proof" of Jack Wheeler's information. My answer: let John McCain go to court about this.

Zionist McCain

Submitted by Amsterdamsky on Mon, 2008-02-04 15:45.

Well McCain is a rabid zionist like all other candidates except Ron Paul.  You guys should like him.

@ Atlanticist911

Submitted by traveller on Mon, 2008-02-04 14:56.

Much more important is the article by Jack Wheeler about the Vietnam "prison time" of McCain. The article has been released free for non-subscribers, maybe Paul or Luc can put it here.

Lip service

Submitted by marcfrans on Sun, 2008-02-03 21:58.

I agree with Frank lee.  What else could 'the Mac' have said?  In this particular quote he is simply engaging in windowdressing and paying lip service to diplomatic formalities. 

In recent editions of Foreign Affairs magazine, all the major candidates for the US presidency have had their foreign policy advisors pen their 'vision' for American foreign policy.  The articles under the names of Clinton and Huckabee were not very bad, but contained certainly a lot of wishful thinking.  Obama's was totally hopeless in terms of living in a fantasy world, not the real world.  Only Romney and McCain promised a strong US foreign policy, guided mainly by (long term) US interests.

McCain claims to want "to unite the world's democracies" and proposes a "worldwide league of democracies".  However, the actual disappointing experience with NATO (in terms of actual burdensharing, particularly in recent decades) should invite caution. Instead of creating another institution and bureaucracy it would seem preferable to promote partnerships of NATO with other 'democracies' and close(r) US partners in Asia, and Australasia, and in the process perhaps 'reform' NATO.   It may ultimately remain a pipedream; indeed, it is likely to be so.  But, the involvement of such 'outsiders' with NATO can only have a (perhaps marginal) beneficial effect on many European members of NATO in terms of increasing their awareness of the need to confront real dangers beyond 'Europe'.

One cannot really fault McCain for wanting to protect and promote "the democratic ideal, at home and abroad", for he is surely right that that is "the surest source of security and peace" in the future. But, given what is happening to freedom of speech in many western countries, a President McCain may soon come to realise that there are not many real "democracies" left in the world for him to "lead".

What else could he say?

Submitted by Frank Lee on Sun, 2008-02-03 20:50.

It is indeed annoying and distressing to read McCain's take on the transatlantic alliance. But what else could he say, really? At this point, no American leader can admit that the governments of France, Germany, and other European nations (and the elites of all European nations) believe their interests are served by obstructing and ridiculing America's international efforts. Many in Europe do not believe we share fundamental interests anymore, but it is impossible for any American leader to fess up to that obvious fact. It may take an alliance of Muslim voters -- in France, say, or the Netherlands -- to make this break clear. Once a European government finally makes explicit its rejection of Englightenment values, maybe then American leaders can start to speak the truth on this matter and stop trying to preserve an alliance with hostile nations. And is there anything more depressing than reading that we need to stick by our dear European brethren so we can fight global warming together? Lordy.