McCains Interview

The Queen of Diamonds speaks

Tom Bevan (Real Clear Politics) interviewed John McCain, if you're interested.  Here's the Queen of Diamonds early into it: ''Second of all, I guess, that there's clearly some validity to the fact that when we have not had the success that we had hoped in Iraq, that always emboldens our enemies. That's what happens in wars. And I would still argue that, if that's true, then it makes a more compelling case for us to succeed in Iraq because if we fail further, then that will embolden them more. So in a way, they bolstered our argument, my argument, that the benefits of success in Iraq are enormous and the consequences of failure are catastrophic.'' First of all, by any standard measure Iraq has been a stunning success.  A nation with what? -  the world's third-fourth largest standing army was subdued in a virtual heartbeat, with an incredibly small loss of life.  A Muslim nation with no history of democratic rule has adopted a constitution, elected a government, and done what few thought was possible.  And all of this was done in the face of an opposition party, and attendant media who, for partisan political advantage, have done everything possible to undermine us here and abroad.  It's not the political assassination in Iraq that embolden al-Qaeda, its the American left. Second, and why I do not like this man, McCain knows all this but his own ambition comes first, and that means paying homage to a myth that's gained respect through repetition.  There are some good parts though, like this: "By the way, I don't mean to stray from the subject but a really entertaining thing happened day before yesterday. The Democrats had this hearing with two generals and a colonel, and it was a Rumsfeld-as-pinata encounter. But the interesting thing is that at the very end they made a terrible, cardinal error: they asked the generals and the colonel what we should do and they answered "stay the course," "more troops," "can't afford to lose." Oops. Hearing over." McCain is like having a bat in your house that you can't trap.  It scares the crap out of you, but take some solace from knowing it'll be eating some house flies and other insects.