Because What We Need In the White House Is Another Self-Dramatizing Nitwit

John McCain thinks Georgia is the "first probably serious crisis internationally" since the Cold War.

Comments

[Jessica]

So Iraq is...? Afghanistan...? India/Pakistan arms race...?

I'm sure I could go on.

[Adam]

Well, let's be fair: on the surface this seems a ridiculous statement, but if you consider what he's really probably saying...

That is, Afghanistan and Iraq weren't "crises", situations that had exploded into conflict (rogue agents from Afg. did blow our buildings up, but it's still not on the same level) - they were at best (if you take a Republican view) going to become crises if we didn't intervene. The India/Pakistan arms race threatens to become one, as well - but the arms race between American and the USSR was not a "crisis", it just always threatened to be one. Thus the "Cuban Missile Crisis".

When was the last time a superpower invaded a country friendly to another superpower? Probably not since the Cold War.

It's not a stupid statement, just too general of one.

[Tom]

The invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein was a crisis, certainly. Note that McCain didn't day "biggest" crisis; he said "first" crisis. That's the self-dramatizing part.

[Adam]

OK, touche - forgot about Desert Storm.

Though at least there, you were dealing with a petty, friendless dictator, not the world's other superpower (or at least recent superpower).

[Frank]

Note that McCain didn't day "biggest" crisis; he said "first" crisis. That's the self-dramatizing part.

Actually, he said first international crisis.

Desert Storm was a crisis, but it was a regional crisis. None of the enemies we've faced over the last 20 years has had anything near the military or political might that we faced with the Soviet Union. Saddam caused a lot of problems, but there was very little chance of his invasion of Kuwait causing a global war. Russia invading former republics, however, could do just that.

So I give the point to McCain on this one.