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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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 Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 12:00 pm Post subject: Zakaria: McCain's Schizophrenic Foreign Policy |
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McCain v. McCain
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What McCain has announced is momentous�that the United States should adopt a policy of active exclusion and hostility toward two major global powers. It would reverse a decades-old bipartisan American policy of integrating these two countries into the global order, a policy that began under Richard Nixon (with Beijing) and continued under Ronald Reagan (with Moscow). It is a policy that would alienate many countries in Europe and Asia who would see it as an attempt by Washington to begin a new cold war.
I write this with sadness because I greatly admire John McCain, a man of intelligence, honor and enormous personal and political courage. I also agree with much of what else he said in that speech in Los Angeles. But in recent years, McCain has turned into a foreign-policy schizophrenic, alternating between neoconservative posturing and realist common sense. His speech reads like it was written by two very different people, each one given an allotment of a few paragraphs on every topic. |
I don't think we should treat China like we would like to treat Russia. And I don't think McCain can treat Russia as he would like without accomodating China. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 3:57 pm Post subject: |
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Zakaria is a pretty sharp cookie and he shows it again in that piece. It is foolish to gratuitously alienate either China or Russia (or anyone else for that matter). Problems naturally arise between countries in the normal course of affairs. To exclude states on ideological grounds rather than seek solutions with them is self-defeating because it unnecessarily complicates living in this world.
McCain's main qualification for the presidency is his foreign policy experience. He's not showing himself in a good light in that speech. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 4:16 pm Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
McCain's main qualification for the presidency is his foreign policy experience. He's not showing himself in a good light in that speech. |
Precisely. The GOP, pre-Dubya, were known as the foreign policy specialists for a reason: they were and have been better at it than LBJ, Carter, Clinton, etc. Nixon's masterstroke was handling China against the USSR. Reagan's masterstroke was condemning the USSR and later embracing Gorbachev. And H.W.'s handling of Iraq looks more and more deft with each passing day.
So why is McCain trouncing on the wisdom of his GOP predescessors? If Maverick means 'bucking-established-prudence,' then I don't think the US should have any of it.
Well, we shall see: maybe McCain will get a handle on his foreign policy incapacity issues before the Fall. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 4:30 pm Post subject: |
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I think you're giving the Republicans far too much credit, but we'll let that pass.
The other point Zakaria made that was important (and many others have mentioned it as well) is that McCain is being almost ignored in media coverage these days. It seems like the main focus is always Obama vs Clinton spat-of-the-day and then an "Oh yeah. McCain showed up at a photo op. On to other news..." |
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