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Reader Interactions

78Comments

  1. 1.

    Jerzy Russian

    Is this good news for John McCain? Other than that, I am at a loss for words here.

  2. 2.

    El Caganer

    He’s an attention-whore. That’s really all you need to know about John McCain.

  3. 3.

    John O

    Gramps never met a war he didn’t want to fight.

    But history will judge him most for giving the gift of grift, S. Palin. He’ll rot in the history books for it, and I dig it.

  5. 5.

    Warren Terra

    What a dumbass stunt. Also works as rhyming slang.

    I realize McCain wants us to be at war with at least one third-world country at all times, but even so there was no good purpose to his crissing the border. He could have held hearings in the refugee camps, if what he really wanted was to learn something.

  6. 6.

    quannlace

    Remember that impromptu trip he took to Iraq, film of him walking down a street in Bagdad and declaring how safe it all was. Surrounded by a horde of soldiers of course.
    *******
    He’s visiting the rebels? Maybe he thinks he’s in a production of ‘Les Miserables.”

  7. 7.

    Hill Dweller

    I remember when McGramps was playing grab ass with Kadhafi a couple of years before he started killing his own people. Good times.

  9. 9.

    Woody

    I don’t think most folks realize the concern in the top echelons of the GOP regarding their plunging status in military/national security (esp among “independents”).

    This is also why BENGHAZI! will never end.

  10. 10.

    Zam

    I assume he intends to conduct his own diplomacy, likely in opposition to official U.S. positions. Trying to finally make Obama his bitch or something like that.

  12. 12.

    JWL

    Even (perhaps especially) if Obama approved the trip with a wink and a nod, he should condemn McCain for “conducting his own foreign policy to the detriment of the United States of America”.

    McCain is a war lover, and may he be Goddamned for it.

  14. 14.

    Violet

    What would happen if the White House made it clear that McCain doesn’t represent the US Government in his decision to go to Syria?

  15. 15.

    Tom_B

    Looking for one of his houses that went missing?
    Trying to “see Russia”?
    Acting out on his Dennis Rodman envy?

  16. 16.

    NickT

    John McCain’s just a crazy old coot who has finally, publicly come unmoored from reality. Give him a day or two and he’ll be calling himself McCain of Arabia and boasting of his camel-racing skills.

  17. 17.

    dmsilev

    Hopefully, he’ll be mostly ignored while the bulk of the world pays attention to what President Obama says and does. That’s probably the worst thing anyone could do to John McCain right now.

  19. 19.

    PeakVT

    McCain will die before he lets go of the notion he deserves to be made president tomorrow.

  20. 20.

    Violet

    @Amir Khalid: I was thinking of making it clear publicly (like make a public statement), which would, I guess, make it clear to all of the above. But I suppose there could be private “making it clear” conversations that the average person would never know about.

    I’d guess that if McCain made this trip without the White House’s knowledge that there are all sorts of conversations happening behind the scenes.

  21. 21.

    cyntax

    @Amir Khalid:

    How do you mean: make it clear to Syria, or make it clear to McCain?

    As far as the latter goes, I think the administration made it as clear as they could in 2008. Not sure there’s much more to be done.

  23. 23.

    Chris

    @Zam:

    I assume he intends to conduct his own diplomacy, likely in opposition to official U.S. positions. Trying to finally make Obama his bitch or something like that.

    In 1968 Nixon successfully undercut peace negotiations between us, North and South Vietnam by promising South Vietnam a better deal under his administration – kept the war going for another five years. I wonder if McCain is trying to do something similar by undercutting U.S. policy in Syria, whatever that is. It can’t land him in the White House anymore, but revenge is more than enough motive for him.

  24. 24.

    Roger Moore

    The only thing that will come of this is his beating the war drums on the Sunday morning news shows, and he already does that every week anyway.

    Now he gets to beat the war drums on the regular news shows, too.

  25. 25.

    Roger Moore

    @John O:

    Gramps never met a war he didn’t want somebody else to fight.

    McCain ain’t going to Syria or Iran, and he didn’t fight in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.

  27. 27.

    Amir Khalid

    Does McCain make a habit of conducting his own foreign policy, as though he, not Obama, were President? I ask because one day last year, he and Lindsay Graham showed up here in Kuala Lumpur. They met the PM, said Malaysia was an example to other Muslim nations and other make-nice blah blah blah things, and left. As I recall, this apparently inconsequential visit received no coverage in America.

  28. 28.

    NickT

    @Violet:

    Well, there’s always a chance the rebels might appoint him Admiral McCain I Grand Commander of Navies and Space Flotillas. That would probably tickle the old scrote’s vanity enough to get him to self-deport permanently.

  33. 33.

    Zam

    @Chris: Plus anything he does to undercut the administration he will hold up as a colossal failure of Obama.

  35. 35.

    cyntax

    @Amir Khalid:

    Does McCain make a habit of conducting his own foreign policy, as though he, not Obama, were President?

    I’m thinking the country you live in mercifully does not carry our Sunday talk shows from which McCain broadcasts his insurgent presidency. Lindsay Graham is his SecState/VP/Sycophant of all trades.

    ETA: But the odd impromptu visit from McCain is better for everyone than actually having him in charge of our foreign policy.

  38. 38.

    dexwood.

    @El Caganer: That, and his need to prove he is still relevant. I wish he would fucking retire so his dessicated ass would return to the desert forever more.

  39. 39.

    GregB

    Did McCain stop and dine with the anti-Assad rebels, I hear the raw Syrian army heart is delicious. What a war-jackal…Has anyone told him that the last time we got into a war with Sunni extremists fighting a Russian backed Muslim government things didn’t work out so well for us?

  41. 41.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened last week that Turkey would “intervene” in Syria should the PKK set up camp there, while the Turkish military has started moving military hardware and personnel towards the Syrian Kurdish regions bordering Turkey.

    The last thing that’s needed over there is a blockhead like McCain stirring things up when a regional war could break out any minute.

  42. 42.

    DP

    Silly John Cole. He will look into the rebel’s souls and declare they are ok. It’s what republicans with delusions of grandeur do.

  45. 45.

    Yatsuno

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate: Oh it gets even bettah than that. Turkey is one of our NATO allies. If they ask us to help them out, we’re stuck. That would be the fastest way of getting Grandpa Walnuts his pudding war hard-on.

  47. 47.

    Cacti

    @Chris:

    I wonder if McCain is trying to do something similar by undercutting U.S. policy in Syria, whatever that is.

    As best I can tell, our policy seems to be that we have virtually nothing to gain from choosing a side in Syria’s civil war.

    President in exile McCain just can’t bear the thought of there being a war and Americans not getting shot at.

  48. 48.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @Yatsuno:
    They are and they’re very touchy about the question of Kurdish independence. If they suspect that the Kurds are taking advantage of the chaos to set up a nation the Turks will get involved. Israel is already involved in both Syria and Lebanon. If Turkey jumps in it will be very difficult for the US to stay out of it.

  49. 49.

    red dog

    You realize that no McCain in 4 generations has ever drawn a true paycheck from any one but the U.S. Government or a lobbying operation so you just have to keep current.

  50. 50.

    Yatsuno

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate: The Kurds already have a de facto state in northern Iraq. It was only US intervention that kept them from splitting off after Saddam fell. Right now it wouldn’t shock me if they did decide to say fuck all and go truly independent but they won’t pull that trigger until the US says okay. No doubt they’d love to take the Kurdish chunk of Syria with it and then get too full of themselves and try to get the Turkish part as well. It would be a huge mishegas that won’t end well, especially since Iran will intervene at that point.

  51. 51.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @Yatsuno: It depends. NATO is a defensive alliance. If Turkey moves on Syria, the rest of the Alliance doesn’t have to go in with them. They could, much as Libya turned into a NATO operation but they don’t have to. I suspect a lot of negotiations on exactly that question are underway.

  52. 52.

    Yatsuno

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): Turkey could very easily say they’re fighting a defencive battle (and make a convincing case for that) and then it’s all hands in. This has lots of ways of ending up very sticky and very messy and the US is running out of good options. Grandpa Walnuts isn’t helping things at all here.

  54. 54.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    McCain must have been very disappointed when it turned out that it was the rebels that were using sarin.

  55. 55.

    David Koch

    you crack-heads who say obummer is worst than bush and we would have been better off voting for McCain — wanna come forward now?

  56. 56.

    drkrick

    McCain spent a good part of naval career taking dumb risks, often contrary to his orders. Old dog doing old tricks. If anyone in Syria thinks he’s someone worth cutting a deal with, bless their hearts.

  57. 57.

    Chyron HR

    This just proves that Obama should have had McCain thrown in prison upon taking office, along with Bush and Cheney. Why has he failed America so?

  58. 58.

    mk3872

    You, of course, mean Mr. President McCain, leader of all Sunday political talk shows, yes?

  60. 60.

    David Koch

    Q: President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq for 50 years — (cut off by McCain)

    McCAIN: Make it a hundred.

    Q: Is that … (cut off)

    McCAIN: We’ve been in South Korea … we’ve been in Japan for 60 years. We’ve been in South Korea 50 years or so. That would be fine with me. As long as Americans …

    Q: [tries to say something]

    McCAIN: As long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed. That’s fine with me, I hope that would be fine with you, if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where Al Queada is training and equipping and recruiting and motivating people every single day.

    Jan 3, 2008.

  61. 61.

    JPL

    Next thing you know, McCain will say his mother was Jewish and he is going to run for PM of Israel.

  62. 62.

    Badmoodman

    ‘MCCAIN SNEAKS INTO SYRIA’

    About now, Assad is probably saying, ‘Build the dang fence.”

  63. 63.

    JPL

    I don’t know how to freeze pictures on nbc.com but the headlines are hilarious….
    John McCain slips into Syria and meets with rebels
    Obama: Many don’t fully grasp war’s true cost

    hmmm

  66. 66.

    Maude

    Kerry is in Jordon and there’s an international meeting about Syria going on.
    The State Department confirmed to the press that McCain went to Syria from Turkey and referred all questions to McCain’s office.

  69. 69.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    Can you imagine the bellowing by Republicans if Senator Obama met with the Syrian rebels on President Romney’s watch? They’d be calling for a treason trial at the very least.

  72. 72.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @Yatsuno:

    The situation in Syria is about as volatile as anything that I’ve seen in years. If things go pear shaped because McCain falsely encouraged some of the rebels there won’t be any way for him to wash the blood off his hands.

  75. 75.

    Roxy

    One. Bitter. Angry. Old. Man. Who. Still. Can’t. Believe. He. Lost. To. A. Black. Man.

  76. 76.

    jc

    McCain is going to Syria to give himself more cred with the David Gregory type media dupes. So when he goes on the Sunday shows next week he can say: well, I was in Syria just last week and blah blah blah. And everyone will dutifully take him for a knowledgeable statesman instead of the opportunistic a-hole he really is.

  77. 77.

    e.a.f.

    McCain is doing what the rebels are trying to do. Set up a parallel government. He didn’t win the election, he still isn’t over it. He’s decided to start his own foreign relations strategy. He just forgot he isn’t the president.

    He likes war. So do his friends. There is money to be made. Every time the U.S.A. gets into one of these wars all that happens is it doesn’t end well for anybody. At least with the U.S.A. staying out of Syria, Americans won’t be killed nor will the U.S.A. be running up billions in war expenses. Oh, I got it, McCains buddies in the war business are going to loose business. For once the Americans are doing the smart thing, staying out of some one else’s war.

    The Americans have enough wounded veterans. They have so many they can’t provide sufficient services to many. Let the American government deal with the current vets who need services before getting all excited and creating even more war vets who need services.

    McCain is just trying to get things ready for the next election and he reallllly relallly wants the attention. Preach peace. Its about time. Stop spending American tax dollars in overseas wars where no one wins. Spend the money in the U.S.A. I read Detroit is bankrupt.

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