{"id":2172,"date":"2005-06-19T15:02:11","date_gmt":"2005-06-19T22:02:11","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2005-06-19T15:02:11","modified_gmt":"2005-06-19T22:02:11","slug":"mccain-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2005\/06\/19\/mccain-again\/","title":{"rendered":"McCain, Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

John McCain — possibly the worst, most persistent warmonger<\/a> of them all — is running for President, again, and he’s on “Meet the Press” right this moment, telling the American people that they’re wrong about Iraq — we aren’t totally losing. No, the insurgency isn’t in its “last throes,” but lots of people– “foreigners,” according to McCain — don’t think so. We get more “cut and run” rhetoric: the American people don’t want to do it. But what about the polls<\/a>: are people lying to pollsters? <\/p>\n

What about the 40 percent military recruitment shortfall? McCain’s solution: more “patriotic” propaganda. And more money, of course. <\/p>\n

What should Bush say to the country about Iraq? “It’s going to be a long, hard slog.” Yeah, just like this interview. “We’ve had some successes.” Hmmmm…. sounds familiar. “Stay the course.” What a novel idea! “And that means addressing issues such as Syria.” We don’t have to “respect Syria’s border.” He claims that most of the suicide bombers are not Iraqi. “We may have to do what’s necessary.” Invade Syria? Tim “Suck-up” Russertt doesn’t dare to ask.<\/p>\n

Compare and contrast to comments of Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel — another Republican who is mentioned frequently as a White House aspirant — to US News<\/i> magazine. Hagel<\/a> <\/p>\n

“Is angry. He’s upset about the more than 1,700 U.S. soldiers killed and nearly 13,000 wounded in Iraq. He’s also aggravated by the continued string of sunny assessments from the Bush administration, such as Vice President Dick Cheney’s recent remark that the insurgency is in its ‘last throes.’ ‘Things aren’t getting better; they’re getting worse. The White House is completely disconnected from reality,’ Hagel tells U.S. News. ‘It’s like they’re just making it up as they go along. The reality is that we’re losing in Iraq.’ <\/p>\n

“That’s strikingly blunt talk from a member of the president’s party, even one cast as something of a pariah in the GOP because of his early skepticism about the war. ‘I got beat up pretty good by my own party and the White House that I was not a loyal Republican,’ he says. Today, he notes, things are changing: ‘More and more of my colleagues up here are concerned.'”<\/i><\/p>\n

McCain, the media-darling “maverick,” reiterates the White House’s talking points, while Hagel, the true maverick, speaks truth to power. <\/p>\n

McCain on the prospect of a run for the White House: “It’s an option.” Ignore the denials: he’s running. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John McCain — possibly the worst, most persistent warmonger of them all — is running for President, again, and he’s on “Meet the Press” right this moment, telling the American people that they’re wrong about Iraq — we aren’t totally losing. No, the insurgency isn’t in its “last throes,” but lots of people– “foreigners,” according […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[676],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-antiwar-movement"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2172"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}