Most Americans now believe the war in Iraq was a mistake.Regardless of what many in congress thought, the Iraqi's had no weapons of mass destruction. Of course Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator the world is better off without, but the cost to Americans for ridding the world of this maniac was vast. Forget the financial price tag, our military became exhausted after being placed on endless rotations fighting there as well as in Afghanistan. Needless to say, it was Afghanistan which should have been our primary focus after the 9/11 attack, and the Iraqi detour took our eye off that important target. We have a record high suicide rate in our military now, and fighting one additional (& needless) war in Iraq was a factor. We're not even quite sure of the long range outcome of disposing of Hussein. Women are no better off there, and the way we screwed up the occupation may have made things worse for rebuilding a country which once had a reasonable infrastructure which we blew apart.That war also helped strengthen our adversary Iran. The only element of this disaster John McCain can hold onto is the freaking surge. He kept hitting Defense Department nominee Chuck Hagel over the head with Hagel's refusal to admit the surge was a success. We are certain of nothing in Iraq. It's simply too early in history to claim that war was a success.
Let's face it, the only reason John McCain is against Hagel is because he's President Obama's nominee to become the next Secretary of Defense. Like Susan Rice before him, McCain will find a reason to be against anything Obama is for, especially his picks for various departments or agencies. McCain has always had a bad temper. Even his own mother once said they had to put a young John McCain in a bathtub full of ice to calm him down after one of his many temper tantrums he had as a child. Losing his long sought quest to the presidency to a novice black guy with a Muslim sounding name was too much for the old coot. There were rumors of McCain's wife Cindy having an affair at one time. Could anyone blame her? She's an attractive woman, and why she fell for this walking poster child to anger mismanagement is anyone's guess.
McCain will vote against Hagel's nomination. McCain will go to his grave defending the Iraqi war, and of course, the great surge. There's not much else McCain can hang his hat on. He's the moron who would've actually put America in the hands of a President Palin had the 2008 campaign taken a different turn. If that's an example of McCain's judgement then all I can say is thanks God he lost, and she's finally fading fast in the minds of most Americans: even Fox News booted her out once Roger Ailes realized nobody cares about Sarah Palin anymore except some toothless rubes in the hills of Kentucky.
McCain won't leave the national stage until he's close to death. Until then, we're stuck with an aging relic who once could've have proven his one-time maverick status and continued to be a hero to many. I wanted him as President in the 2000 campaign. He bucked his own party when President George W. Bush spoke of his initial tax cuts during the early 2000s. McCain knew of the con that trickle-down economics was then. He eventually traded in his rebel of the Republican Party status for party hack when he realized the party had slanted to the right during the horrid rein of Bush/Cheney. He bought into whatever ruse that was perpetrated on America including the phony tie in of Iraq and 9/11 plus trickle-down economics. Both Iraq and tax cutting during war time helped build a shaky economy towards the coming Great Recession. McCain felt he had no choice but to go "right" in gaining the nomination. It worked, and his campaign failed. Another example of the weak attempts at grand-standing came in the form of the con McCain tried to pull after the market began to crash and McCain suggested that the 2008 campaign stop. His idea being that he and others could meet in Washington to seriously study our worsening economy. Once that absurd meeting took place, McCain sat silently as he was never a great brain on economics.
McCain knows who he used to be, and what he has become. He'll always be a hero in the eyes of some because he refused to be let out of the Vietnamese prison camp when he had that chance. Good for him, I say, but that was then, and McCain is who he is now, and that's the problem. Chuck Hagel became what McCain used to be: a Senator unafraid to say what's on his mind, whether it's down the party line or not. I'm Jewish, and it doesn't bother me what Hagel said about the "Jewish lobby". There are times we may have to disagree with Israel, and the Jews of America have to get over us always being at their side regardless of what they say or do. I'm not worried having Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense. McCain is worried because it might prove to be another success for Obama. He also doesn't want anything to get in the way of a possible war with Iran. I'm all for preventing Iran from attaining a nuclear weapon, but going into another war is something we need to prevent (if at all possible)as well. Our military is tired, and much of Iran is actually pro-American.A war with them could blow any future opportunity to make that country an ally. Our job should be a dual track plan to try and disengage Iran from getting a nuke, and build an alliance. We helped topple their democratically elected government in 1953, and that act came back to haunt us. Meanwhile, back in America, McCain will try and haunt the Obama administration at every twist and turn.Denying Chuck Hagel to become the next Defense Secretary is a crucial goal for John McCain, a man on a mission to teach his victor a lesson. That's basically his goal for the rest of his life: to somehow prove America made a mistake when they did not place John McCain in the White House. Although McCain came back to America wounded after Vietnam in the1970s, it was America in 2008 who dodged a bullet.
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