Viddler

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2008/analyzing_mccain.html

?McCain has been advocating a neoconservative agenda since before 9/11, and he?s still advocating that agenda today?that?s why when McCain jokes about ?bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran? many of us aren?t laughing,? said Faiz Shakir, Research Director at CAPAF, who provided ?McCain 101? on national security.

The national security panel included Ken Gude, Associate Director of the International Rights and Responsibility Program at CAPAF; Brian Katulis, Senior Fellow at CAPAF; and Gayle Smith, also a Senior Fellow at CAPAF. The panel was moderated by Rand Beers, president and founder of the National Security Network.

Panelists criticized McCain for having a narrow foreign policy that focused on using force to combat terrorism to the exclusion of other strategies and issues. ?I don?t think he?s an expert on national security,? said Smith, who faulted McCain?s focus on terrorism as a ?one-dimensional? approach to national security.

By dismissing international organizations and trying to destroy profoundly ideological networks by force, Smith said, McCain would reinforce the ?with us or against us? mindset of the Bush administration and damage America?s standing in the international community. McCain is ?trying to conflate national security with the willingness to use force,? she noted. She also argued that McCain has no plan to deal with the 50 weakened or failing states in the world.

Katulis emphasized the parallels between McCain and President Bush, and argued, ?it?s a different century, and I think the last 6 or 7 years have demonstrated that we need a new approach?John McCain isn?t offering that.? Katulis said that McCain?s use of words like ?freedom? and ?liberty? mask the fact that ?there?s a lot that does not substantively add up in John McCain?s record on national security?freedom is just another word for not having a national security strategy.? McCain?s Iraq policy is also confused, said Katulis. ?He defi