McCain conducted another blogger call today, talking this time from his campaign bus which is cruising across Iowa. McCain opened the call by referring back to his statement during the debate that the hypothetical scenario about an imminent Iranian threat is “closer to reality” than we might think. He said that he “was referring to the fact that many experts on the Iranian nuclear buildup believe that the Iranians are within two years approximately of having sufficient nuclear material…[to develop] a nuclear weapon.” He added that during the Cold War the CIA “consistently underestimated the advances the then Soviet Union would make.” He also weighed in on Romney’s comment during the debate that his first move when confronted with evidence of an imminent threat from Iran would be to sit down with his lawyers. McCain said his “response about calling in the lawyers is just inexperience, it’s just a product of inexperience.” The WWS asked Senator McCain whether he had any faith in a diplomatic solution that would bring a halt to the flow of Iranian weapons and fighters into Iraq. While McCain did not directly address the question, preferring instead to echo his earlier statements that we should not “telegraph” our intentions before taking action, McCain did put an interesting spin on his answer this time, pointing to the effect of Ronald Reagan’s inauguration on the Iranian hostage crisis:
Every once in a while I talk to some smart guys Michael that say ‘you know Iran must understand its not in their interest to see chaos in Iraq, it could eventaully engulf them.’ I don’t believe it, I don’t believe that they’re that far-sighted. And other people tell me, ‘well, Iran, unless they think America’s finished, it may be in their interest to reach some settlement, because they would know that we would be back.’ I’d like to believe that, too, but when I see the behavior, when I see the rhetoric, when I look at what is actually happening on the ground, I am more than skeptical. I think there are some things that we could do. Maybe it’s not a good idea to telegraph them. I don’t think it was pure coincidence that they day Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as president of the United States the hostages came home. I think we have a lot of capabilities, and I don’t think the Iranians should be allowed to continue the practice of training and equipping and exporting these dangerous explosive devices into Iraq that are killing Americans. But I also don’t think we ought to telegraph any of our punches and I’m sure you understand that.
Did McCain just say that if he’s elected president his very ascension to the office would prompt an immediate halt to the flow of weapons and fighters from Iran into Iraq? If so, that’s a pretty strong statement from the senator on what he would do if those inflows continued unabated. The senator reserved his harshest words, however, for the Burmese junta and the international community that has done nothing to stop its violent crackdown on democracy protesters. The subject came up in the midst of a discussion about the House resolution to condemn the Turkish genocide of Armenians nearly 100 years ago.
Here’s the difference between the Armenian situation and Burma. The Armenian situation is over, there’s now chance that any Turkish government would ever repeat that. In Burma today, monks are being killed, imprisoned, tortured by this group of thugs and why we haven’t as a nation, as a world, reacted more strongly I guess maybe shows a cynicism and a weariness that is very disappointing to me. I had the honor of meeting Aung Sung Su Ki, one of the great honors of my life. The only picture I have in my office that’s not of my family is a picture of her and they should throw them [the junta] out of ASEAN, we should cut off any arms trades, we should put pressure on China for starting to act in some semblance of the world power that they are, we should impose any diplomatic, any trade [sanctions], including whatever work Chevron is doing. We ought to tell ASEAN–ASEAN when they took Burma into ASEAN they said this will improve things, this will put them on the path to democracy, this kind of exposure will be good for ’em. Well, you see what good that has done. I’m sorry for ranting on, but I’m very proud of Laura Bush and I wish that there was more people that would stand up and demand action. In fact, with all due respect to my friends in the House of Representatives, I understand their concern about what happend in 1915, I wish they’d also work on and pay attention to what’s happening in 2007 where innocent people are being slaughtered, imprisoned, and tortured.
Others on the call included Rob Bluey of Bluey Blog, Paul Mirengoff of Powerline, Jennifer Rubin of the AmSpec Blog, and James Joyner of Outside the Beltway.
