No better illustration of the dangerous incompetence and unfitness of John McCain for the office of Presidency could be found than McCain's interview with David Gregory on the Today show this morning.
Here is the clip. Gregory is his usual self, obtusely egging on McCain to proffer his prescriptions with the softball "Should Obama be doing more?" tactic.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
Essentially McCain parrots the hard line of all those who do not have to take responsibility for the effect their words may have on events--or the human lives that shape those events.
McCain urges the U.S. take an immutable position ("We do what we have done in the Cold War and afterwards") decrying what he has pre-emptively judged as the "sham" election results in Iran. "Making sure the world knows that America leads," he proposes that Obama publically declare the election process "corrupt," and also forcefully declare the United States' support of the Iranian people against an "oppressive and repressive regime," and that they (the Iranian people) "should not be subjected to four more years of Ahmadinejad and the radical Muslim clerics." In other words, he is advocating overthrow of the regime, and he wants Obama to take this position publically.
McCain also proposes increasing funding for the anachronististic "Iranian Free Radio."
Assuming the Iranian government has not already obtained and is cutting and splicing a copy of this interview for its own propaganda purposes, let's for a minute think about the consequences of Obama doing exactly what McCain suggests. What would be the result?
The result would be an immediate effort to taint the protesters as American puppets. The ruling clerics would wield a ready-made excuse for employing any means necessary to combat what they could legitimately point to as an external threat. The end result would be to delegitimize the protestors and force them to justify the independence of their movement. Having no state media at their own disposal, the protesters would be subjected to an overwhelming propaganda blitz by the regime, permeating the entire country. Ahmadinejad would rally the government against the threat of an American-inspired coup. And the first word off his lips would be "Iraq."
The real-world consequence is that thousands of people would die, probably in futility, as the already paranoid clerics tightened all of the military screws they have available.
No one at this point is predicting the downfall of the regime. Although it is within the realm of possibility, the reality is that some effort of compromise appears to be in the offing. Assuming the regime survives, how would the U.S. be able to deal with it effectively after in effect urging its overthrow? What would be the conseqences to our troops in Iraq? What would be the economic consequences? What would be the consequences to our allies in Europe? To Israel?
McCain can't answer these questions because he hasn't thought about the recklessness of his heedless words. The reason he hasn't thought about them is because he is, and has always been, utterly incompetent to handle foreign affairs. As he demonstrated amply in his knee-jerk response to the Russian/Georgian conflict, he is ever-eager to pick a fight, regardless of the consequences to human life.
Obama has handled this situation with the delicacy it demands. The last thing he needs is meddling by incompetent, reckless fools such as John McCain.
Note: I understand BarbinMD now has a story up on McCain. I think this focuses on one aspect so I intend to leave it up, unless someone wants me to take it down.