John McCain: L’Enfant Terrible

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John McCain: L’Enfant Terrible
Posted by SusanUnPC
Sunday, 09 July 2006 at 12:39

We have one enfant terrible — envoy John Bolton — at the U.N. Then there’s the Senate’s petulant John McCain. Stories about the perennial presidential candidate’s "irrational, explosive" temper and ugly anger and "foul language" regularly circulate in Washington whispers and, now, in the MSM.

I just sent this e-mail to Other Lisa, a regular here, who is something of an expert — compared to most Americans — on China. Lisa studies Chinese every Saturday, visits China annually, has many friends in China, and authors an excellent blog, The Paper Tiger, with links to more top China blogs.

Lisa, I just heard McCain say on Face the Nation (CBS) that China may be "naive" re North Korea. Don’t you just hope we have his diplomatic skills in the White House in ’09?

Thankfully, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) came on afterwards and was his reasonable senatorial self, advocating bilateral talks as a SUBSET of the six-party talks (earth to George Bush?).

What concerns you most about North Korea and the recent missile firings? Is it the threat to the region? The possibility that North Korea, always desperate for cash, may sell to the terrorists?

I watched The McLaughlin Group last night, and the overriding agreement was that North Korea would be OUT OF ITS MIND to sell its nuclear goods to any terrorists because it would incur the full force of the U.S.’s wrath and might.

Of course, there’s the reality that Iraq has been a cakewalk compared to what the U.S. military would face in any attack on North Korea. And the North Koreans know that. Hell, they’ve devoted their entire economy to ensuring bloodshed on a scale we Americans can’t begin to imagine. And they know — just like, sigh, Iran — that we’re too bogged down in Iraq to show much muscle, let alone any might.*

Pat Buchanan had an idea I’ve not heard elsewhere, and found interesting — it’s somewhat akin to John Murtha’s idea for our troops in Iraq (to put it simplistically, moving them back to Kuwait). Buchanan calls our 30,000 troops in South Korea "hostages" because they’re so close to the DMZ and within the range of one million of North Korea’s troops and barrage of weapons. Buchanan advocates our withdrawing those troops to a more safe location such as Japan. It’s just a thought, but worth discussion.

P.S. To those who recommended here, a few weeks back, watching The McLaughlin Group: Thanks for that reminder. It’s an excellent program. It’s not a problem that I don’t agree with some of what’s said; all the panelists are highly informed and don’t talk drivel a la Rep. Peter King. They all make me think. And that’s what counts.

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*Further, we’ve pretty much demonstrated the limitations of our always-assumed great military prowess. Vietnam was last century’s reminder. Iraq is this century’s reminder. We have supposedly the greatest military ever created on the face of the earth, and we Americans pour countless billions annually into the military budgets, yet just how effective is our military might when it’s put to the test? And every other nation — particularly those "axis of evil" troublemakers — has asked the same question. The answer is obvious.