[Updated] Questions concerning John McCain's speech part 1 w/awesome poll

cross posted at myDD.

speech text gotten from NYT

When I was five years old, a car pulled up in front of our house in New London, Connecticut, and a Navy officer rolled down the window, and shouted at my father that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. My father immediately left for the submarine base where he was stationed. I rarely saw him again for four years. My grandfather, who commanded the fast carrier task force under Admiral Halsey, came home from the war exhausted from the burdens he had borne, and died the next day. In Vietnam, where I formed the closest friendships of my life, some of those friends never came home to the country they loved so well. I detest war. It might not be the worst thing to befall human beings, but it is wretched beyond all description. When nations seek to resolve their differences by force of arms, a million tragedies ensue. The lives of a nation's finest patriots are sacrificed. Innocent people suffer and die. Commerce is disrupted; economies are damaged; strategic interests shielded by years of patient statecraft are endangered as the exigencies of war and diplomacy conflict. Not the valor with which it is fought nor the nobility of the cause it serves, can glorify war. Whatever gains are secured, it is loss the veteran remembers most keenly. Only a fool or a fraud sentimentalizes the merciless reality of war. However heady the appeal of a call to arms, however just the cause, we should still shed a tear for all that is lost when war claims its wages from us.

Senator McCain, did you miss your father, because the family and friends of veterans who have served overseas.  I missed my friend John who served as a chaplain's assistant in Iraq last year? (he is back safely thank goodness)
Senator McCain, if you detest war why are there accounts of you pressing for "more targets" whenever there is a war?
Senator McCain, what about your praise for President Bush in the past who said that he thinks fighting in a war would be a romantic thing.  Is President Bush a fool?

I am an idealist, and I believe it is possible in our time to make the world we live in another, better, more peaceful place, where our interests and those of our allies are more secure, and American ideals that are transforming the world, the principles of free people and free markets, advance even farther than they have. But I am, from hard experience and the judgment it informs, a realistic idealist. I know we must work very hard and very creatively to build new foundations for a stable and enduring peace. We cannot wish the world to be a better place than it is. We have enemies for whom no attack is too cruel, and no innocent life safe, and who would, if they could, strike us with the world's most terrible weapons. There are states that support them, and which might help them acquire those weapons because they share with terrorists the same animating hatred for the West, and will not be placated by fresh appeals to the better angels of their nature. This is the central threat of our time, and we must understand the implications of our decisions on all manner of regional and global challenges could have for our success in defeating it.

Senator McCain, you are right about our enemies, but why do you insist on anatagonizing them?  How would Americans react if a foreign country occupied our country?  Senator McCain, what do you think about the free election of Hamas in the Gaza strip?  
Senator McCain, how can you claim to want to make the world a safer place if you advocate war with Iran?  How can you claim to make the world a better place if you advocate torture?
Senator McCain, how can you claim judgment when you want to stay in Iraq for 100 years or more?  How can you claim judgment when you sing about "Bombing Iran"?

President Harry Truman once said of America, "God has created us and brought us to our present position of power and strength for some great purpose." In his time, that purpose was to contain Communism and build the structures of peace and prosperity that could provide safe passage through the Cold War. Now it is our turn. We face a new set of opportunities, and also new dangers. The developments of science and technology have brought us untold prosperity, eradicated disease, and reduced the suffering of millions. We have a chance in our lifetime to raise the world to a new standard of human existence. Yet these same technologies have produced grave new risks, arming a few zealots with the ability to murder millions of innocents, and producing a global industrialization that can in time threaten our planet.

Senator McCain, how can you claim to be in favor of science when you advocate for letting Intelligent Design being taught in classrooms?
Senator McCain, are you in favor of a powerful and prosperous US then how come you want to diminish the US middle class which was the engine of the US economy in the 'glory days' of Harry Truman.

To meet this challenge requires understanding the world we live in, and the central role the United States must play in shaping it for the future. The United States must lead in the 21st century, just as in Truman's day. But leadership today means something different than it did in the years after World War II, when Europe and the other democracies were still recovering from the devastation of war and the United States was the only democratic superpower. Today we are not alone. There is the powerful collective voice of the European Union, and there are the great nations of India and Japan, Australia and Brazil, South Korea and South Africa, Turkey and Israel, to name just a few of the leading democracies. There are also the increasingly powerful nations of China and Russia that wield great influence in the international system.

Senator McCain, how can we lead if the world does not like us?  How is the US regarded overseas these days?  What are your positions to the 'increasingly powerful' China and Russia?
Senator McCain have you ever mentioned bombing Russia?

In such a world, where power of all kinds is more widely and evenly distributed, the United States cannot lead by virtue of its power alone. We must be strong politically, economically, and militarily. But we must also lead by attracting others to our cause, by demonstrating once again the virtues of freedom and democracy, by defending the rules of international civilized society and by creating the new international institutions necessary to advance the peace and freedoms we cherish. Perhaps above all, leadership in today's world means accepting and fulfilling our responsibilities as a great nation.

Senator McCain, do you vow to respect all treaties ratified by the US Senate?  The ABM treaty was signed but you show disrespect for that
Senator McCain, how will you be a change from President Bush's unpopular policies?  Senator McCain, do you vow to follow the Geneva Protcols on Human Rights?

One of those responsibilities is to be a good and reliable ally to our fellow democracies. We cannot build an enduring peace based on freedom by ourselves, and we do not want to. We have to strengthen our global alliances as the core of a new global compact -- a League of Democracies -- that can harness the vast influence of the more than one hundred democratic nations around the world to advance our values and defend our shared interests.

Edited:  Senator McCain do you propose to replace the United Nations?  Will all democracies be invited to your league of democracies?
Senator McCain did you just say that you will meet with democracies such as Venezuela?  When did your position change on this Senator McCain

At the heart of this new compact must be mutual respect and trust. Recall the words of our founders in the Declaration of Independence, that we pay "decent respect to the opinions of mankind." Our great power does not mean we can do whatever we want whenever we want, nor should we assume we have all the wisdom and knowledge necessary to succeed. We need to listen to the views and respect the collective will of our democratic allies. When we believe international action is necessary, whether military, economic, or diplomatic, we will try to persuade our friends that we are right. But we, in return, must be willing to be persuaded by them.

Senator McCain, how is our occupation of Iraq respecting the opinions of mankind?  Are you willing to change your position on Iraq and Iran and any other country you might invade based on the opinion of the British, Germans, French, and Indians countries you say were our democratic allies?

America must be a model citizen if we want others to look to us as a model. How we behave at home affects how we are perceived abroad. We must fight the terrorists and at the same time defend the rights that are the foundation of our society. We can't torture or treat inhumanely suspected terrorists we have captured. I believe we should close Guantanamo and work with our allies to forge a new international understanding on the disposition of dangerous detainees under our control.

Senator McCain I will praise you for this, but I plead with you to uphold all of this and renounce your vote on torture.  I hope you say what you mean and you will not follow your past record.  I call on you Senator McCain to publicly denounce and reject those who have allowed those who have supported torture and inhumane treatment of suspected terrorists.

There is such a thing as international good citizenship. We need to be good stewards of our planet and join with other nations to help preserve our common home. The risks of global warming have no borders. We and the other nations of the world must get serious about substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years or we will hand off a much-diminished world to our grandchildren. We need a successor to the Kyoto Treaty, a cap-and-trade system that delivers the necessary environmental impact in an economically responsible manner. We Americans must lead by example and encourage the participation of the rest of the world, including most importantly, the developing economic powerhouses of China and India.

Senator McCain, again your past record is against you, if you follow this you are to be praised, but your past record states otherwise Mr. McCain.

More tommorow.