| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Politix |
| McCain wants Russia thrown out of G8 |
| 2007-10-16 |
| Russia should be barred from the G8 group of powerful nations for trying to "bully" its neighbors and cutting political freedoms, Republican White House hopeful John McCain said in an essay released Monday. I can think of a couple of other reasons, too. One of them is that they have no significant economy besides exporting the tools and technology required to wage war and terror. Writing for an upcoming issue of Foreign Affairs journal, the Arizona senator also warned America could not afford a "historic loss" to Islamic extremists in Iraq and added the war could not be "wished away." "We see in Russia diminishing political freedoms, a leadership dominated by a clique of former intelligence officers, efforts to bully democratic neighbors, such as Georgia, and attempts to manipulate Europe's dependence on Russian oil and gas," McCain wrote. "We need a new Western approach to this revanchist Russia. "We should start by ensuring that the G-8, the group of eight highly industrialized states, becomes again a club of leading market democracies: it should include Brazil and India but exclude Russia." McCain said that the West should tell Moscow that NATO's doors remained open to all democracies committed to the defense of freedom. Once the presumed front-runner of the Republican establishment, McCain, a Vietnam war hero, downsized his operation early this year after a fundraising crunch and now lags behind other top Republicans like former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani and ex-governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney in the polls. He was also hurt politically by his support for President George W. Bush's Iraq war "surge" strategy and doomed bid to overhaul US immigration laws. Hopefully supporing W's surge won't be such a burden after all. In his article, he condemned "years of mismanagement and failure" in Iraq, but argued there was no alternative to pressing on with the conflict. "The consequences of failure would be horrific: a historic loss at the hands of Islamic extremists, who after having defeated the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and the United States in Iraq will believe the world is going their way." And McCain also took aim at Democrats, who are pledging to quickly start bringing US troops from Iraq if they are elected in November 2008. "The war in Iraq cannot be wished away and it is a miscalculation of historic magnitude to believe that the consequences of failure will be limited to one administration or one party," McCain wrote. They won't. They just want to harvest the ignorant vote is all. |
| Posted by:gorb |
| #6 Duncan Hunter is the best VP or SecDef |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-10-16 21:36 |
| #5 Russia will play the oil & gas card with Europe pretty soon. Bet on it. They will find a way to build an "economic" wall of inclusion that may be tougher to bring down than the steel one. |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2007-10-16 16:35 |
| #4 By mismanaging the Russians I believe we made the War on Terror more difficult. Agreed. The next president should be able to change this under cover of the new administration in the Kremlin, even though we know nothing will have changed. Just like teaming up with Uncle Joe; hold your nose. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2007-10-16 14:28 |
| #3 I'm afraid I don't think either of them would be a good vice president, Delphi. Senator McCain is entirely too concerned that he be given the deference he feels is his due regardless of the situation, and Secretary Rice has been counterproductive with regards to Israel and her enemies for some time. The reports/rumours that she advocated against allowing Israel to bomb Syria's nuclear facility was the last straw for me. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-10-16 14:15 |
| #2 The fact is I think the US Policy towards the Russians has been lacking. I base this on overly high expectations I suppose since Condi was the expert on the Russians. It didn't take a genious to figure out that pretty much winning in Afghanistan in months when the Soviets lost after a decade would cause them to lose face. Then keeping bases in a few of their neighbors would make them paranoid. And of course supporting democracy in Ukraine and others sent them screaming into the night. Dictators need external bad guys and we've sort of stumbled into that position which makes it easier for them to justify selling nasty stuff to Iran. It would not have been hard to pretend Russia was a big help in Afghanistan, to publicly stand by them after the Moscow Opera and Beslan terrorist attacks. To avoid expanding NATO even as we supported democracy in a non-confrontational way. By mismanaging the Russians I believe we made the War on Terror more difficult. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2007-10-16 13:36 |
| #1 Wow, that is a balsy statement from the good Senator! I suspect a huge change in U.S. policy towards Russia in the works if he becomes President. I am undecided if whether he and Condi would make a good pair as VP. I am sure you all would have some opinion on this. |
| Posted by: Delphi 2007-10-16 10:41 |