McCain Fumbles on Middle East Politics

I’ve said since 2004 that the reason we’re invading Iraq is because the people in charge had no idea how things worked in the middle east. I’ve said that our poor understanding of the politics and culture of Middle Eastern nations is why we’re having such a hard time “winning the hearts and minds” in Iraq. And I’ve said that I’m all for sending in Green Berets and Navy Seals and whoever you want to send into any nation you want to carry out small, covert missions against terrorist cells. I’m all for that, yes I am.

But invasion is wrong. It’s destructive, it’s inefficient, and it kills almost nothing but civilians — we saw that in Iraq. These countries, of all the places in the world, need their infrastructure. They need their power grids. They need their water supply. For God’s sake, this isn’t Nazi Germany we’re dealing with — this is a nation of oppressed people whose lives we make nothing but worse by invading their countries. And so all it accomplished was to initiate a huge, visible, agit-prop marketing campaign against our own country.

That’s why I support the Democrats in this election. Very simple. We need someone who is willing to learn and understand the culture of the region. Someone whose policies will be informed by the actual situation on the ground — not the situation as we’d like to be.

But I was conflicted, because John McCain is a pretty smart cookie when it comes to foreign policy. Or so I thought. Until today, when he was discussing his imminent plans to invade Iran, and said that Iran was supplying and training Al-Qaeda. Yes, that’s Iranian Shiites that he claims are aiding Sunni’s in Al-Qaeda. It’s not true, it’s impossible, and most importantly — it’s the same faulty argument we heard for invading Iraq. So Joe Lieberman whispered in his ear, and he corrected himself “Oh, I mean extremists, not Al-Qaeda.” Right.

I’m willing to forgive a slip of the tongue. I hate the “gotcha!” game. But he’s basically talking about invading Iran, and it seems to me like the act of invasion is primary, and the reasons why and how are secondary. We can’t afford that again.

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