Never mind.
Posted on 01/28/2005 2:54:23 PM PST by F14 Pilot
John McCain, the influential US senator, on Friday gave voice to resistance in the Republican party to the use of force in Iran, signalling that the US had no appetite to fight “two wars”.
Force should not be ruled out as a last resort against the country's suspected nuclear facilities, he said, but cautioned: “I do not think it would be successful. There is no guarantee we would get all these facilities. If you have a strike and leave them with nuclear capability, you have got a hell of a challenge on your hands.”
Mr McCain, a Republican and a senior member of the Senate armed services committee, said he was hopeful that a solution to the proliferation crisis could be reached through joint US-EU diplomacy.
Coming amid signs of growing concern in Washington over Tehran's nuclear ambitions, Mr McCain's comments, in an interview with the Financial Times at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, illustrate the opposition within the president's own party to any attempting military intervention.
Speculation that George W. Bush would consider a military attack on Iran if it crosses the nuclear threshold was stoked by the president's inaugural address, which committed US foreign policy to ending tyranny and supporting democratic dissent.
His speech followed a report in the New Yorker strenuously denied by the Pentagon that Bush administration officials are exploring military options in Iran. Iranian exiles have been seeking to push a bill that explicitly commits the US to “regime change” in Tehran. And Dick Cheney, the vice-president, last week said that if Iran developed a nuclear weapons site, Israel might be incited to attack the facility.
Mr McCain, echoing later remarks by the president, said the pledge to promote democracy around the world should not be interpreted as a threat to remove authoritarian regimes such as that of Iran by force.
“Everybody knows we are not going to have two wars [at once],” he said.
BOEING
Mr McCain, chairman of the airland subcommittee of the Senate armed service committee, said he intended to review Pentagon arms procurement.
In a worrying development for Boeing, the prime contractor for the $100bn Future Combat Systems, he questioned the wisdom of handing management responsibility for such a vast programme to a single company.
Separately, in a letter to Donald Rumsfeld, defence secretary, he had alleged that the Pentagon has tampered with documents, withheld information and acted to obstruct his Congresssional investigation into the now cancelled $23.5bn Boeing tanker deal. The Department of Defence, he wrote, was “not acting in good faith”
According to one person familiar with his plans, Mr McCain intends to ask the Government Accountability Office, the oversight arm of Congress, to examine the structure of the FCS deal, including cost overruns.
In a recent interview with the FT, James Albaugh, head of Boeing's defence business, said of the 26 main FCS contracts, the company has won only one. “We reviewed thousands of proposals from hundreds of contractors and awarded several dozen contact. There was not one protest.
“There was one letter of concern that was withdrawn the next day. Give me 20 government procurements where there weren't any protests.”
RUSSIA
Renewing criticisms of Vladimir Putin's increasingly authoritarian rule, Mr McCain warned of a “creeping coup” in which “any semblance of democracy in Russia is being gradually dismantled”.
He called on the Group of Eight leading industrial countries to tell Mr Putin “Russia is not welcome at G8 meetings” as long as it continues on his current path.
The US still had to do business with Mr Putin as the two countries shared important common interests. But Mr Putin's behaviour “certainly should change the atmosphere”.
In a move likely to raise suspicions in Moscow, he said he had met Mikheil Shaakashvili, president of Georgia in Davos and was due to meet Victor Yuschenko, the new president of Ukraine. Both are pro-western leaders who have attempted to exert greater independence from Russia. Mr Putin was invited to Davos, but declined to attend.
Mr McCain blasted Mr Putin's attempts to keep Georgia and Ukraine under Russia's wing: “This policy of maintaining Russian troops in Georgia is just damned foolishness.” Mr Putin, he added, was “propping up [Aleksandr] Lukaschenko in Belarus, who is nothing more than a thug”.
IRAQ
No let-up was likely in violence in the immediate aftermath of elections on Sunday, Mr McCain warned. He would “not be surprised” if US troops were still in the country in five years' time.
He repeated a call for more US troops, the aim being not be to get out as soon as possible, but to alleviate American casualties. “We made mistakes, and we are paying for them," he said.
He added that he was “very, very concerned" about the effect of extended tours of duty on the National Guard and Reserves, but warned against setting a timetable for withdrawal.
Mr McCain was angry to read in the media about Pentagon plans to beef up its intelligence-gathering capacity. Better battlefield intelligence was needed to tackle the insurgency.
McCain is a loose cannon that needs to be caught and thrown
over the side.
He has NO place in our government!
Shut your mouth mccain. weve heard enough from you.
Hmmmm, I wonder if he was good during the presidential campaign
Never mind.
"There is no guarantee we would get all these facilities. If you have a strike and leave them with nuclear capability, you have got a hell of a challenge on your hands."
What kind of twisted logic is that? It's better to do nothing and leave them with 100% of their capability than take action and leave them with less than 100%? Huh?
What did they do to this poor man when he was a POW?
"McCain...we are at war with true believers in Islam. Did you miss the press release?"
RINOs can't speak for the "Republican Pary", nor for the American people. McCain should stuff a sock in it.
I would caution McCain on the use of his mouth.
There must be something in the beans in Washington all the OLD F_RTS are gasing off a lot.
McLame has been drinking with the "Skipper" Kennedy again!
"...the Financial Times?" McCain was talking to a very leftist, anti-American foreign publication.
You've got mail
This guy is NUTS. I really think his melanoma has moved into his brain.
Somebody call McCain a cab before he falls off his barstool.
What did they do to this poor man when he was a POW?
That of course is why he should not hold any office of
prominence in our government.
I honor him for his service, but NO ONE held for years under
communist indoctrination has any business holding office.
loooooooool
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.