By Bruce Fein - The McCain doctrine is "war, war, and more war," a condition Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman would have decried as permanent hell. And all the blood, sweat and tears Sen. John McCain would have Americans sacrifice to conduct perpetual warfare abroad would not be to secure unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. He would be satisfied if the people for whom Americans fought to save from purported tyrannies voted into power the likes of Adolf Hitler's National Socialists, Hamas or Hezbollah. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Didn't the French Bourbons, in anticipation of Mr. McCain, also forget nothing and learn nothing? The senator argued during last Wednesdays' Republican presidential candidates' debate that a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq would be a policy indistinguishable from isolationism and appeasement, which permitted Hitler's rise to power in Germany: "We allowed Hitler to come to power with that kind of attitude of isolationism and appeasement." In other words, Mr. McCain would have had the United States invade Germany in January 1933 when Hitler became chancellor even though he had voiced neither ambitions on U.S. territory nor a craving for slaughtering Americans.
The mere fact that der Fuehrer was a potential danger to the United States should have been enough to provoke United States to military intervention and indefinite occupation until some less threatening German political climate evolved. The McCain doctrine does not purport to judge the kind of government that is born of U.S. intervention. As regards Iraq, the senator has amplified: "It took the United States of America a bloody Civil War and nearly 100 years to decide exactly what our country should be like, so I don't presume to know exactly what kind of government Iraq will have."
But the core framework of the United States was been fixed for more than two centuries: a republican form of government featuring a separation of powers, judicial review, a Bill of Rights and federalism. In contrast, the McCain doctrine postulates no coherent standard for ascertaining whether the United States should ever withdraw troops from Iraq or elsewhere.
The president will simply know the proper time when he sees it. The McCain doctrine would have injected the U.S. military into Russia in 1917 to thwart the Bolshevik Revolution. It would have prompted U.S. military invasions of Japan for invading Manchuria in 1931, of Italy in 1935 for invading Ethiopia, and, of Spain in 1936 to oppose Franco.
Under the McCain doctrine, U.S. troops would still be fighting the Chinese Communist People's Liberation Army and the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong and would have invaded Cuba in 1959 to prevent Fidel Castro from rising to power. They would have invaded Iran in 1979 to foil the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and Iraq in 1969 to shipwreck the climb of Saddam Hussein. At present, the senator's doctrine would have the United States invade North Korea to remove Kim Jong-il, Venezuela to topple Hugo Chavez and Russia to prevent Vladimir Putin restoring dictatorship. The McCain doctrine would satiate the most voracious god of war.
It might be assumed the doctrine would include a lofty McCain objective to inspire Americans to give that last full measure of devotion for the United States. No presidential candidate with any decency would cheapen the lives of American soldiers by exposing them to danger for anything less. But the McCain doctrine asserts that military interventions are their own justification. Wars are fought to be won, although what constitutes winning can never be described.
Thus, Mr. McCain sermonized at Wednesday's debate that American soldiers in Iraq knew best how to express the United States war policy: "I just finished having Thanksgiving with the troops, and their message to you is — the message of these brave men and women who are serving over there is — 'Let us win.' " Other Republican presidential candidates have been comparably cavalier and fatuous about American soldiers dying in Iraq. Arkansas Gov.
Mike Huckabee, for example, has pontificated: "We have to stay in Iraq until we win. We've got to make sure its stable." War is too important and American military lives are too precious to be bruited about with such drivel.
# Bruce Fein is a constitutional attorney at Bruce Fein & Associates and chairman of the American Freedom Agenda. Retirado daqui.
