Developments in the ongoing conflict between the nations of Georgia and Russia grew very hot this past week. The conflict has very long historical roots and has been potentially ready to explode since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The comments of John McCain on the current outbreak of war has demonstrated the close connection between “sounding strong” for domestic political considerations and “being stupid” in the execution of American foreign policy.
McCain has a tendency to talk tough and to threaten military consequences far too often for the comfort of many foreign policy experts and American citizens. McCain seems to have the first response impulse to use force and to send in the troops. This sometimes is appropriate but often is not the wise or intelligent course of action. McCain seems to discount the limits of military force in achieving foreign policy objectives and the negative blowback or other unintended consequences of getting involved in military conflicts without carefully studying the facts first.
Basically, McCain’s well-known bad temper marks him as a seemingly dangerously hot-head when it comes to foreign policy. McCain is very opinionated when it comes to many aspects of foreign policy. When conflict first erupted this week, McCain quickly made harsh comments criticizing Russia. McCain clearly appears to be threatening Russia with economic, diplomatic and, maybe military actions without considering the consequences for the United States.
His comments were not very helpful in persuading Russia to halt military actions. The Russians never respond well to direct public threats or orders from the United States. Intelligent diplomacy requires the very careful use of both carrot and stick measures to achieve the desired results. When you start “being stupid” in your public rhetoric by “talking tough” before thinking through the situation, you almost always fail to achieve your foreign policy goals.
Our foreign goals in the current Georgia-Russia conflict should be (1) halt the exchange of hostilities, (2) get Russia to withdraw their soldiers from occupied Georgian territory, (3) obtain a solid diplomatic front with our European allies especially NATO members regarding this conflict, (4) guarantee the international border integrity of Georgia, (5) protect the international oil pipelines running through Georgian territory, (6) guarantee the safety of American citizens in the war zones, (7) preserve both democracy in Georgia and a measure of ethnic self-rule in the breakaway provinces within Georgia, (8) avoid outright American military conflict with Russia and (9) avoid a new Cold War between Russia and the United States. “Taking tough” to “sound strong” in order to win points with the American electorate is a poor way to achieve any of these desired foreign policy goals. McCain was reckless and self-serving in his highly charged rhetoric.
Military action is all but impossible for the American government when it comes to responding to Russian actions in Georgia. The foreign wars launched by Bush (with the enthusiastic support of McCain) in Iraq and Afghanistan have drained away our military response ability when it comes to real threats to world peace and international emergencies.
McCain, like Bush, seems to be recklessly saber-rattling regarding Iran without having the necessary military forces required to back the threats being made. We need not to make the same mistake in Georgia.
How are we going to pay for more wars? McCain and Bush have not explained how we are going to pay for the current military conflicts or rebuilding our nearly exhausted military forces, much less launch even more foreign military misadventures. Economic mismanagement and disastrous trade policies have crippled our national finances and undermined our industrial capacity to fight wars.
Even economic conflict with Russia will have a very negative effect on the American nation. The world needs Russian oil. Disruptions in the oil supply from Russia will create severe hardships on American consumers. Only the oil companies financing much of McCain’s Presidential campaign would profit from such a situation. McCain’s “tough talk” might already be keeping oil prices higher than they would have been if McCain had not made those comments.
The fact that McCain has had a chief foreign policy advisor that was directly employed by the nation of Georgia while working on the McCain campaign demonstrates very poor judgment by Senator McCain. His chief foreign policy expert on Georgia was half of a two-man lobbying firm which received around $800,000 from the Georgian government while he was advising McCain. No advisor to any Presidential candidate should be a paid agent of any foreign government. It is no wonder that McCain does not have a balanced, well-informed approach to this subject.
McCain has dangerously injected himself into this touchy foreign policy/military crisis in a very public way. McCain should remember that he is not the President. Hopefully, for the sake of the American nation, he never will be.
Written by Stephen Crockett (host of Democratic Talk Radio http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com and Editor of Mid-Atlantic Labor.com http://www.midatlanticlabor.com ). Mail: 698 Old Baltimore Pike, Newark, Delaware 19702. Email: demlabor@aol.com. Phone: 443-907-2367.
Feel free to publish without prior approval.
The American nation has an excellent opportunity to change the nature of politics in our country this year. We have a real chance to build lasting alliances that will re-define the political landscape at every level of government and permit us to take back our government by the average citizen.
For decades, the political power of the largest international corporations and the wealthiest of the Super Wealthy have been tightening their grasp on governments in America. They have effectively bought their way to power by giving billions in campaign donations and buying up the media.
The effect has been passage of laws that undermine the power of average citizens to control their own economic futures, have an effective voice in government policies and to hear opposing political viewpoints. It is no accident that most Americans think that their children will not have as high a standard of living as they currently experience. It was economic policy on the national and international levels that forced tens of millions of families to have both parents working to maintain a decent standard of living.
Your rights to sue corporations when they abuse you as a worker, investor or consumer are being stripped away by Republican politicians like George W. Bush, John McCain, Dick Cheney and your allegedly “moderate Republican” member of Congress. The same bunch of Republican politicians are and have been for decades falling all over themselves to pass legislation that ships high-paying jobs with healthcare benefits to Third World nations where the high pay and employer provided healthcare vanishes while corporate profits explode! Yes, Bush, McCain and Cheney love NAFTA, the WTO, CAFTA and the rest of these deals. They have been a goldmine of campaign cash for the Republican Right and the alleged “Republican moderates” in Congress.
By appointing corporate thinking federal judges and government regulators, American workers have seen their rights to form labor unions effectively undermined and often destroyed. The public fiction of “free elections” in the workplace is there for these deceitful Republicans to “defend.” However, in most workplaces, the reality is that these giant corporations make real free elections impossible by intentionally breaking the law (the penalties are a joke), firing pro-union workers, preventing union organizers from talking to workers or distributing material, issuing threats and the like. The reality of these “free unionization elections” is that they are no more free and fair than the “free elections” in the former Soviet Union, communist China or Nazi Germany! Still, the Republicans vehemently oppose passage of the Employee Free Choice Act which would return effective workplace democracy when it comes to unionization votes.
The decline of labor unions has meant the decline of the American Middle Class both economically and politically and corporate forces know it! An effective labor movement has meant real economic opportunity for tens of millions of working class and poor Americans. Labor unions have been the vehicle for millions of racial and ethnic minorities to join the mainstream, Middle Class majority in experiencing the American Dream.
Corporate controlled politicians like Bush and McCain are simply killing that Dream. Will we let them?
The wealthiest of the Super Wealthy control our mainstream media but not our votes.
We all should know that racism has an economic purpose. It is the tool most often used in America to get the working class whites and Middle Class majority to put in power politicians who vote against the economic interests of working class and Middle Class whites. Racism is the tool used to divide the non-economic elite majority so that all working class and Middle Class Americans do not demand government policies that provide real economic opportunity for the vast majority. Racism is a sucker bet for all poor, working class and Middle Class Americans!
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In Solidarity,
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IAFF Local 735
UFCW 1776
Lehigh Valley CLC. VP.
Bethlehem City Democratic Party Chair
by Tula Connell, Aug 1, 2008
http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/08/01/wal-mart-wants-to-make-sure-its-employees-dont-vote-democratic/
Wal-Mart and all its $13 billion in 2007 profits are quaking. The retail monolith is scared that Democrats will be elected to office this fall"and might pass legislation that would level the playing field for workers seeking to join unions.
The Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB121755649066303381.html reports on Wal-Mart’s corporate tremors today, noting that
in recent weeks, thousands of Wal-Mart store managers and department heads have been summoned to mandatory meetings at which the retailer stresses the downside for workers if stores were to be unionized.
Downsides, huh? Like getting paid enough to support yourself and your family. Or maybe even the real big downside of having affordable job-based health insurance so that the emergency room isn’t the only option when your child has the flu. Because by not paying its employees enough to afford the company health plan, Wal-Mart dumps the cost of health care onto all taxpayers http://www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/walmart/upload/walmart_tax_memo.pdf , even making it a corporate policy to encourage new hires to use public emergency rooms, according to author Barbara Ehrenreich.
(You can tell Wal-Mart to stop its unfair and immoral workplace intimidation by signing a petition here http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/wal_mart_petition .)
Wal-Mart has been so intent upon piling up its billions in annual profits, it has created a mini-industry of anti-unionism to ensure it keeps its employees at everyday low wages. So, Wal-Mart is stepping up its efforts to prevent Democrats from being elected this fall, by telling employees http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB121755649066303381.html that “voting for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama would be tantamount to inviting unions in.” And Wal-Mart employees report feeling pressured to vote for candidates who oppose the Employee Free Choice Act.
Wal-Mart is doing even more arm-twisting workers on their way to the ballot box. Rather than pay its employees a decent wage and provide affordable health care, Wal-Mart is putting mega bucks into front groups that are spearheading a multi-million dollar ad campaign to slam workers, their unions and their efforts to pass the Employee Free Choice Act http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/efca/ .
For instance, Wal-Mart is the largest member of the Retail Industry Leaders Association, one of the main funders of the $30 million anti-union campaign called “Coalition for a Democratic Workplace http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/the-anti-union-network/chamber-of-commerce/coalition-for-a-democratic-workplace-exposed-20080424-557-273.html .”
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says this latest revelation of Wal-Mart’s egregious meddling into its employees’ voting preferences
goes to show the extent that companies like Wal-Mart will go to maintain the status quo, which allows them to exploit workers to maximize profit. It’s clear the business community intends to spend heavily to protect its interests but working people know this election is about creating real, lasting economic change.
Wal-Mart is ready to use its corporate power as America’s largest private employer to corrupt the political system to safeguard its profits. American Rights at Work has lots of info on Wal-Mart’s actions attacking the Employee Free Choice Act here http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/employee-free-choice-act/latest-updates/wal-mart-mobilizing-against-the-employee-free-choice-act-20080801-605-83-83.html and has a detailed report here http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/wal-mart/wal-mart/wal-mart-rolling-back-workers-wages-rights-and-the-american-dream.html on how Wal-Mart rolls back workers’ wages in an assault on the American Dream. Plus the worker advocacy organization also tracks the front groups behind the Employee Free Choice Act smear campaign, with info here http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/the-anti-union-network/chamber-of-commerce/coalition-for-a-democratic-workplace-exposed-20080424-557-273.html .
Take action now and tell Wal-Mart stop intimidating its employees http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/wal_mart_petition . Sign the petition here http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/wal_mart_petition .
Right Wing Republican Congressional candidates have been using slash and burn campaigns and outright lies routinely since at least the 1994 election. The recent negative comments by Congresswoman Heather Wilson falsely smearing Obama are a prime example of this low road campaign style. Republican Congressman Charlie Dent has been trying to defend his close ties to the oil industry and the huge amount of money they have donated to his campaign by blaming his Democratic challenger Sam Bennett for high fuel prices. Wilson and Dent sound just like McCain. They are just frightened of the voters and trying to hide their roles in creating the current economic mess.
However, the Republican Presidential candidates usually have not been nearly as vicious or desperate as John McCain. McCain seems to have become as divorced from the truth or civil political discourse as Dick Cheney. Smears and attack lines cannot conceal the truth forever.
Only about a half dozen years ago, I remember talking about the respect I held then for John McCain, as an independent-minded Republican, on my talk radio show. While I respected the McCain of Bush’s first term and admired the soldier McCain of the Vietnam era, I have little respect for McCain’s behavior as a Presidential candidate in 2008.
I admit that I would not have voted for John McCain at any point in his political career because he has always been a political enemy of working Americans and a powerful tool of the Corporate forces crushing us as workers, taxpayers and consumers. Those differences were ones of policy.
The problem with McCain in 2008 is that his character has apparently been corrupted by his lust for the Presidency. His nasty tone and negative personal attacks on Obama show how much of a failure McCain has been as a Presidential candidate trying to defend on the failed policies of Bush Republicanism!
McCain has falsely blamed Obama for high gas prices. McCain has been receiving huge campaign donations from Big Oil. He has done absolutely nothing to promote more competition in the oil industry. He has opposed oil windfall taxes that would have been used to promote alternative energy development. Read More »
Register to vote, and send Voltage to play at the Democratic National Convention. We have songs that are perfect for the event already written, and I am already the number one democrat at the DNC.
