The Wrongologist

What’s
Wrong Today:

From the Information Clearinghouse:
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) spoke to Charlie Rose last Monday. During the interview
on PBS, Mr. McCain downplayed atrocities being committed by Syrian rebel forces
and suggested that he would be willing
to tolerate extremists taking over Syria because they would most likely not be
allied with Iran.

McCain has
been a forceful advocate of US military intervention in Syria. He has spent
months in television and other media interviews trying to make his case and Mr.
McCain continued that campaign with Charlie Rose. Rose
asked about atrocities on the rebels’ side, and McCain replies: (emphasis
by the Wrongologist)

Rose
later challenged the idea of greater US involvement in Syria’s civil war,
noting that — because many of the forces battling Assad have
strong ties to al-Qaeda — there’s a chance that those who take over in the
event Assad falls would be no friend to the United States. Mr. McCain
dismissed that concern, suggesting that any Sunni al-Qaeda affiliated group
won’t be allied with Shiite dominated Iran. All of this from John (watch me sneak into Syria and shake the hands of Al Qaeda)
McCain:

Rose then
asks what if Syria was ruled by al Qaeda and others who have no desire for a
good relationship with the US. McCain replies: (Emphasis by the Wrongologist)

Seems that
Mr. McCain will overlook pretty much any consequence: He is even abandoning his
usual requirement that the US government should implement whatever
military commanders think is right in any conflict.  McCain: (emphasis by the Wrongologist)

Later,
McCain refers to the US implementing a no-fly zone in Syria:

This makes
McCain look to be totally in Israel’s pocket. He seems to be saying that it is
ok if Al Qaeda takes over Syria, and that is acceptable since they won’t be
allied with Iran and Hezbollah.

This interview actually tells you more about John McCain’s mindset than
he intends. For him the whole conflict exists
solely because Syria is allied with Iran.  If you recall him singing “Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb,
Bomb, Iran…” there can be no alternative conclusion.

As an older person himself, the Wrongologist thought
people grew wiser with age, or maybe that’s just Yoda, it certainly isn’t Mr.
McCain.


Then on Thursday, McCain told the Brookings
Institution that
“the Syrian state is disintegrating in much of the country, leaving vast
ungoverned spaces that are being filled by extremists, many aligned with Al Qaeda.”

So, there is no mistaking
the context of Monday’s remarks on Charlie Rose: McCain knows that Al Qaeda controls
much of Syria, but he is still willing to cast a blind eye on them. Indeed,
John McCain and his friend John Kerry, who is giving serious
thought to arming the rebels, are attempting to create a fiction called “vetted, moderate rebel units” in
Syria that the US could send weapons.

While
McCain seems to think that sorting the good rebels from the bad rebels is totally
do-able, the US’s ability to selectively arm certain rebels in Syria has been a
big question mark for a long time, and one of the main reasons for western
hesitancy towards getting involved. 

Look at McCain’s
basic premise:
If Assad wins the war and the Free Syrian Army, the Jihadists and Al Qaeda lose,
the region will descend into extremism. He means that Assad losing would be good for Iran
and Hezbollah, and bad for Israel.

He
ignores that the rebels wiped out Christian villages. They have eaten the organs of their enemies.
They have apparently used Sarin. He thinks we can pick the moderates in this group to support, although he didn’t even know which rebels he met when he secretly traveled into Syria. 

At
this stage of his political life, John McCain is in a permanent stumble. You
could say he’s stumbling forward, or flailing forward. Either way, he
blunders on, slouching toward Middle East chaos and maybe the mushroom cloud.