A
History of John McCain’s Calls for War
Why we
don’t care about McCain
By
Jim Carey
August
24, 2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- A
history of all the instances McCain has called
for US-led intervention around the world.
There’s obviously a long history here, so
Geopolitics Alert has compiled the
largest examples from Europe to Asia. We’ll
start with the obvious wars first.
Afghanistan and Iraq
Obviously
every US Senator (besides California’s Barbara
Lee) voted to give President George W. Bush the
power to invade Afghanistan following the events
of September 11th. However, McCain wasn’t happy
with just moving to invade Afghanistan. No, he
had other targets on his mind as early as the
day after the towers fell.
Despite
McCain’s
claim in 2014
that “the Iraq war probably wouldn’t have
happened” if he had won the 2000 Republican
primary and the general election, this assertion
seems ridiculous. On
September 12th,
2001,
McCain appeared on MSNBC presenting an extensive
list of countries he felt were providing a “safe
harbor” to groups like al Qaeda. This list, of
course, included Iraq and several other nations
that appear later on this list.
Syria
Another
country on that 2001 list (of course) was Syria.
Now, the Bush regime may have never gotten a
chance to continue toppling Mideast countries
(thanks to the failure in Iraq and the exposure
of that war being sold on lies). But McCain
seemingly never lost sight of his hatred for
Bashar Al-Assad.
Shortly
after the Arab Spring “broke out” in Syria,
McCain – and his constant partner in war crimes
Sen. Lindsey Graham – quickly found
communication channels with the “Syrian
opposition.” Just a few short months after the
US endorsed protests in Syria (even
having their
ambassador attend),
McCain and Graham began
calling for arms
to start flowing to the Free Syrian Army and
other “rebel” groups.
Libya
McCain’s
plans for Syria never quite worked the way he
wanted, but he probably should’ve known they
would never yield a positive result. If McCain
didn’t want to look at Iraq to prove that point,
he had another more recent example he could’ve
used: the NATO intervention in Libya.
It was
less than a year before McCain wanted to arm
Syrian takfiris that he had supported with the
bombing and no fly zones in Libya. McCain even
wanted
tougher actions
against the country. Which has now become an
anarchic Wild West that’s home to all sorts of
horrors from the Islamic State to a
new slave trade.
West and Central Africa
McCain
is
also a champion of the “war on terror” in other
parts of Africa. While McCain hasn’t directly
supported terrorists in some countries in
Africa, he still has called for more US
intervention across the continent.
This list
includes countries dealing with Islamic
insurgencies,
such as Mali.
McCain has also called for plans like “deploying
Special Forces”
to rescue girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in
Nigeria and intervention in Sudan, where McCain
and his wife have
invested money
for some time.
Iran
Another
country on the list of hated nations initially
put forth by Bush undersecretary of defense Paul
Wolfowitz, and also another long time target of
McCain is of course Iran.
Although
McCain has always said “he prays” there will
never be at war with Iran, the man incessantly
calls for it and even
jokes about
bombing the country when he feels the mood is
right. The truth of the matter is, McCain’s
positions towards Iran are so hostile that even
flagship neoconservative institutions like the
Cato Institute
think he is too hawkish.
Bosnia and Kosovo
But McCain
isn’t satisfied with just backing Salafi
jihadists in the traditional Middle East and
North African theaters. He’s also backed violent
radicals across the fringes of Europe. This
trend actually started in the mid-1990’s when
McCain
was a vocal
supporter
of then president Bill Clinton’s war in Bosnia.
Many of
the Muslims traveling to Bosnia joining the
mujahideen there have joined groups like IS in
recent years. And IS flags can
occasionally be
seen
in the Sunni areas of Bosnia now. McCain was
still backing potential Takfiri movements,
recently
accusing Russia
of interfering in local affairs, and calling for
more US intervention in the country.
McCain
made similar decisions when he advocated
US intervention
in Kosovo
in the late 90’s. In the Kosovo conflict,
McCain backed
the Kosovo Liberation Army: a genocidal jihadist
organization with
ties to Al Qaeda
under Osama Bin Laden.
Ukraine
Don’t be
fooled into thinking that McCain only supports
jihadists in Eastern Europe though! He also
backs the overt
Nazis
acting as death squads for Kiev in the ongoing
Ukrainian conflict.
This, of
course, started in 2014, but McCain has
continued to
pledge support
for Kiev’s crimes in the Donbass region to this
day. This is all par for the course in McCain’s
larger theme of challenging Russia– the country
he believes controls the separatists in eastern
Ukraine.
Russia
The story
of McCain’s hatred of Russia spans back to the
Cold War. We won’t get into McCain’s fear of
communism that’s evolved into just general
Russophobia. But we will say he didn’t have many
excuses to focus on making threats towards
Moscow for a good 15-20 year stretch.
This
changed in 2008, with the war in South Ossetia
between Georgia and Russia. During this
conflict,
McCain was the
loudest voice
saying the US “should immediately call a meeting
of the North Atlantic Council to assess
Georgia’s security and review measures NATO can
take to contribute to stabilizing this very
dangerous situation.”
This same
situation repeated in Ukraine in 2014 but
McCain’s worst comments came this year. As soon
as the US Intelligence Community’s accused
Russia of interference in the 2016 US elections–
and without any evidence– McCain
was first to say
the event was an “act of war.”
North Korea
The
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DRPK/North
Korea) was also an early target of McCain’s
making his September 12th wish list. More
recently though, the restyled “Trump opponent”
McCain was all-in on the new regime’s saber
rattling. Calling on Trump to
strike the
nuclear-armed country.
Bonus: China
China is
kind of in its own class with McCain, who’s made
strange, vague
threats
towards the country in the past. Such as “the
Arab spring is coming to China,” whatever that
means. China may be a target on the periphery
for McCain, but he does still encourage
antagonizing the country to this day. Calling
for things
like more “freedom of navigation drills” and
other naval exercises in the South China Sea.
So, in
summation, next time someone asks why you don’t
care about John McCain’s clock running out, show
them this article. McCain has encouraged the
spread of death worldwide. The day he leaves
congress will be a victory for the human race.
This article was first published by
Geopolitics Alert
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