Opinion: 'Muslims Are Going To Kill Us' - Why McCain Should Not Be Elected (Updated July 19)

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John McCain spokesman and fellow former POW Bud Day had this to say on July 18th, 2008 while speaking to reporters about the war in Iraq: “The Muslims have said either we kneel or they're going to kill us (…) I don't intend to kneel and I don't advocate to anybody that we kneel, and John doesn't advocate to anybody that we kneel.”

And here is where a point needs to be made. A point that many Republicans - the least of whom being McCain - have seemingly failed to recognize. It wasn’t the Muslim faith that horrifically came crashing into the twin towers on 9/11 – it was a group of militant extremists; radicals who saw a problem and tried and solve it with violence. It also wasn’t Iraqi’s that flew those planes. It was Al Qaeda operatives who were born and raised in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia.

For this reason the battle is not, and never was, in Iraq.

So now, after what’s felt like eons of time spent criticizing Obama’s military capacity, it’s time that McCain’s abilities were scrutinized. And to begin, a quote from Bill Maher suffices to summarize: “John McCain is warrior who is dumb about war.”

How can this be said? Well there is some evidence.

As John McCain addressed patrons at a Republican fund-raiser July 18th, he mentioned that Obama would likely be heading to Iraq within the next day or two (thus giving away information that was to be held in confidence for security reasons… classy) but that, despite his visit to Iraq, that it would be significantly different than when McCain visited.
"He'll land in a very different Baghdad. And we have succeeded in Iraq, and we will win if we continue with this strategy that we are pursuing," McCain said.

And that’s why he’s an idiot. Okay, okay, an explanation is in order.

McCain said “we will win.” What John? What will the US win? What is there to win? The US forces invaded Iraq to rid the nation of WMD’s – okay, mission accomplished, in fact, we didn’t even need to go to do that. Oh wait, we wanted to dethrone Iraq’s evil dictator – okay, mission accomplished, pack it in boys. Oh wait, we wanted to establish a democracy – okay, the Iraqi’s have put up without our puppet government, let’s move along. Oh wait, McCain says we haven’t won – sorry guys, keep your guns handy…

My point is that there never was anything to win in Iraq, other than perhaps some lucrative oil contracts (mission accomplished, might I add). The extremists that conducted the 9/11 attacks were never there. The war against those individuals is in Afghanistan; which brings us to the next point that suggests that McCain’s is not a qualified wartime commander in chief.

It has become glaringly obvious that most crucial front on ‘the War on Terror’ is in Afghanistan. We have seen a marked rise in Taliban violence in Afghan provinces, and it has been surmised that many Bin Laden videos were captured in Afghan mountains. Thus, both the Taliban and Al Qaeda are operating out of Afghanistan, yet McCain still wants to fight (and win) a war in Iraq.

There isn’t anything to win in Iraq, but there are lives to be lost. Pursuing a strategy that keeps 150,000+ troops in a country that wants them to leave is a horrible thought; but with McCain comes that plan.

What’s more, while addressing a crowd on July 16th, McCain had the gall to criticize Obama for not attending the six hearings on Afghanistan that the Senate Armed Services Committee has conducted, as Obama has attended only one; the problem is, McCain has not attended any.

On top of attending at least one of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Obama is currently about to embark on a trip to visit the war-front in Iraq; the trip will then continue with a stop in Afghanistan (followed by visits to several other nations).

On the 16th McCain added “yes, we need more troops in Afghanistan. But if we’d have failed in Iraq, my friends, the consequences would have spread throughout the region because the United States would have lost and then left in retreat.”

What is this fixation on winning and losing? The only that McCain has to worry about losing is his mind. And if people come to their senses I suppose he also has to worry about losing votes, too.

Critics have argued that Obama’s lack of a concrete plan for the war in Iraq is cause for concern. Well, a guy who has not yet worked out the details is step up from a guy who thinks we have got something to win and thus a reason to stay. Hearts and minds will not be won.

And following Obama’s return to the US, don’t be surprised if a more detailed explanation describing how Obama would confront ‘the War on Terror’ is issued. Also don’t be surprised if that plan makes more sense than continuing combat in Iraq.

In brief, there is no shortage of evidence suggesting that McCain is not a versed military commander capable of managing the US’s forces come January. In fact, if logic has any say at all, McCain’s proposed strategy of staying engaged in a country that should never have been invaded to begin with suggests that he is utterly incapable of intelligently controlling the earth’s most powerful military.

And for the record, the argument that leaving Iraq will cause a civil war is moot. There will be a civil war between the Sunni and Shiites just as soon as we leave, no matter how long we are there for (which will probably result in one of those groups being decimated, along with the Kurds, if they aren’t taken out by Turkish militants).

Thanks to a lead given to me by a like-minded Citizen Journalist, I was directed to a link on The Independent (if you are not familiar with this news journal, it is one of England’s most esteemed). On July 17th, 2008 Johann Hari, a brilliant British journalist wrote a provocative and (as usual) intelligent piece titled “We have everything to fear from McCain.”

In this article, Hari made several key points which strongly suggest that McCain is not the man for the job come November; the least of which being his affiliation with Phil Gramm. Gramm is most famous for his role in promoting the deregulation laws that led to both Enron’s corporate malfeasance as well as the sub-prime mortgage crisis. It is worth noting that Gramm has stepped down as co-chairman of McCain’s campaign, but this is not due to Hari’s op-ed, rather it is because of the negative publicity he has received since calling the US “a nation full of whiners.” Just as note worthy is that this does not mean that Gramm won’t be considered by McCain for the post of Treasury Secretary, should McCain be elected president.

Hari went beyond pointing out McCain’s connection to Gramm by illustrating that, if elected, McCain would likely be dependent upon the ideas of such crooks:

"The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should... To be honest, I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated."

Yes, those were the words of a man vying to be president of the United States of America.

Hari went on to point out that the views of the 6 billion or so people outside of the US who are witnessing this election campaign have come to a relative consensus upon who should guide the US come January. How did they come to their conclusion? Well it isn’t based so much on who they want to see elected, so much as it based on who they don’t want to see in power:

“If I was Iranian, say, I'd be anxious that John McCain keeps joking in public about killing me. As a bravo-bow after singing "bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran" to the tune of the Beach Boys melody Barbra Ann, he responded to being told exports of cigarettes to Iran are high by guffawing: "That's a way of killing them!"” Said Hari.

It seems as though we pick up on nearly all of the slip ups Obama makes, yet when McCain makes similar statements they seem to slip through the cracks. Two good examples of which being, first, his off handed remark that he just stopped beating his wife last week, and second, when he referred to to the credit crisis as the credit cunt. There would have been hell to pay and plenty of coverage play had Obama said such things. Then again we are not talking about Obama here, we are talking about McCain and his campaign.

And so, to respond to McCain’s campaign spokesman Bud Day; you’ve got it wrong. They don’t want us kneeling at their feet. They just don’t want to feel like we’re trying to have them kneeling at ours. Of course there will be bad apples that promote a war which pits the West against Middle East, or the Christians against the Muslims, but apparently we have them too.

Thanks for reading and I would love to hear any questions, comments, or critiques.

GRMM