I'm not sure if I've blogged on this issue before, or if it was relegated to the cupboard while I went sans Internet for the last month, but this is something which arose again at the recent presidential debate and which I found ethically and intellectually despicable, both in its utterance and in the solemn silence that met it, indicating that the premise was accepted by the witnesses.
Mr. McCain is fond of informing us that "he knows how to do" certain things. There are two specific things he repeatedly claims to "know how to do" which raise disquieting questions, at least among those devoted to intellectual honesty and to the future of our nation, not to put to broad a point on it.
The first, much more ambiguous, and slightly less tenuous assertion is that John McCain "knows how to win a war." This declarative assertion raises the logical question: what war has John McCain won? "Know" is a strong word. A 4-letter word.
When Mr. Rumsfeld said 6 years ago, and I do quote "We know where the WMDs are", the entire inertia of the drive to war should have screeched to a halt. "If you KNOW where the WMD's are, why don't you just tell the inspectors so they can destroy them?" a halfway competent journalist may have asked him.
Mr. Rumsfeld was lying of course; nobody KNEW anything about WMD. They THOUGHT plenty of things, but KNEW nothing. As soon as they used the word "know", however, they strayed from paranoid conjecture to criminality.
When John McCain says "I know how to win a war", we should rightly inquire of him, "what evidence do you have for that declarative statement? What war have you won?"
Well, John McCain fought in the Vietnam War. The United States lost that war, perhaps because it did not ask John McCain how to win it. At any rate, Vietnam is not evidence that Mr. McCain "knows how to win a war." Was he referring to the first Gulf War of 1991? Perhaps, but he has never said so explicitly, nor claimed to have played any decision-making role in that conflict other than voting to endorse it.
Was he referring to the Iraq War? Deep down, we assume he must be, despite the fact that we have not won that war. So what is he talking about?
Well, it strikes me that Mr. McCain is similar to Mr. Bush in this regard; they both view themselves as so pure of motive and so unshakable of character that reckless statements and precipitous actions are justified post facto by the manifestly pure motives of the man, which is manifest to none so much as the man himself.
So, if Mr. Bush oversees torture, it's not really torture because Mr. Bush says it isn't and Mr. Bush is a Christian. If Mr. McCain recklessly nominates a woman for vice-president who is clearly leagues out of her depth, that decision could not possibly have been venal or misguided because John McCain is an honorable man.
In other words, John McCain gets away with saying "I know how to win a war", offering absolutely NO evidence, because he's John McCain. And John McCain is an honorable man. And a maverick. So he must be right.
The more troubling of the "I know how to" assertions, however, is Mr. McCain's oft-repeated statement that he "knows how to get bin Laden." Really? REALLY?
Eviscerating this assertion is small bore for even the most average of intellects. Country First, Mr. McCain. If you "know how to get bin Laden", why don't you go ahead and tell the commanders on the ground exactly how to do so?
Does Mr. McCain expect us to believe that he "knows how to get bin Laden", but for some reason has failed to share this insight with the American military? Does he infer that he is waiting to "get bin Laden" until he takes office?
In short, if ANYONE at such a high level as Mr. McCain "knows how to get" bin Laden, then I would respectfully query the right honorable gentleman, "then where the fuck IS he?"
Mr. McCain doesn't "know how to get bin Laden". If he did, we would "get bin Laden." But we haven't gotten him because apparently nobody in a position of authority for the last 7 years has "known how".
The problem is that Mr. McCain makes such patently disprovable assertions, and erects such combustible rhetorical strawmen, and he is not challenged on the audacity of his statements. The unspoken logic is "John McCain was a POW, so of course he knows how to get bin Laden."
Perhaps I'm wrong; that happens often enough. Maybe Mr. McCain does "know how to get bin Laden". But if it turns out that he doesn't "know how to" win an election, perhaps the Senator could share his secrets with the rest of us. Country First.
Mr. McCain is fond of informing us that "he knows how to do" certain things. There are two specific things he repeatedly claims to "know how to do" which raise disquieting questions, at least among those devoted to intellectual honesty and to the future of our nation, not to put to broad a point on it.
The first, much more ambiguous, and slightly less tenuous assertion is that John McCain "knows how to win a war." This declarative assertion raises the logical question: what war has John McCain won? "Know" is a strong word. A 4-letter word.
When Mr. Rumsfeld said 6 years ago, and I do quote "We know where the WMDs are", the entire inertia of the drive to war should have screeched to a halt. "If you KNOW where the WMD's are, why don't you just tell the inspectors so they can destroy them?" a halfway competent journalist may have asked him.
Mr. Rumsfeld was lying of course; nobody KNEW anything about WMD. They THOUGHT plenty of things, but KNEW nothing. As soon as they used the word "know", however, they strayed from paranoid conjecture to criminality.
When John McCain says "I know how to win a war", we should rightly inquire of him, "what evidence do you have for that declarative statement? What war have you won?"
Well, John McCain fought in the Vietnam War. The United States lost that war, perhaps because it did not ask John McCain how to win it. At any rate, Vietnam is not evidence that Mr. McCain "knows how to win a war." Was he referring to the first Gulf War of 1991? Perhaps, but he has never said so explicitly, nor claimed to have played any decision-making role in that conflict other than voting to endorse it.
Was he referring to the Iraq War? Deep down, we assume he must be, despite the fact that we have not won that war. So what is he talking about?
Well, it strikes me that Mr. McCain is similar to Mr. Bush in this regard; they both view themselves as so pure of motive and so unshakable of character that reckless statements and precipitous actions are justified post facto by the manifestly pure motives of the man, which is manifest to none so much as the man himself.
So, if Mr. Bush oversees torture, it's not really torture because Mr. Bush says it isn't and Mr. Bush is a Christian. If Mr. McCain recklessly nominates a woman for vice-president who is clearly leagues out of her depth, that decision could not possibly have been venal or misguided because John McCain is an honorable man.
In other words, John McCain gets away with saying "I know how to win a war", offering absolutely NO evidence, because he's John McCain. And John McCain is an honorable man. And a maverick. So he must be right.
The more troubling of the "I know how to" assertions, however, is Mr. McCain's oft-repeated statement that he "knows how to get bin Laden." Really? REALLY?
Eviscerating this assertion is small bore for even the most average of intellects. Country First, Mr. McCain. If you "know how to get bin Laden", why don't you go ahead and tell the commanders on the ground exactly how to do so?
Does Mr. McCain expect us to believe that he "knows how to get bin Laden", but for some reason has failed to share this insight with the American military? Does he infer that he is waiting to "get bin Laden" until he takes office?
In short, if ANYONE at such a high level as Mr. McCain "knows how to get" bin Laden, then I would respectfully query the right honorable gentleman, "then where the fuck IS he?"
Mr. McCain doesn't "know how to get bin Laden". If he did, we would "get bin Laden." But we haven't gotten him because apparently nobody in a position of authority for the last 7 years has "known how".
The problem is that Mr. McCain makes such patently disprovable assertions, and erects such combustible rhetorical strawmen, and he is not challenged on the audacity of his statements. The unspoken logic is "John McCain was a POW, so of course he knows how to get bin Laden."
Perhaps I'm wrong; that happens often enough. Maybe Mr. McCain does "know how to get bin Laden". But if it turns out that he doesn't "know how to" win an election, perhaps the Senator could share his secrets with the rest of us. Country First.
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