Republican for President

The last bunch of Republicans turned out to be crooks. What can we hope for from the next? On the evidence, gross hypocrisy, with hints of lunacy. For today's consideration, John McCain of Arizona, Senator, former naval aviator, long time prisoner of war in Vietnam, former straight talker and current sell-out. After falling foul of the law and ethics through his involvement with Arizona's anti-pornography crusader and savings and loan swindler Charles Keating, McCain got religion and crusaded against lobbyists influence and pork barrel politics. Until he decided he needed the support of the Christian right and its devotion to lobbying.

Standard politics so far. What qualifies McCain as a genuine lunatic are his pronouncements on war. This is a man whose fond vision is of war unending. Josh Marshall looked at his pronouncements in the Iowa debate:

McCain said that the fight against militant Islam is the calling or fight of our generation, or something to that effect -- and of course that's a quite subjective statement so he can say whatever he wants.

Then he says, though, that this is a fight that will be with us for the rest of this century. To quote the man, "I also firmly believe that the challenge of the 21st century is the struggle against radical Islamic extremism. It is a transcendent issue. It is hydra-headed. It will be with us for the rest of the century."

Now, think about that. That's ninety-three years.

You can almost imagine him licking his chops. Hoo boy, war for-ev-er! No piddling 25 year war against fascism, or sixty year fight against communism, but a whole century.

How preposterous. Most Islamic countries are aligned with us, are our dependents, or are our bankers - or all of the above. All together, their military power is a tiny fraction of ours. The only possible excuse for prolonged war against any or all facets of Islam is a scheme to siphon money from the treasury to military contractors. Unfortunately, that is just what Cheney-Rumsfeld-Bush-Lieberman-McCain and friends have given us.

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