A Blog Called Hope

Despite McCain throwing adviser under the bus, McCain himself has a history of using tragedy to further his campaign

In yesterday’s Fortune Magazine, John McCain’s chief strategist, Charlie Black, was quoted as saying that another terrorist attack on our country would “be a big advantage” to McCain’s campaign.

Today, McCain, sensing the overwhelming public outrage, sidestepped from the comments. When pressed about the outrageous assertions made by Black, McCain quickly asserted he knew nothing of them, “I cannot imagine why he would say it,” McCain proclaimed.

Maintaining the stance that he did not know of the remarks by Clark, McCain claimed that IF they had been made that he “strenuously disagreed” with Clark.

However, this is not the first time that McCain’s camp has used the fear produced by terrorist attacks as a launching pad for their campaign.

Back in January, soon after the horrific attack that killed Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, Clark again saw the tragedy as a positive for McCain’s candidacy. Black observed that the assassination of Bhutto would put the American public back on notice and hone the focus in on McCain’s supposed strong point, the War on Terror.

It is unfortunate that McCain’s campaign continues to utilize terrorist tragedies for their own selfish political gain. To spin such an unspeakable act of savagery into a positive for your political aspirations is both insensitive and downright despicable.

There must come a time that either McCain disavows himself from Clark (which in and of itself assumes McCain truly disagrees with Clark’s ludicrous declarations), or the American people come to realize the truth that McCain’s campaign is solely based off of the same fear-mongering we have been subjected to for eight long years.

McCain’s foreign policy competency called into question due to Al-Qaeda-Iran gaffe

John McCain must be thanking his lucky stars that the remaining Democratic hopefuls continue to battle it out to decide who will get the nomination. Or otherwise, McCain’s own incompetence and misunderstanding of world affairs would be in the limelight.

But his confusion is not about just ANY issue. It is about THE predominant global conflict facing America. One could understand if McCain was a little mixed up about the Nigerian oil conflicts, strife in the Democratic Republic of Congo, or even human rights atrocities in China and Darfur. MAYBE an observer, or a voter, could let such a gaffe pass because they are not issues directly affecting our country at this moment. (Though, one would like to believe a potential leader of our country would have knowledge of such prevalent global topics.)

The issue is al-Qaeda. The issue is the leading terrorist organization in the world and our most dangerous and heinous adversary. The issue is al-Qaeda’s relationship (or lack thereof) with the always contentious Iran.

Unfortunately, John McCain appears to not grasp the realities surrounding al-Qaeda, Iran, and terrorism as a whole.

In recent weeks John McCain has upped his efforts to poke holes in Obama’s candidacy, and particularly what McCain deems Obama’s ‘naïve’ foreign policy approach. Speaking in front of an American-Israeli committee, McCain took the opportunity to rail against Mr. Obama’s desire to sit down with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

During one of his rants, John McCain falsely linked al-Qaeda to the Iranian government. McCain asserted unequivocally that, “Al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and is receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran.”

The truth of the matter is that the Sunni al-Qaeda is a rebellious counterpart to the ruling Shi’a regime in Iran. In fact, Iran has gone to great lengths to keep adversarial al-Qaeda fighters out of the country. It is this deep-seeded conflict that continues to enflame the already volatile situation in Iraq. So to think, and then say, that there is a relationship between a Sunni faction in al-Qaeda and a hard-line Shi’a regime in Iran is immensely deceptive.

It is hard not to notice the similarity in rhetoric between McCain’s baseless assertions and those spewed by Bush in late 2002 and early 2003. As we have seen, by way of the 9/11 Commission’s detailed report, al-Qaeda had no ties, affiliations, or relationship with Iraq. Despite this, the President continues to hold out false hope that he was somehow correct in his misrepresentation of Middle Eastern dynamics.

It’s these kinds of unfounded assertions that continue to shift our focus away from where it should be; finding al-Qaeda leadership and stemming the spread of its brutal ideology.

For those who hoped that the lens would shift back to a genuine focus on waging the war on terror, think again if McCain is elected. Given McCain’s misrepresentations, it would appear that the misleading of the American people won’t end with George W.

… Maybe getting riled up about McCain improperly aligning two prominant figures in our war on terror is an overreaction. Maybe foreign policy is not McCain’s strong suit… Problem is John McCain himself has asserted that foreign policy is a point of strength for him. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal back in November 2005, McCain proclaimed, “I’m going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated.”

Given McCain’s egregious mix-up of two key U.S. foes, it certainly appears McCain needs a lot more education on BOTH (economics and foreign policy) fronts. Perhaps McCain should crack open some history books and prepare to pull some all-nighters studying; because, are there any more significant concerns facing our country than the economy and the war on terror?