Yesterday, it seemed, for a bit, that someone on McCain's staff had plagiarized his eloquent statement on the horrors of war from a speech Admiral Timothy Ziemer gave in 1996. Not so. Turned out McCain was using those lines in 1995. So, since 1995, he's been saying, "I detest war. It might not be the worst thing to befall human beings, but it is wretched beyond all description. When nations seek to resolve their differences by force of arms, a million tragedies ensue."Which puts us in one of these odd situations where the reality is more damning, but less damaging, than the purported scandal. Between 1995 and 2008, McCain has advocated full-scale war in Kosovo, North Korea, Iraq, and Iran. He has repeatedly sought to ratchet up tensions with Russia and China, and has advisers who've called for air strikes on Syria. And those are only the instance I can remember offhand. His horror of war has led him to advocate no fewer than four full-scale wars in the past decade or so. And his recognition of its dangers has spurred him towards an aggressive, threatening stance against two of the largest, most powerful countries on earth. This, of course, will not be a scandal. Yet how much the better if McCain had copied true sentiments about his aversion to war, rather than simply lied to cover up his proclivity towards militarism?Update: For more along these lines, see Spackerman, who also reminds me that though McCain we tend to bring up McCain's invocation of a 100-year occupation of Iraq, McCain has also mentioned his comfort with a 1,000-year occupation of Iraq. But Im sure he'd detest every second of it. All 3.1556926 × 1010 of them. MCCAIN THE HAWK.
Yesterday, it seemed, for a bit, that someone on McCain's staff had plagiarized his eloquent statement on the horrors of war from a speech Admiral Timothy Ziemer gave in 1996. Not so. Turned out McCain was using those lines in 1995. So, since 1995, he's been saying, "I detest war. It might not be the worst thing to befall human beings, but it is wretched beyond all description. When nations seek to resolve their differences by force of arms, a million tragedies ensue."Which puts us in one of these odd situations where the reality is more damning, but less damaging, than the purported scandal. Between 1995 and 2008, McCain has advocated full-scale war in Kosovo, North Korea, Iraq, and Iran. He has repeatedly sought to ratchet up tensions with Russia and China, and has advisers who've called for air strikes on Syria. And those are only the instance I can remember offhand. His horror of war has led him to advocate no fewer than four full-scale wars in the past decade or so. And his recognition of its dangers has spurred him towards an aggressive, threatening stance against two of the largest, most powerful countries on earth. This, of course, will not be a scandal. Yet how much the better if McCain had copied true sentiments about his aversion to war, rather than simply lied to cover up his proclivity towards militarism?Update: For more along these lines, see Spackerman, who also reminds me that though McCain we tend to bring up McCain's invocation of a 100-year occupation of Iraq, McCain has also mentioned his comfort with a 1,000-year occupation of Iraq. But Im sure he'd detest every second of it. All 3.1556926 × 1010 of them. 
