John McCain certainly falls short of traditional conservative's expectations. Lately he invoked the class warfare rhetoric of the left. But, he remains consistent in his support for the war in Iraq. Recently the Boston Globe posted this concerning McCain's position:
John McCain asserted yesterday that last year's troop buildup in Iraq pulled the country back from the "abyss of defeat" and "opened the way for something approaching normal political and economic life for the average Iraqi."
On the eve of the long-awaited appearance before Congress today of General David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, the presumptive Republican nominee also portrayed calls from his Democratic presidential rivals to withdraw US forces from Iraq as a "failure of leadership."
Addressing the Veterans of Foreign Wars, McCain insisted that despite a recent outbreak of heavy fighting and a US death toll that has surpassed 4,000, pulling out now would jeopardize recent gains.
"To promise a withdrawal of our forces from Iraq, regardless of the calamitous consequences to the Iraqi people, our most vital interests, and the future of the Middle East, is the height of irresponsibility," McCain said of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. "It is a failure of leadership."
On the other hand Obama's position represents a major ideological shift introduced by Walter Cronkite's gaffe following the Tet offensive during the Vietnam war. Tet single handedly gave anti war activists fodder for their position and planted seeds of doubt concerning American interests and capabilities in relation to foreign affairs. Historian Victor Davis Hanson, however, posits a salient point when suggesting:
At the same time, this freedom to distort often can hamper the military operations of the moment, as Thucydides himself saw and Plato feared in The Republic--and as was the case with the Tet Offensive. Frankness and hysteria, in place of reasoned and positive assessment, may have prolonged America's agony in Vietnam and lost battles in the field, but they surely didn't endanger the war against communism. Had America been as closed a society as was Vietnam, then it might well have won the battle but lost the war, much like the Soviet Union, which imploded after its involvement in Afghanistan, a military intervention similar to America's in Vietnam in terms of tactical ineptitude, political denseness, and strategic imbecility, but a world apart in the Russians' denial of free criticism, public debate, and uncensored reporting about their error.
How odd that the institutions that can thwart the daily battle progress of Western arms can also ensure the ultimate triumph of its cause. If the Western commitment to self-critique contributed to the American defeat in Vietnam, then it also was paramount in the explosion of Western global influence in the decades after the war, even as the Vietnamese army fought for a regime increasingly despised at home, shunned abroad, and bankrupt economically and morally.
In the next few decades, it shall come to pass that Vietnam will resemble the West far more than the West Vietnam. The freedom to speak out, the titillating headline, the flashy expose, and the idea that a man in tie and suit, not one sporting sunglasses, epaulets, and a revolver, is the Commander in Chief are in the end more likely to win than lose wars, on and off the battlefield.
Hanson's observation implicitly raises hopes that despite the outcome in our minor wars and the strident tones emanating from the leftist peaceniks such as Obama, the American stamp of freedom will remain imprinted within the global soul. Perhaps this bit of wisdom reminds us that freedom's mission begins at home. All the more reason I choose not to elect left wing socialists who embrace class envy and forced collectivism, a concern which leaves us quizzically scratching our heads over John McCain. Yet, McCain's party affiliation, his defense of the war, and his age, address his philosophical backers, his tenacity, and his seasoned wisdom. Thus, in the end I will vote for him.
For a more detailed comparative look at the Iraqi and Vietnam wars go here and listen to Victor Davis Hanson's hour long lecture on the subject. Good stuff from a conservative historical point of view.
