One Candidate Gets It. Not McCain.

Ron Paul:

"John McCain's statement in favor of keeping troops in Iraq for 100 years or longer puts him out of sync with the majority of Americans, who want our troops to come home. Further, his comments recklessly put America at risk as such a statement will likely serve as a recruiting tool for Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, who appeal to radicals and incite violence against Americans by claiming that the US desires to occupy the Middle East indefinitely."

McCain is an old Cold-Warrior who seems to think that we're facing down something akin to the Soviet empire, and all we have to do is stand firm at the front and not blink. He is in la-la land. What will happen is exactly what Paul describes above. With Pakistan teetering on the brink and Saudi Arabia at risk of an Islamic revolution sometime in the near future, an arrogant comment like McCain's is just about the stupidest and most reckless thing a presidential candidate could say. He might as well get himself a poking stick and dare them to carry out more suicide attacks. What a dangerous fool. He's long on defiance and short on wisdom.

(Hat tip: Lew Rockwell)

McCain's 100-Year War

This may be old news already, but McCain's blithe answer to the question of how long we should stay in Iraq is so outrageously absurd that it defies belief:



"Make it a 100 years," he says. And here's the kicker: according to McCain, our presence will diminish al-Qaeda's influence and recruitment!

What planet is he living on? He doesn't seem able to understand that you cannot solve a political problem with military force, and that is frightening. He even invokes Korea in his answer, just as I knew he would. He really believes that the U.S. military is a stabilizing force in the Middle East. McCain may deserve respect for some things, but his foreign policy views are not among them.

Reason and Ron Paul

Reason magazine's Editor-in-Chief Nick Gillespie acquits Dr. Paul very well in this short interview.




Nobody has been able to explain to me just how, precisely, Iran—or Pakistan—is a threat to the continental United States. Vague accusations are all I ever hear.

We've had over fifty years now of incessant global interventionism and it has blown up in our faces time and time again. If you believe it makes us safer, read Another Century of War? by Gabriel Kolko for the whole sordid history of our Middle East meddling. The rise of al Qaeda and other militant Islamists was an inevitable outcome, and not just because we supported them in the Afghan-Soviet war. How Bill O'Reilly can convince himself that more of the same will bring a different result is senselessness personified.