Why one soldier's not voting McCain

Utter garbage. Russia can draw all the lines in the sand it wants, but unless it wants a nuclear exchange we can just roll over them.

This person my not be invested emotionally in the outcome of an election, but is definitely useing emotion alone...basically, fear... to arrive at the conclusion that McCain isn't thoughtful about foreign policy or military actions.

Somehow, this completely illogical and actually irrational connection has been made by peopel who have been doing their utmost to muddy the water... "National security, proactive defense of our interests = rush to war"

Nothing McCain has EVER said that I have heard leads me to think he's in any rush to have a military conflict. In fact, everytyhing I see him do and say appears to calculated to make sure we never do.

Remind me, why was I stationed in Germany for 10 years?

The Beider-Meinhof gang was blowing up our cars, the US & Russia on hair trigger alert, and at home the rhetoric of a winnable nuclear war. Sure let's do that all over again.

Maybe Bush was actually looking into the soul of the guy next to Putin?

This is all quite true, and a tremendously important reason for worry. But Obama has been making some fairly belligerent noises, too, toward Pakistan. I don't know that he's much of an improvement, geopolitically.

My major worry in this election is the federal budget deficit (and it has been so in the last several; I wouldn't vote for GWB because he's fiscally irresponsible to an almost criminal degree). The problem I see is that, 25 years after Ronald Reagan convinced the electorate that they could have all the middle-class benefits they wanted and not have to pay taxes for them, it's become politically impossible to fix things.

I caucused for Paul Tsongas in 1992. But I don't see anybody trying to fill his shoes, or taking seriously the fact that our country is ass-over-teakettle in hock and our kids will be stuck with the bankruptcy.

Obama wants to lift the Social Security tax income limit, which is good except that he leaves a giant donut hole (no tax on income between the current cap and a quarter-million bucks) that will result in not-nearly-enough revenue to make the system solvent. He also wants to cut middle-class taxes AND provide lots of bennies. I like the benefits; I think we need national health care, for example, and that we'd save money overall. But I don't have any illusions that we can have both bennies and tax cuts.

McCain isn't a whole lot better; my one hope, from tonight's speech in which he very gently ticked off the delegates, is that he might actually take a run at balancing the budget, or at least reducing the deficit significantly, as Clinton did.

I honestly don't know where to turn on this, or whom to vote for; but this is my most important issue.

Watcher,

AB isn't saying that any effort to check Russian power is somehow a rush to war. The point is that McCain's policy will unnecessarily provoke Russia while making promises that the U.S. cannot keep, which will strengthen Russia even more. Look at how much the balance of power in the region has shifted just because the U.S. failed to back up its tacit promises to Georgia. As AB says, we have to match Russia's subtlety in this game if we're going to come out ahead and John McCain's views on that part of the world are anything but nuanced. Calling Georgia a beacon of democracy is at best naive.

"Nothing McCain has EVER said that I have heard leads me to think he's in any rush to have a military conflict. In fact, everything I see him do and say appears to calculated (sic.) to make sure we never do."

"Never do?" We ARE IN a war,[at minimum] two of them right now! Currently, actually and really. I really do not know his current stance on Afghanistan, but I believe he has continually nodded and cheered regarding the one in Iraq, something about surges and victory, and my recolletion is everything he has said and indicated is he will expand and continue the war(s). He says it now even when the leaders of occupied Iraq have requested a timetable for withdrawing our troops (end of that war?)

He appears to be running his campaign on continued warring with Iraq, and tonight reiterated throwing Russia and Iran into the batch.

What he may make sure we never do is get OUT of war.

I do feel a draft.

Russia and China won't go away. They are a greater threat than militant Islam, and that's not to say that MI isn't a threat. In fact, MI is a threat to Russia and China, too.

Life is an ever-changing Kobayashi Maru test. And no one gets out alive at the end.

The last time the west decided that Poland had to be defended was World War II. I don't think Poland is worth starting a war with Russia. Until the US wakes up and does something about the debt, we will be at the mercy of any country, especially China, to whom we owe so much. The easiest way to bring down the US is for other countries (again, especially China)to cash in their US bonds and notes.

Any country that has thousands of nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them all - anywhere - can be a threat to the world.

We need to play nice with them. As Armchair Pessimist said, there is much to be gotten out of cooperation with them.

And I agree with Frieda about Poland - especially because she has one of my last names.:)

My views on the Presidential race have nothing do with my military service. That's official policy. It's also the truth. Maybe I pay closer attention to foreign policy because both my trips to Iraq are based on our foreign policy, but my opinions are my own.

Either a President McCain or a President Obama could make serious mis-steps in regard to Russia. Contrariwise, either could end up with a good advisor willing to tally up neatly what is and isn't in our national interest, what is and isn't vital to our national security, and act accordingly. And I would willingly have either man as President, if it is the will of the American people.

All we voters have to go on, though, is what is said and what is done in the public sphere.

In a few months, my affiliation with the military will be at an end. One year late, due to the policy of Stop Loss which keeps as much as 10 percent of the Army in uniform past their contract end date. I don't think I shall become any more strident about politics than I have been here, since I hope to continue in federal civilian service.

Russia may not have a large population, but they still use conscription, and so will have no troubles raising manpower against us or whatever proxy state we choose to arm. At any rate, their nuclear arsenal gets them a vote. Keep your friends close, and your enemies, or potential enemies, closer.

Thanks for all your comments.

"Utter garbage. Russia can draw all the lines in the sand it wants, but unless it wants a nuclear exchange we can just roll over them."

Just like we just rolled over Iraq and Afghanistan, right? Let's hope Obama or McCain aren't so arrogant to think that Russia will allow itself to be bullied. Some one posted earlier something to the effect that Russia might not win in a U.S./Russia conflict, but the Bear would do a lot of damage before being brought low.

Great post, Rod, and AnotherBeliever.

I couldn't agree more about Russia. If the U.S. is going to keep making empty promises to Eastern European countries and to former Soviet states such as Georgia about how we will defend their democracies, then we are going to end up looking like fools and blowhards, especially to Putin and his gang.

The Bush Administration has been positively ham-handed in dealing with Russia (Bush certainly "misunderestimated" his good friend Vladimir Putin) and it looks like McCain does not plan to go in a new, more sensible direction in regards to Russia. Yet another reason to back Obama.

Russia could be a key to many of our Mid East issues, if we can get past the communist thing. Give up the good vs. evil thing. Russia is an authoritarian state that never wants face a decimation like WWII again.

Its army is clearly improving. If you follow the writings of the military, consensus seems to be that 10-15 years ago the Russian military was pretty awful and would have had problems with Georgia. It still has problems, but the oil money has allowed it to invest $200 billion and vastly improve its forces. Still, numbers and finances make it very unlikely it would even attempt an invasion into Poland or the Ukraine.

The real problem, as AB has pointed out are the nukes. In theory these are for deterrence only. The risk for us lies with how many are not well secured. We have declared war on Islamic militants, when we really need more of a general police action. Invading Iraq, where there were no real terrorists, has not helped us much. We took out a dictator/thug, who had no real ideological commitments. We will probably end up with a weakened country and another strongman. The group of terrorists willing to attack us is actually pretty small. They are no existential threat. UNLESS, they can get their hands on a nuke. Russia is a risk to us in that regard. Russia is already selling antiaircraft systems to Iran. If we continue to push NATO at Russia, they may decide to push back and help Iran even more, or maybe Syria.

Russia does not hold all the cards. They have Muslim issues also. Europe needs Russia's oil and gas, but Russia needs some to buy their goods. Engaged, aggressive diplomacy that does not insult Russians is our best shot at security in the Middle East, and hence, at home. I believe McCain remains locked into a good vs evil view of the world. One where the U.S. is the only superpower and gets to call the shots. His advisers reflect this adversarial approach to foreign policy. His advisers are the ones who think we should invade and democratize Middle Eastern countries until they all are pro-Western democratic allies.

Finally, McCain's economic plan consistently ends up increasing our debt more than Obama's. Rising national debt makes us less secure when facing external threats.

Steve

Quote: "One of this blog's most longstanding and consistently interesting commenters blogs from Iraq under the name AnotherBeliever. She's serving in the US military there (she really is; we've had some e-mail contact, and recently one of our other distinguished commenters, Franklin Evans, had contact with her too). AB posted a long comment to another thread here tonight, explaining why she, as a soldier, won't be voting for McCain."

I would like to make the point that ABORTION is one of the sins that crys out to heaven for vengence and in the spiritual realm, is a direct cause of war...also, I'll remind you what Mother Teresa once said,

"But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child - a direct killing of the innocent child - murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?"

Obama has the most atrocious record on a abortion that anyone has ever seen. I personally think, the best moral option in this election is quite clear.