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The two faces of McCain
The Republican presidential nominee's pro-Israel stance doesn't bode well for peace in the Middle East.
- By Linda S. Heard, Special to Gulf News
- Published: 00:41 March 18, 2008
- Image Credit: Illustration: Nino Jose Heredia/Gulf News
The thought of a McCain presidency is enough to give me indigestion. I just can't swallow the image of a humble nice guy. You might be tempted to respond, "Well, since you're not American why should you worry?" Fact is, I've learned my lesson.
When George W. Bush was elected in 2000, I took one look, shrugged my shoulders and thought that's their problem. A Wild West Afghanistan, a devastated Iraq, a broken Lebanon and a divided and bleeding Palestine have elicited a change of heart.
When a US president sneezes this region gets pneumonia. And I suspect that if McCain wins the top job we're going to require a hefty dose of antibiotics.
Bush's legacy of futile wars and a failed economy should mean the next election is the Democrats to lose. A Democrat in the next White House should be a slam dunk to borrow a phrase from former CIA Director George Tenet.
But is it really when Hillary Clinton has a likeability deficit and the establishment innuendo-laden knives are out to get Barack Obama currently distancing himself from his "racially divisive" pastor?
It wasn't so long ago that McCain's candidacy seemed washed up. He had little support and almost no funds. At that time, the former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was riding high. McCain's miraculous resurgence just goes to prove the fickleness of the voting public. And this is what concerns me.
I'm even more concerned about John McCain's seeming fickleness or to use election-speak flip-flopping. Over the years, he's flip-flopped over his support for Bush and he's flip-flopped over torture.
McCain, a war hero, was tortured by the Vietnamese and thereafter campaigned against it. Yet, he supports the President's use of veto to prevent the passing of a bill outlawing water-boarding while at the same time admitting unequivocally that water-boarding is, indeed, torture.
What's particularly confusing is that the youthful McCain was remarkably principled. How many prisoners of war would refuse the opportunity of being sent home unless his incarcerated compatriots were allowed to be repatriated along with him?
McCain did and for that he should be commended. And he was with Silver and Bronze Stars, a Purple Heart, a Distinguished Flying Cross as well as the Legion of Merit.
It takes an exceptional and iron-willed human being to reject preferential treatment for the honour of standing - or in McCain's case being brutally tortured - with one's comrades in arms.
Weak with dysentery, McCain was beaten until he publicly confessed to being an "air pirate", an admission he was later to regret as having been dishonourable while admitting that every man has a breaking point and at that time he had reached his own.
That McCain I like. That was someone who was strong, loyal and willing to make the ultimate personal sacrifice for his country; just the kind of traits a good president should possess.
Blunder
But the McCain currently beating a path to the Oval Office seems to have lost his way. When just about everyone of normal intelligence knows the invasion of Iraq was a blunder, McCain not only supports it but he now says if American troops stay in country for the next 100 years that would be fine with him.
You can find him on YouTube singing "Bomb, bomb Iran", categorising Tehran as a member of Bush's "Axis of Evil" and asking "When do we send an airmail message to Tehran?"
Just as disconcerting is his unwillingness to renounce an endorsement by Televangelist Rod Parsley; the preacher McCain has described as his "spiritual guide".
Parsley, who leads a Pentecostal congregation of over 12,000, is an Islamophobe who has called for what he calls "the false religion" to be eradicated. In his book Parsley writes "I do not believe our country can truly fulfil its divine purpose until we understand our historical conflict with Islam".
McCain has similarly refused to reject an endorsement from another evangelical Pastor John Hagee, the founder of Christians United for Israel, who has launched a war on the Catholic Church labelling it "the anti-Christ" and an "Apostate church".
Lastly, McCain's hardline pro-Israel stance doesn't bode well for peace in the Middle East any time soon.
Speaking at a reception given by the Jewish Institute of National Security Affairs after receiving the Distinguished Service Award, McCain said this: "No American leader should insist that Israel negotiate a political settlement while terrorism remains its adversaries' favoured bargaining tool."
McCain's calm, affable exterior belies his legendary explosive temper, and we can only speculate on what other negatives lurk beneath the surface. One thing is certain. A McCain presidency will equate to more of the same or worse.
Torture has a way of scarring the souls of even the nicest people while according to the poet Walter Savage Lander "ambition is but avarice on stilts and masked".
Together they make a lethal combination to which it's possible that a once decent man has fallen victim. I may be wrong but during these times of worldwide turmoil this is time for certitude not a throw of the dice.
Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She can be contacted at lheard@gulfnews.com.
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