McCain Backs Obama on Stand-Your-Ground Laws

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright July 23, 2013
All Rights Reserved.                                      

             Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee July 22, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey warned Congress that intervention in Syria would be costly in terms of U.S. military personnel and cash. Mixing it up with ranking GOP member Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Dempsey gave the cold truth about military intervention in Syria.  McCain promptly responded that he would place Dempsey’s nomination for a second term on hold indefinitely.  Giving U.S. options in Syria to Chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Dempsey did the unspeakable:  Told the truth.  “Once we take action, we should be prepared for comes next,” Dempsey told the Committee.  “Deeper involvement is hard to avoid,” warning about the $1 billion a month price tag and loss of U.S. lives.  McCain and other hawks don’t want the unvarnished truth, only a rubber stamp of past mistakes.

             Coming full circle in Iraq, al-Qaeda in Iraq stormed the infamous Abu Gharaib prison, where battlefield detainees were hazed by U.S. prison guards.  Joining forces, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, merged mujahedeen forces from Iraq and Syria, fashioned an unorthodox prison break releasing 500 dangerous terrorists.  “Breaking the Walls” was the codename given to al-Qaeda’s effort to free fellow jihadists kept in custody by U.S. and Iraqi forces.  Hitting Abu Gharaib and Taji prisons north of Baghdad comes with the blessing of the Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s, where loyalty to Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei eclipses the United States.  Releasing 500 prisoners, al-Qaeda’s Islamic State of Iraq leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi claimed victory over U.S. and Iraq forces.  Al-Baghdadi killed more than 120 Iraqi prison guards and SWAT forces north of Baghdad.

             When President Barack Obama acquiesced June 14 to military intervention in Syria, the Congress has had a slow wake-up call to the beginnings of another Mideast train-wreck.  Iraq’s disintegration since Barack ended the war Dec. 14, 20011, stemmed less from a lack of U.S. leadership than the recognition that competing forces made former President George W. Bush’s democracy plan impossible.  Recent developments in Egypt, where Gen. Abdul Fattah el-Sissi led a military coup against duly elected Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi, prove that the Mideast isn’t ready for democracy.   Watching al-Qaeda liberate mujahedeen prisoners in Abu Ghraib proves that al-Maliki government’s has no control of insurgents.  Losing 4,886 U.S. troops and spending more than $1 trillion, the Iraq War stands bitter proof—as Dempsey warns—of the costs of U.S. military intervention.

             Syria’s civil war against President Bashar al-Assad is a Saudi-funded, Wahhabi war against Shiite Islam.  With Iraq and Iran Shiite regimes pouring resources into supporting al-Assad, the U.S. walks a dangerous tightrope supporting radical Islamic groups seeking to topple al-Assad.  “In response to the call of the mujahid (holy warriors) Sheikah Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to seal the blessed plan of ‘Breaking the Walls’—the mujahedeen brigades set off after months of preparation and planning to target two of the biggest prisons of the Safavid government,” posted a statement on Islamic Websites. Al-Qaeda’s holy warriors, led by 62-year-old Ayman al-Zawahri [Bin Ladens’ successor], have shifted the battlefield into Syria to topple al-Assad.  Joining al-Qaeda’s forces in Syria to fight al-Assad goes beyond the pale in terms of the U.S. losing moral high ground and sight of the big picture.

             If Sept. 11 taught anything it’s that the U.S. can’t get in bed with terrorists without getting burned.  U.S. officials under former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan made a Faustian bargain with Bin Laden to rid Afghanistan of the Soviet –backed government.  Supporting al-Qaeda and other Islamist groups now redefines insanity, prompting Dempsey to give the real facts.  McCain’s punitive reaction shows he’s either off-the-wall or does the bidding of the Defense Industry, looking for new business now the Iraq War’s over and Afghan War’s winding down.  Russian President Vladimir Putin practically begged Obama and other U.S. officials to stay out of Syria.  Russia and China see only headaches from removing al-Assad from power, opening Syria to more terrorism and anarchy.  Dempsey tried his best to warn U.S. officials over the consequences of military intervention.

             If McCain gets his way and pushes Obama into military action in Syria, U.S. foreign policy will hit a new post WWII low.  Wasting countless more U.S. lives and squandering precious tax dollars doesn’t bode well for the U.S. economy.  Demoting Dempsey for telling the truth about military intervention in Syria shows an egregious abuse of U.S. power.  Joining forces with Bush’s real Axis of Evil repeats the same mistakes as Carter and Reagan when Bin Laden fought a proxy war for the U.S. against the Soviets.  Today’s mess in Syria promises even more complications, handing Syria over to the same radicals that took down the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon.  Now that the economy shows pulse, it’s not the time to embroil the U.S. in another costly boondoggle.  Dempsey prays that sane voices in Congress keep the U.S. from making the same mistakes.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.