McCain and The Forrestal

September 5, 2008

Last night, John McCain went on at length about his imprisonment in Vietnamese POW camps, and indeed his time as a captive in Vietnam has been the spark to his political career since the 1970s. But both McCain -- and the video that introduced him -- glosses over an earlier event that might have shaped his approach to military affairs: the disastrous 1967 fire aboard the USS Forrestal.

Way back in 2000, I wrote a piece called McCain's Vietnam for The Nation, in which I described the significance of that event in McCain's life:

Like many potentially life-altering experiences, McCain's came as the result of a brush with death. On July 29, 1967, while preparing for his sixth bombing run over North Vietnam in his A-4 Skyhawk aboard the deck of the USS Forrestal, an accidentally fired Zuni missile ripped into his plane's fuel tank. Within moments, a chain reaction swept the deck of the carrier, triggering fires and explosions, setting off 1,000-pound bombs and engulfing planes, killing 134 men. McCain, slightly wounded, saw body parts fly and watched blistered comrades die before his eyes.

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Cheney Blusters Through the Caucasus

September 4, 2008

Leave aside the fact that it's hard to imagine how to invest $1 billion in aid to the tiny rogue nation of Georgia. Dick Cheney, scowl and bluster on display, is cruising through the FSU [former Soviet Union] looking for oil, promising to push NATO up against Russia's southern and southwestern border, and otherwise making aggressive mischief.

As USA Today reported, Russia is already accusing Cheney of trying to bully his way into security oil and gas riches:

Russia was watching the trip with suspicion, and a top Russian security official accused Cheney of an ulterior motive: seeking to secure energy supplies in the South Caucasus in exchange for U.S. support.

Sarah Palin, Foreign Policy Expert

September 2, 2008

The zealots and zombies of the Christian right, those dark armies of the night, are girding for battle behind Sarah Palin's flag and, to be sure, she has credentials to lead them. But it's been hilarious this week watching Republican spokesmen trying to put a positive spin on Palin's utter lack of foreign policy experience.

Even funnier is watching cable TV pundits, trying to be even-handed, because if they were even the least bit honest they'd be cackling out loud about McCain's pick, live on national television.

Some GOP pundits and strategists have suggested -- as Jon Stewart has noted -- that Palin has a good grasp of foreign policy because her state is up there someplace near Russia. Perhaps the funniest commentary of this sort comes from one of the most rabid neocons, Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy. Gaffney titled it: "Sarah Palin's experience."

Obama vs. Jimmy Carter

August 31, 2008

If you watched the Democratic convention closely -- very closely -- you caught a brief glimpse of former President Jimmy Carter on stage, looking decidedly unhappy.

No surprise: Carter was snubbed deliberately by Obama Inc. Reports the Forward:

The sidelining of Carter was driven by recognition in the Obama camp and among Democratic leaders that giving the former president a prominent convention spot might alienate Jewish voters.

For the Record: Obama, Biden on Georgia

August 28, 2008

Here's the statement that Barack Obama issued within hours of the Russian decision to recognize the independence of two separatist regions of Georgia:

I condemn Russia's decision to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states and call upon all countries of the world not to accord any legitimacy to this action. ... Senator Biden and I have called for $1 billion in reconstruction assistance to help the people of Georgia in this time of great trial. I also welcome NATO's decision to establish a NATO-Georgia Commission. ... If Russia's government continues to violate the norms and practices of the international community, the United States and our allies must review all aspects of relations with Russia. ... Russia's recent choices -- not American or European decisions -- are ... reminding us all that peace and security in Europe cannot be taken for granted.

Tough words--not quite a resounding call for a new cold war, but close to it. Obama suggested that he would review Russia's OSCE membership, its applications to the WTO and OECD, the US-Russian civil nuclear agreement, and the Russia-NATO Council. Not too different from McCain's proposal (made pre-Georgia war) to kick Russia out of the G-8.

US Massacres Afghan Kids

August 27, 2008

So how, exactly, did the United States come to slaughter nearly a hundred Afghans, two-thirds of whom were children aged three months to sixteen years, while they slept? And what does it mean?

US officials say they're investigating, while staunchly maintaining that the raid killed twenty-five "militants." But Afghan officials, local residents, and the United Nations are counting scores of bodies, and it is feared that many more might be buried udner the rubble. (It's not unusual for American planes to bomb civilian gatherings and wedding parties in Afghanistan, but the many dead this time may represent the highest single toll in any atrocity since the start of the war.)

What happened? The Post, happily carrying water for the Bush administration, quotes a US official -- who provides zero evidence for his claim -- saying that the Taliban deliberately fed bogus intelligence to the United States:

Maliki the Nationalist?

August 26, 2008

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki continues to make headlines by posing as an Iraqi nationalist. Don't buy it.

Unfortunately, much of the media has swallowed Maliki's posturing without questioning it. The usually astute Leila Fadel, writing for McClatchy, has an article today headlined: "Maliki Demands 'Specific Deadline' for US Troop Pullout," which says:

Maliki said that the United States and Iraq had agreed that all foreign troops would be off Iraqi soil by the end of 2011. "There is an agreement actually reached, reached between the two parties on a fixed date, which is the end of 2011, to end any foreign presence on Iraqi soil," Maliki said.

On Iraq, Biden Is Worse than McCain

August 23, 2008

Barack Obama may be doing the one thing that might have seemed impossible: he's picking a running mate whose ideas about Iraq are even worse than, and stupider than, John McCain's.

Obama, whose mushy Iraq plan excites no one, is marrying his own's flawed ideas -- which mostly revolve around beefing up US forces in Afghanistan and unilaterally attacking Pakistan -- with Biden's discredited notion of partitioning Iraq into three squabbling mini-states.

Indeed, last year it was the passage by the US Senate of a resolution in favor of Biden's dangerously misguided ideas that sparked an outburst of Iraqi nationalism. More than the Blackwater killings, more than US efforts to forcibly privatize Iraq's oil, it was the Biden idea of splitting Iraq into three pieces that galvanized Iraqi Arab nationalists. (It does, of course, excite the Kurds no end.)

Curb Your Enthusiasm

August 22, 2008

There's a lot less than meets the eye in the rumored US-Iraq accord.

On the surface, it would seem that the US and Iraqi negotiators have sought to cut the baby in half, splitting the difference between Barack Obama's 16-month timetable that would remove US combat forces by 2010 and McCain's sort-of timetable to have US combat troops out by 2013. If early reports are true, American combat forces would remain in until the end of 2011, roughly halfway between the "Obama plan" and the "McCain plan." In addition, as envisioned in both the candidates' plans, tens of thousands of additional US forces would remain in Iraq to train and equip the Iraqi armed forces, battle terrorists, protect the Rhode Island-sized US embassy, and help Iraq secure its borders.

Not much to get excited about. Here's the way to read what's going on behind the scenes.

Scheunemann, Iraq and Georgia

August 21, 2008

If there's any comic relief in the war between Russia and Georgia, it's this statement from Randy Scheunemann, John McCain's top foreign policy adviser: "In the twenty-first century, nations don't invade other nations." Coming from America's No. 1 advocate for invading Iraq -- Scheunemann headed the neocon-inspired Committee for the Liberation of Iraq in 2002 -- that's rich. Or perhaps Scheunemann thinks the US invasion of Iraq happened in an earlier century.

What's not funny, though, is Scheunemann's ties to Georgia. Where's the outrage? Why isn't there a congressional investigation of the McCain's adviser's entanglements?

It's no laughing matter that McCain's top adviser is multiply connected to Georgia, whose ill-advised assault on Russian positions in South Ossetia fully qualifies it as the first, overtly American-allied "rogue nation." Most important, Scheunemann's former lobbying firm, Orion Strategies, received at lest $800,000 from the government of Georgia between 2004 and May 15, 2008, when Scheunemann finally severed his ties -- officially, at least -- to the firm. Before that, between January 1, 2007, and May 15, 2008, Scheunemann was officially on the payroll as both Georgia's lobbyist and McCain's top adviser, during which time Georgia paid Orion and $290,000 and McCain paid him $70,000.