I used to have a belief that his push for the surge was a calculated political maneuver aimed at trying to out Bush—Bush so to speak at his own game, but after watching this clip and studied his behavior closely I have to say that he’s just another bloody—warmonger. Robert Dreyfus explains to Amy Goodman how close his ties are to the Neocon’s and how prominent their influence is over him. He’s a super freak of the AEI vision of America’s role in world affairs. Instead of learning the lessons Vietnam taught us, he blew them off and is now solidly for American military intervention at all costs.
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Download | Play (h/t Heather)
Elect John McCain and you’ll receive a continuation of the Neocon agenda with a twist of lime. It’s that simple and may God help us all.
Transcript via Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman:
AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to Robert Dreyfuss, investigative reporter, contributing editor at The Nation magazine. His latest piece is called “Hothead McCain.” McCain famously said that US forces might end up staying in Iraq for 100 years. What role did John McCain play in the surge and in shaping, if he did, any part of President Bush’s policy in Iraq, the war?
ROBERT DREYFUSS: Oh, I would say that of all the politicians in the United States, McCain was number one in a crucial moment, when the President, President Bush, had to decide whether to accept the Baker-Hamilton report, which called for phasing out US combat forces over a period of sixteen months or alternatively escalating the war. And at that time, McCain was the number one voice in calling for an escalation. He had traveled to Iraq. He had said we need more troops. I believe he was calling for at least 50,000 troops. He worked closely along with Senator Lieberman, who’s now his traveling companion. McCain and Lieberman spoke at the American Enterprise Institute and worked closely with Robert and Frederick Kagan, who—Frederick Kagan, in particular, who is at AEI and was the author of the report that led to the surge and was brought into the administration by Vice President Cheney, who went over to AEI and consulted with them. It was that team—Kagan, McCain, Lieberman and Cheney—who convinced the President to go with the escalation a year ago in January.
And McCain was not only advocating the surge, but really pushing, and is today pushing, for a long-term presence by the United States in Iraq, using Iraq as an aircraft carrier to support American power throughout the Persian Gulf and the Middle East and Central Asia. And his advisers told me so. When I spoke to Randy Scheunemann at length, he said, in fact, yes, we want to stay in Iraq for a long time, not just to stabilize Iraq, but because we may have to deal with many threats from the region. And of course you have to include Iran as among the possible threats that we’d have to deal with, according to McCain.
So I would say that McCain and the surge are almost identical, and it’s McCain who we have to thank for the fact that two years ago we didn’t start withdrawing from Iraq, but in fact escalated to the point where the next president will have probably 130,000 troops on the ground when he or she takes office.
AMY GOODMAN: And the others in the neocon circle, the advisers, like, for example, Bill Kristol, like Max Boot, tell us about their involvement.
ROBERT DREYFUSS: You know, it’s very interesting, Amy. If you look at the list of people who say they’re advising the McCain camp, you find a broad range of people. You find people like Henry Kissinger, Brent Scowcroft, Larry Eagleburger. These are the traditional kind of Nixon-era realists, many of whom certainly wouldn’t be considered liberals, but who certainly are realists. But when you look at McCain’s positions, his views on things, you don’t find any of the influence of people like Eagleburger and Scowcroft.
What you see instead is that the rest of McCain’s advisers, and you named several of them—James Woolsey, the former CIA director, who has been traveling and campaigning with McCain and who I interviewed for this piece; Bill Kristol, who’s very close to McCain for probably a decade and has been kind of an angel sitting on his shoulder and whispering in his ear all that time; people like Scheunemann; people like Max Boot; Ralph Peters; there’s a long list of people who have joined the McCain advisory team—and it’s these people whom McCain listens to when it comes to foreign policy. He certainly hasn’t expressed anything in any foreign policy area that you would identify with the Republican realist camp. He’s much closer to the neocons.
And he seems to be, as I said earlier, the true neocon himself, someone who, after early in his career in the ’80s being kind of suspicious about some foreign interventions that happened at that time, at the end of the Cold War, when the Soviet Union collapsed, McCain seemed to have felt unburdened, like now American power can express itself. And that’s when he attached himself to the neoconservative vision that America, as the sole superpower, could throw its weight around, could remake the world in its own image and that there would be no effective opposition to it.
When I look at McCain, though, I have to say, I go back to Vietnam. This is a man whose father and grandfather were extremely conservative, even rightwing admirals, who served in Vietnam until he was shot down and held as a POW, conducting air raid missions, dropping napalm on Hanoi and other cities in North Vietnam, who learned from that and became convinced that American military power, if it’s constrained by politics, was unable to win that war. And so, he took out of Vietnam not the lesson that we shouldn’t get into land wars in Asia or that fighting guerrilla counterinsurgency efforts might not be the task that America’s military is most suited for; what he learned in Vietnam is that we need to take the gloves off, that the politicians need to get out of the way and let the military do its job.
And that’s precisely the message that he’s adopted in approaching Iraq. I think to this day, McCain thinks that the Vietnam War could have been won if we had just stayed another five or ten or fifteen years, and he seems exactly prepared to do that in Iraq, despite all evidence to the contrary that we can’t do anything in Iraq other than sit on a very ugly stalemate that, you know, continues to blow up and flare into violence.
Filed Under: Election 08, Iraq, John McCain
Tags: Iraq, John McCain
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Just finished watching this piece. Amy Goodman is the queen of journalism and in-depth reporting.
“McCain closer to the neo-cons (Bill Kristol, James Woolsey etc) than Bush according to Dreyfuss.
Amy’s interview with Aram Roston on his new book about Ahmed Chalabi is also a really important listen. Just after the interview with Richard Dreyfuss.
Richard Dreyfus? Clearly you mean Robert Dreyfus. Or is Iraq the real “Mr. Holland’s Opus”/
Bush and McCain have similar backgrounds in that both of them have successful fathers and neither of these sons has been able to live up to what their fathers were. Bush saw the presidency to be the way to try to top his dad. I think McCain sees the presidency as a way to do the same thing.
McCain scares the holy hell out of me when I think of him leading our country for four years. Makes me feel the same way I did when bush was running for his second term.
Look at Korea, Japan and Germany, not really a stretch, got to protect our interest..
Can a person that was raised in a military family and involved in war throughout his lifetime conceive of a situation where war is the wrong answer? It’s worth pondering..
These war-mongers are going to destroy this country. By endlessly promoting war, they are alienating our allies. Our treasury is gone, many of our brave soldiers dead. These people have no shame.
chris @ 4:
Nice job recycling this old talking point. Waste not, want not!
R Gallaay @ 2:
Robert Dreyfuss (pardon me)
Blue Lensman @ 7:
I don’t get the last part?
siegh hiel , mine furor!!!!! land aircraft carriers ? what a novel idea!!!!!!!! war is goot ! cant we all just get along and murder as we please ?
I that the same Vietnam with whom we are now signing trade and travel deals?
Well, Johnny was/is the president of the International Republican Institute.
Remember the IRI and Haiti?
What’s a few rigged elections here and there around the globe.
I STRONGLY suggest to anyone with a pulse to watch the PBS/Frontline special on “Bush’s War”…..the consistent incompetence is incredible…link:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/bushswar/
Another fine upstanding member of the IRI was J Kenneth Blackwell.
SOS of Ohio 2004 election cycle.
any buddy remember him?
nothings going to change ! let me know when any of these politicians say they will comletly withdraw from iraq and afganistan WITHIN ONE YEAR and bring all our weapons with us!
Another reason to watch Bush’s War is to see how it differs (quite strongly) from what Dreyfus said. For example, Bush’s War provides zero evidence that Cheney wanted the surge. Instead, it suggests that Rice was the backer. Cheney wanted the “small footprint” and “get out soon,” which is the opposite as the surge. That Dreyfus never mentions Rice is rather notable.
It doesn’t matter who you vote for.
The American nation is going down the shitter. It swirls as we speak.
Peak oil. Housing collapse. War.
Die-off is next.
Just prepare.
Want to know what is wrong with American journalism today?
Here you go:
CBS anchorwomen - Katie Couric
Democracy now anchor - Amy Goodman
Which one has the bigger budget? Which one gets the bigger paycheck? Which program is watched by millions due to default?
baboonass @ 17:
I love the name, how do you smile with that thing in the way?
chris @ 9:
Sometimes irony isn’t that obvious. He didn’t recognize it. Maybe someday he’ll get a hint by the ellipse . . .
goat hussein sage @ 18:
Why oh why do the network NEWSREADERS make $15 million (or more) per year?
goat hussein sage @ 18:
Check the money trail to left-gatekeeper Amy Goodman and Democracy Now. You’d be surprised as to where it comes from.
Ford Foundation grants to Amy Goodman-Democracy Now.
Dr. Acula @ 21:
Certainly not for their journalistic abilities…
Truth B Told @ 22:
You say this as if it’s a bad thing. Do you know much about the Ford Foundation? (hint, it has nothing to do with vehicles or an ex-president)
http://www.fordfound.org/
Is there ANY legitimate reason why we all allow every talking head to use the term “Neocon” when they actually are speaking about “Agents Of Israel?”
Neocon MEANS “Agent of Israel.”
Admit it - and make others state it clearly.
Nothing to see here folks. All mumbo jumbo talk about some problems that is so far out there, that it is not even here.
Here, let’ just watch our interviews of the families of two young white blond beautiful chicks that are mistakenly identified in their deaths.
Look at those chicks, they are beautiful aren’t they? Let’s make mistaken identity the subject of the day. It’s much more refreshing than that tiresome Iraq war debate….
WTF !!!!!
chris @ 9:
You got that right… you don’t get the last point or many points on this blog.
goat hussein sage @ 18:
Goodman doesn’t have a gummy, retarded smile and she hasn’t yelled out inane statements such as “Navy Seals rock!”. Network TV loves bimbos.
Paul C @ 20:
Can’t libs just have a normal discussion, I mean really, lets talk about the issues and facts as they present themselves. Why are we still in Japan, Korea and Germany after all these years?
Media ownership study ordered destroyed
Sept 14, 2006
‘Every last piece’ destroyed
Adam Candeub, now a law professor at Michigan State University, said senior managers at the agency ordered that “every last piece” of the report be destroyed. “The whole project was just stopped - end of discussion,” he said. Candeub was a lawyer in the FCC’s Media Bureau at the time the report was written and communicated frequently with its authors, he said.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14836500/
“You can’t tell any more the difference between what’s propaganda and what’s news.”
FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein
15 August, 2006
chris @ 29:
soveniers ?
McCain is trouble. McCain is going to destroy the United States. The US is in trouble and McCain is not the answer. He is another neo conservative that has no idea what he is doing. Really listen to what he says! He has no clear plan. His only objective is to say and do whatever just to get elected. Then all HELL willbreak loose!
The Israeli Enterprise Institute.
nony @ 25:
while it is understandable why you write that, i have different take.
neoconervatism means the extension of the american-corporate empire through military means.
versus
neoliberalism, which is the extension of the american-corporate empire through economic means.
both are versions of neocolonialism and both are blights on the world.
Dr Pepper issues challenge to Guns N’ Roses
Important stuff.
L.A. Confidential @ 35:
its about time!
Dittohead says:
Can’t libs just have a normal discussion, I mean really, lets talk about the issues and facts as they present themselves. Why are we still in Japan, Korea and Germany after all these years?
Enlighten us. Tell us why we are in Japan, Korea, and Germany after all these years.
whoever makes the decision on her salary must believe that head job she gives him is worth 15 million.
tyree @ 36:
sometimes even Hitler made sense,
“Your child belongs to us already…What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community.”
Samson- @ 34:
______
And the benefit of a permanent US military presence in the Middle East for Israel is what?
Dessert?
nony @ 25:
Achtung baby. Now stfu!
biff diggerence @ 40:
No schmuck, it’s for the OIL!