Mac in Iraq
No doubt McCain’s current journey to the heart of the war is unrelated to his bid for the presidency. Surely, he just wants to do another quick check-up on the Iraqi people.
Unfortunately, he brought two cronies and major supporters along for the ride.
Sens. Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham inject a shot of politics to a trip that should be a solemn commemoration of one of Iraq’s worst tragedies, Saddam’s use of chemical weapons against the Kurds.
No reasonable person would dispute that the senator cares deeply about Iraqi citizens and about U.S. troops - this is his eighth trip to the country since August 2003. But those trips did not involve meetings with multiple leaders of the free world. McCain is planning to get friendly with Gordon Brown, Nicolas Sarkozy and Ehud Olmert (leaders, respectively, of Britain, France and Israel) over the next week. So what if he has sand in his boots when he shows up at 10 Downing Street; are we still to believe he didn’t have any ulterior motives?
Even if McCain’s people say he’s not there for the photo-op, it’s hard to believe that wasn’t one of the motivating factors.
March 20th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Whoa, senators actually doing their jobs and seeing the realities on the ground themselves - yeah, very political. Going to different countries and actually talking to other leaders?..hogwash if you ask me. And those two “cronies” - not to mention the low-life yellow journalism usage of the McCain picture - I don’t know about you, but that’s classy, and it itself is wholly unrelated to your motivating factor of persuading the audience that McCain is somehow using a trip for a “photo-op”. Nice.
March 20th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Jonathan reply-
Although there is much to be said for McCain’s eight trips to Iraq over the last five years, to say that these trips lack any political element would not simply be disingenuous. It wouldn’t be true. Consider the $1,000 per-plate fundraising dinner over in London. Consider that McCain is traveling with two of his most prominent supporters in the senate. Consider that, despite the fact that he has been to Iraq more times than some higher-ups in the military (i.e. Sec. Gates), McCain is STILL making mistakes identifying the differences between Sunnis and Shi’ites in military matters. Even if his body is in Iraq, his mind is elsewhere.
March 22nd, 2008 at 1:58 pm
I understand your sentiment that the trips contain a “political element”, but what action by a politician during an election season does not contain any element of politics?
I just find it peculiar that you decided to focus on McCain of all people, who thus far has eluded the civil war between the Dems. With the belated rising of media scrutiny on Obama and his political record, one would think the Daily Illini columnists would at least take notice. How about delving into Obama’s hypocritical stance on “Change” and “Judgment”? Obama’s assertion that he can not disown his pastor any more than he can disown a member of his own family ignores the fact that Obama has the power to choose his pastor but not a family member. In addition, his superior “judgment” and ability to unite the people over the rhetoric of divisiveness also ring untrue as he did not have the correct judgment to repudiate the Rev. Wright’s comments until after they became public; Obama failed to speak out against his divisiveness until he was backed up against a wall by the media and the public. If Obama can’t stand up to his pastor, who can he stand up to?