Nationalism & Terrorism

 I guess I'll start with John.

John McCain is a neocon. Neocon diplomacy is basically finding new ways to get the message out that the US is superior, which always goes over so well with the rest of the world…

The League of Democracies is one of his lovely ideas. Kicking out Russia from the G8 until it behaves responsibly is another. Using arrogance and hypocrisy to explain the unnecessary push for US ideological dominance is not an effective way to negotiate anything.

 The only reflection his experience has to offer about the failure in Iraq is that we didn’t send enough troops. What about why we went in? 

McCain has been 'the champion for the hard-line, neoconservative thinkers" for some time now, so I cant forsee that understanding occuring anytime soon.

  http://tinyurl.com/6lkk2l

John McCain and Obama are very similar in their "America has to rebuild our image and reconnect with our allies" talk but I don’t believe McCain can do that. Not only is he a jerk, but he hasn’t acknowledged the failure in (amongst other problems) the ideology that got us into Iraq and Obama has. There is some kind of recognition of our mistakes in the Bush neocon foreign policy with Obama which is another way of saying  " I don’t intend to continue with the same approach" on the other hand, John McCain is saying that he will but  he will be a better neocon than Bush.  He will be successful where Bush failed. With that in mind, I cant imagine how he could possibly “revitalize the country's purpose and standing in the world” witih more of what has ruined it. How will he be a better communicator of "the cause" questionable in intentions that it is, than Bush?

 http://tinyurl.com/3b66cb 

Neocon foreign policy is never-ending war, never-ending nation building and everyone knows that now.

I think it’s irresponsible, arrogant and idealistic to believe that it could possibly be good for any country in the world.

To have someone in charge that wants to continue down the same destructive path we’ve been taking the Middle East and ourselves for the last 8 years is insane. I don’t know how else to describe it.

 It will validate extremism and increase terrorism, and our country’s economic condition will continue to worsen, and the list goes on…

It’s not a necessary foreign policy; it’s not even remotely good.  

 

Fred Halliday's article 'Eternal Euskadi, enduring ETA' (3.8.07) lists 5 main differences between the Basque and Northern Irish conflicts; it seems to me that there's a sixth, which is that the whole of Euskadi (barring the extremely contentious, not to say fantastical, French parts) lies within Spain, whereas Republicans in NI identified with and wanted to (re)unite with the Irish Republic i.e. in the logic of nation states (that dubious concept which has been the cause of so much strife) the Irish have one while the Basques don't; I live in Turkey and it seems that there