It would be really nice if John McCain ever displayed the pre-9/11 "cool-eyed caution" attributed to him by "his critics" in the New York Times article quoted by Tim below (the Times could only find people who preempt their criticisms of McCain with praise). But as Matthew Yglesias pointed out last week, McCain was calling for ground troops in Serbia in 1999. Stop me if this sounds familiar:
''In Pyongyang and Baghdad and Tripoli, they are paying close attention,'' he said in an interview on Friday. ''And if a military establishment that was defeated by the Croatian Army prevails, one led by a Balkan thug prevails, then we will be vulnerable to many challenges in many places.'
The only way to keep America safe apparently, is to invade whatever country is available so as to prove we aren't weak. This attitude is how bullies end up with so much lunch money and so little actual respect.
As time has gone on, McCain has shuffled the names of the countries and the thugs, but the basic solutions remain the same. The attacks of 9/11 weren't an "awakening" for McCain, who suddenly realized that only strong military intervention could protect the country, in fact, it's probably more accurate to say 9/11 didn't change the way McCain thinks about anything. It might make for good copy to say he was deeply changed by 9/11, but that simply isn't true. The McCain Doctrine has been around for awhile now -- long enough that political reporters and critics should be expected to have some familiarity with the contours of McCain's foreign policy beliefs.
-- A. Serwer
