The Passion of Captain America

Captain America, John McCain, is at it again. He was interviewed on C-SPAN (a VERY important and highly watched network, ahem) as seen in the video below.

As you watch the short clip, ask yourself this question. What exactly does McCain want Obama to do? Does he want him to declare war on Iran? Perhaps just make a stronger verbal statement? It's unclear. At the end of the clip he says he just wants Obama to stand up for human rights like our founding fathers did. I could hear the Battle Hymn of the Republic playing softly in McCain's head when he said it.

And yet where's McCain's passion? Where's the gusto? I was half expecting him to yawn at some point. I yawned a couple times watching it. He's boring. Why is he boring? Look, I'm not a young, naive child who has to be entertained all the time, but if someone is speaking and you're bored to tears within seconds, it's not because you have a short attention span, it's because the person's heart isn't in it. McCain's heart isn't in it. He has no passion. And why, I ask you?

Because his words are empty and meaningless. Because he's calling on Obama to say what he's already said. Because he knows that his earlier stance was outrageous and harmful to the US, and he knows it, and he's had to back off of it because he looks like a fool.

I don't want to practice age discrimination, so I apologize, but McCain is just old and tired, and I'm tremendously relieved that he wasn't elected President. He's got nothing to contribute to this situation, which is probably why he's being interviewed on C-SPAN. Anyway, here, watch for yourself, and be glad he's not our President. (Not that I love Obama - I didn't vote for him either. At least he's got a little personality though, sheesh!)

The Wall Street Journal Gets It

Peggy Noonan has put out a brilliant piece for the Wall Street Journal today, and I applaud it. Thanks Peggy, for getting it right and for getting the word out - and in a conservative newspaper no less! Hooray!

I am by no means a liberal or a Democrat. I grew up loyal to the Republicans, but am now a registered Libertarian. That doesn't mean I don't usually side with the Republicans though. Nonetheless, I've been entirely vehement at the ignorant and wreckless politics of certain Republicans lately, especailly Captain America, John McCain, which I've written about here. And yes, by calling him Captain America, I do mean to make him look ridiculous and cartoonish, so that you won't take him seriously.

The best thing for the President to do is stay out of it. I even wrote him a letter telling him as much, and I told him that he needs to get prominent Republicans to speak out about it in conservative forums, because frankly, conservatives won't listen to Obama.

Why is that? Well, because conservatives have already made up their minds about Obama. He's a liberal and probably a coward, they say. He couldn't possibly be right. Thus it's very, very easy for someone like McCain to come along in a smug desire for revenge for losing last year's election and say that Obama is screwing up foreign policy, just like conservatives always knew he would. It reminds me of when Rush Limbaugh said that he wants Obama to fail.

It's ironic how conservatives accuse liberals of being anti-American, because Rush's comments are what's truly anti-American. And I LIKE listening to Rush Limbaugh! McCain's actions here are also anti-American. I know he's got access to BETTER information than I do, since he's a Senator. Although, I doubt he spends as much time looking into it and thinking about it as I do. I didn't vote for Obama. I don't think liberal policies work. But I'm happy to be proven wrong. I want the country to succeed. I want Obama to succeed. I don't want him to ruin our country, and in fact, I'm convinced that ruining our country is a lot harder than it looks.

Obama is not just being a coward. I agree with him, and I was a Marine. Choose any Marine at random and call them a coward. You'll find out if you're right. If I were President, I would do just what Obama is doing. He's doing the right thing.

I might have a small disagreement with Noonan's article though. She thinks it was a mistake for Obama to say that Ahmadinejad and Mousavi are basically the same thing from our perspective. First, let's admit that yes, Obama's statement is incorrect. Noonan assumes that Obama doesn't know that. Perhaps that's a fair assumption, but I think it's incorrect. I think Obama knows that what he said did not reflect the truth of the matter. He knows, because he can employ common sense, that millions of Iranians think the difference between the two candidates is worth dying for. Only a fool could overlook that.

If it is true that the two candidates look the same from our perspective, we need to change our perspective. Anyone in our government will tell you that we know very, very precious little about Iran. I was very pleasantly surprised to see this ad for the opposition. I had no idea just how radical the opposition was. Perhaps a change in perspective is a good idea.

Nonetheless, let's assume for a moment that Obama knew that the comment did not reflect reality. Is there still some reason why he might have said it? Sure! Lots of them! For one, he might have been pushing Mousavi to parse his movement in a way Westerners can understand. For another, he might have been trying to be absolutely crystal clear to everyone in Iran that he was NOT taking sides, because in fact, he doesn't see a difference between the two. Perhaps that made the people in Iran kind of resent Obama's ignorance a little bit, but I doubt anyone in Iran was shocked or really cared all that much. They know we're ignorant about them. And in fact, Mousavi's statement describing how irritated he was about that only gives the fact more publicity that the US President isn't taking sides. (And I'm not the only one who thinks it was a good move.)

That's a very good thing, because if Ahmadinejad can paint the opposition movement as an American puppet movement, then the movement will lose a lot of momentum. Almost everyone in Iran is distrustful of foreign influence in their country, particularly Western influence, and that distrust goes all the way back to the Persians and the Greeks. People outside the US have slightly longer memories than we do. They still talk about injustices done centuries ago. When I was in Kosovo, I remember people talking about land disputes in terms of what happened 700 years before. In the Middle East, some still talk about the Crusades as if those injustices still need to be answered for. This is unthinkable for Americans who have only a 200 year history. White people still can't understand how blacks can still be upset about slavery in the US, when it was abolished 150 years ago. What does that have to do with me? we wonder. Well, some people have longer memories, and they have VERY long memories in the Middle East that stretches back for centuries, even millennia.

So the point is, the Iranians are distrustful of foreign influence, but particularly the US. So if Obama picks a side and supports it openly and publicly, that side will immediately lose at least some Iranian support. So it is actually in the best interests of the opposition movement that he remain silent.

But perhaps you ask why he doesn't then publicly side with the Iranian government, to REALLY ensure their doom. Of course he can't do that, because the American people wouldn't understand that he's lying. So the only thing he can do is take no side. And for this, the Republicans and others call him a coward and say that he's not standing up for the protesters. But the fact is, there's nothing he can do to help the protesters. All he can do is try to refrain from hindering their efforts.

What would McCain have done if he was President? Would he have stormed into Iran, in an attempt to oust the government? Doesn't he understand that if Obama did that, the new government would have NO legitimacy in the eyes of the Iranian people? How is that different from the current government? If we're TRULY Americans, if we TRULY believe in government by the people and for the people, then we'll let the Iranian PEOPLE form their OWN government, without our help, without our interference, without our meddling.

Bravo, President Obama, bravo. You're doing the right thing. Please keep resisting the temptation to be Captain America.

What Should Captain America Do About Iran? Nothing.

Nothing.

John McCain completely disagrees. Here is an example of a politician saying something stupid for the sake of political gain. He should know better. He's certainly in a position to be better informed than that.

Obama's position is right on the money. Stay out of it. Let's not "meddle" in Iranian affairs. His reasoning is absolutely sound. As soon as the US stands up against Ahmadinejad, then he can just turn around and call Mousavi a US puppet, and it's conceivable that some Iranians will believe it, and the movement will fizzle. Perhaps that's overstating things a bit, but we shouldn't miss the point. Let's not give the regime any way to claim that the opposition is the result of foreign powers meddling in Iranian politics. Everyone in Iran is distrustful of foreign influence. They have been for a very long time.

And anyway, just what does McCain think we can acheive by our meddling? Is the collapse of the Iranian government not happening fast enough to satisfy him?

Let's say that it's somehow possible to convince the Iranian government to "play nice" and stop killing protesters. What then? I hate to sound like a cold, bloodthirsty, inhuman monster, but the fact is, the doom of the Iranian state is spelled out in the blood of these protesters, who history will undoubtedly honor as martyrs. This is what happens in revolutions. There's violence; people die. I don't like it anymore than anyone else, but it's a necessary evil.

The fact is, Obama has denounced the violence. Iran is already under a number of sanctions from the UN. What more can be done?

"People are being killed and beaten in the streets of Tehran and all over Iran, and we should stand up for them," he told FOX News. "The way we stood up for the Polish workers in Gdansk, the way we stood up for the people of then Czechoslovakia in the Prague Spring and we have stood up for freedom in every part of the world. We're not doing that."

Precisely how should we stand up for these people, and how will that do them any good? If we take their side, so to speak, that will undermine their legitimacy in Iran. Why is this such a hard concept to understand? Not everyone looks at the US as some kind of world savior. Captain America is just a comic book.

When asked to respond to Obama's argument that perceived U.S. meddling could cast protestors as puppets of the United States, McCain said, "You know, I heard that argument during the Cold War that if we advocated for the oppressed under the then Soviet Union, that would somehow help the oppressors. It doesn't. It doesn't."

What a brilliant and well thought out response! "It doesn't." Brilliant! Why didn't I think of that? Why didn't anyone on the President's staff think of that? The fact is, McCain doesn't HAVE a coherent response to such a well reasoned argument, because he knows he's wrong. He is irresponsibly standing against the President, exploiting the ignorant American public, and all for the sake of political gain. John McCain is no Captain America.