The Dead Terrorists Are After Us
March 28, 2007 – 4:58 pmI first have to say that I found out about this through this blog post by AJ at AMERICABlog. It’s a scathing post, but I think it makes a couple of points that merit attention.
Senator John McCain went on NBC’s Today show this morning, and he said the following:
“[The war] was badly mismanaged. But there are signs of progress everywhere. … I am confident that given the opportunity, we can have success. The consequences of failure are catastrophic because if we come home, bin Laden and Zarqawi, they are going to follow us.”
Seems like a standard Republican talking point, right? The real catch here is that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is dead. He died on June 7, 2006, the better part of a year ago. So what? It’s just a slip of the tongue. Well, it might be, but I think it shows something a little deeper.
Some Republicans, like Senator McCain, simply use the names of terrorists reflexively in an attempt to convince the American people just how serious these matters are. “Zarqawi” isn’t a person to John McCain. “Zarqawi” is a word that embodies terrorism, and just hearing that word should be enough to frighten American citizens into supporting Republican-led war endeavors.
A statement like Senator McCain’s above shows just how out of touch some Republicans are with the war on terrorism. This is the the issue of the day, and Senator McCain cannot bother to even keep clear in his mind simple facts like which people are currently being hunted by our government and which have already met their fate. It’s a striking display of the lack of gravity with which the senator approaches this seminal foreign policy issue, and I think it is a serious attack on his credibility and his competence during a run for our nation’s highest office.
2 Responses to “The Dead Terrorists Are After Us”
I agree with you Jeff. I think a guy like McCain needs a certain level of fear to get elected. His main strength is his record in Vietnam and people’s perception that he’ll be strong in defending us from evil terrorists. To emphasize this he needs to drop some names that people recognize.
Not sure though if he’s out of touch. I think he knows perfectly well what he’s got to do to get elected.
By Ted Brenner on Apr 5, 2007 at 12:37 pm
You’re certainly correct that Senator McCain knows exactly what he needs to do to get elected. But I disagree with you about his general coherence. I do indeed think he’s out of touch.
He’s so quick to toe the Bush line that it seems like he’s almost completely given up on independent assessments of the various situations. His talking points are almost verbatim those offered by President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and Karl Rove whenever they speak in public. Ditto for Senator Lieberman.
By jjk on Apr 5, 2007 at 5:54 pm