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Posts tagged with John McCain

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9:00 PM

April 18, 2010

Paging Sen. McCain: Adm. Mullen says “kiss my grits”

This morning, 2nd place presidential candidate & Senator John McCain decided to run with a juicy story published by the NYTimes and declare:

“I didn’t need a secret memo to know we didn’t have a coherent policy,” McCain told Fox News’s Chris Wallace. “That’s pretty obvious.” (4/18/10)

As is the standard in our mainstream media, he was issued a severe tongue-lashing by talking heads and analysts alike. Wait, strike that.

By tongue-lashing I mean he was offered a willing audience and well-connected microphone.

“We have to be willing to pull the trigger on significant sanctions,” Senator McCain said. “And then we have to make plans for whatever contingencies follow if those sanctions are not effective.”

Those are some pretty strong words coming from a Senator, though he seems to be more reserved than usual on this subject. Need I bring up again the infamous “Bomb, bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran”?

Nevertheless, military brass refused to play to McCain’s coy presumption of the military’s and the administration’s ineptitude (even if the media wasn’t going lift a finger to do so).

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates both offered their professional opinions regarding Senator McCain’s contentions following the NYTimes article. In short, they reaffirmed the pressing reality that when people like John McCain speak about “contingencies” regarding Iran, they can only mean one thing, and that such actions would do more harm than good. As well, both men took the opportunity to dispel the erroneous notions that the US doesn’t have oodles and oodles of contingency plans for every possible situation and that such a lack of planning was the direct result of the Obama administration taking the helm.

“What the mainstream of that article talked about… is that we have no policy and that the implication is that we’re not working on it. I assure you, this is as complex a problem as there is in our country. And we have expended extraordinary amounts of time and effort to figure that out — to get that right,” Mullen said. “This has a focus. The focus of the President of the United States. I am his principal military adviser, and it has from the moment I have spent any time with him — even before he has sworn in,” Mullen said… Keep Reading »

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11:56 PM

March 9, 2010

McCain ’08 Nightmares

‘‘Enemy Belligerent Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010’’.

Brr…I think a cold chill just swept through the room. Can you hear the war drums beating towards Iran?

Back to reality in year 2 of the Obama administration though.

McCain unveiled this radical piece of legislation while providing the wisdom that only a Senator as old and as wise as he can provide:

“Mr. President, I rise to introduce legislation that sets forth a clear, comprehensive policy for the detention, interrogation and trial of enemy belligerents who are suspected of engaging in hostilities against the United States.  This legislation seeks to ensure that the mistakes made during the apprehension of the Christmas Day bomber, such as reading him a Miranda warning, will never happen again and put Americans’ security at risk…

..A key provision of this bill is that it would prohibit a suspected enemy belligerent from being provided with a Miranda warning and being told he has a right to a lawyer and a right to refuse to cooperate.  I believe that an overwhelming majority of Americans agree that when we capture a terrorist who is suspected of carrying out or planning an attack intended to kill hundreds if not thousands of innocent civilians, our focus must be on gaining all the information possible to prevent that attack or any that may follow from occurring.  Under these circumstances, actionable intelligence must be our highest priority and criminal prosecution must be secondary…

…Mr. President, deliberate mass attacks that intentionally target hundreds of innocent civilians are an act of war and should not be dealt with in the same manner as a robbery.  We must recognize the difference.  If we don’t, our response will be hopelessly inadequate.  We should not be providing suspected terrorists with Miranda warnings and defense lawyers.  Instead, the priority and focus must be on isolating and neutralizing the immediate threat and collecting intelligence to prevent another attack…I believe the handling of the Christmas Day bomber – including the law enforcement focus and the decision to read a Miranda warning after only 50 minutes of interrogation– demand that Congress and the Administration first address the issue which is most crucial to our national security. ” (Mar. 4th, 2010)

For a taste of what exactly Senator McCain prescribes to lessen the burden of those pesky civil liberties, continue past the jump or read it for yourself in its entirety here. Keep Reading »