McCain and his Militarist Mindset

[JohnLockesGhost]

http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=12240

Amid all the media-generated hype surrounding John McCain's narrow victory in the South Carolina primary – which portrays him rising, phoenix-like, from the ashes of what many considered a failed last hurrah – one anomaly stands out: he did well among antiwar voters. This seems counterintuitive, at first, especially when one considers that McCain is the candidate of the so-called "surge" and has always been among the biggest warmongers on the block – not only when it comes to Iraq, but even regarding interventions that Republicans opposed, such as in Kosovo. In that case, you'll recall, he urged the Clinton administration to launch a land invasion of the former Yugoslavia: just Google McCain and "boots on the ground," and you'll come up with the one underlying consistent theme of McCain's life as a public figure – he always takes the most belligerent foreign policy stance imaginable, no matter what the context.

Iraq war I, the Balkans, Iraq war II, and even when it comes to developing tensions with Russia – here is a U.S. senator who traveled all the way to the ex-Soviet republic of Georgia to personally intervene in the Georgian-Russian dispute over the status of South Ossetia. Not one inch of sovereign Georgian soil shall be ceded to the Russians, he declared, or words to that effect. One would have thought the fate of the Free World depended on stopping the South Ossetians from gaining autonomy over their own affairs. Yet it would be hard to imagine a conflict in which the U.S. has less interest in taking sides. Part of it was no doubt due to the fact that McCain loves to posture and preen, and this was an opportunity he could hardly resist. Yet such unseemly – and foolhardy – posturing isn't just a function of his blustering, overbearing personality: it's a matter of ideology, too.

In the McCainiac worldview, there is no corner of the globe that wouldn't benefit from American boots on the ground. If you liked President Bush's infamous "fire in the mind" second inaugural address, in which he averred that the proper objective of U.S. foreign policy is "ending tyranny in our world," then you'll love President McCain's world-saving neo-Wilsonianism. Matthew Yglesias, writing on his Atlantic blog, succinctly summarizes the McCainiac mentality when it comes to foreign policy issues:

"For McCain, a certain culture of honor, militarism, and nationalism are their own reward. The military is to be celebrated and supported not for what it does but for what it is. Thus, a given military venture doesn't need to have a real purpose or be 'worth it' in any particular sense. It is what it is, and what we need to do is keep on doing it for as long as 'it' takes and it doesn't matter if 'it' is pointless or futile or even if 'it' isn't anything in particular at all. The war is its own rationale."

This is really the essence of militarism that Yglesias is describing: an ideological commitment to war as an end in itself, if not a virtuous act then a condition – perhaps the only condition – under which it is possible to demonstrate one's commitment to the highest values. Honor, duty, country, sacrifice – these are the words that are used to evoke and rationalize McCainian militarism. Yet there is no honor in a foreign policy based on axiomatic aggressiveness. There is no "duty" to pursue a policy that neither benefits this country, nor those we are ostensibly "liberating," especially when what is being sacrificed, in the bargain, is the economic and moral health of our republic.

[PeterMP]

I googled McCain "boots on the ground", I even added Clinton, and then Yugoslavia, and I found no links where McCain called for a "land invasion". Most of the links I found were this pieice or something related to this.

In terms of Georgia, the wikipedia link has the direct quote. Why didn't they use it?

[TrumanB]

antiwar.com? Oh, ok. :laugh:

[Midnight Judges]

Several reasons why "anti-war" (the left) folks might prefer McCain:

He has a bi-partisan streak. He's demonstrated a willingness to compromise on domestic issues rather than railraod the then 49% of the country as if they didn't exist.

He's anti-torture.

He sided with the generals against Rumsfeld about the original troops levels in Iraq. If you are going to fight a war, at least do it right and maybe this will minimize the death toll-another goal of the anti-war crowd.

[chiefhogskin48]

McCain would be a great president. Let's hope we get to see it happen. Anybody but Hillary!

[PeterMP]

He has a bi-partisan streak. He's demonstrated a willingness to compromise on domestic issues rather than railraod the then 49% of the country as if they didn't exist.

I think this is a big part of it. At the end of the day, McCain is a negotiator and a consensus builder. In that sense, he is completely the opposite of Bush

He does it on areas of domestic policy, and as it seems to be a basic component of his personality, he'd do it on foreign affairs (e.g. future conflicts).

In another thread, I posted part of an interview of him w/ Larry King in 2002. He clearly states that he absolutely expects Bush to get a resolutoin out of the UN in support. He's somebody that sees the long term value in consensus.