Odor of Pandering in McCain Speech

John McCain seems to have a clear idea--but he's only a couple of steps from crazy (if that far.)

John McCain, a front-runner among GOP presidential contenders for said Sunday the U.S. must send an overwhelming number of troops to stabilize Iraq or face the possibility of more attacks in the region and on American soil.

"I believe the consequences of failure are catastrophic. It will spread to the region. You will see Iran more emboldened. Eventually, you could see Iran pose a greater threat to the state of Israel,"

Gen. Abizaid sees it differently:

Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander for the Middle East, told the Senate Armed Services Committee last week that believes troop levels should remain steady for now. He said it was possible to add 20,000 troops for a short time, but it would be unrealistic to raise troop levels as proposed by McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

In the meantime, Henry Kissinger also had some thoughts.

"If you mean by 'military victory' an Iraqi government that can be established and whose writ runs across the whole country, that gets the civil war under control and sectarian violence under control in a time period that the political processes of the democracies will support, I don't believe that is possible," he told the British Broadcasting Corp.

John McCain's prescription, which seems to be a "shoot until there's no shootin' from the other guys" strategy, is one way, of course. It's a bit more sophisticated than the postings seen on FreeRepublic after 9/11, demanding that the US military 'turn Iraq into a sheet of glass' with nukes.

It's also inane. John McCain is arguing backwards from a goal of Zero Muslim Extremists Worldwide--and that's not gonna happen. Of course, he's hiding behind the rhetoric of 'protecting our own cities' and 'protecting Israel' in order to make this seem rational--but painting this piggy doesn't make it pretty.

In other words, McCain wants us to believe that the US military can eradicate Muslim extremists. I don't think so. First off, they will never be "eradicated." Secondly, to the extent the extremists are 'controlled,' it will be by their Muslim neighbors.

Of course, if McCain really believed that radical Muslims would be causing trouble within the US, maybe he should have voted for the House Immigration Plan--you know, the one which makes it hard to get in here in the first place...

Another posturing ego--John McCain.