McCain: ‘Let’s Cut Off’ All Ties To Iran, ‘Diplomatic, Trade, You Name It,’ ‘Basically Isolate Them’
McCain: ‘Let’s Cut Off’ All Ties To Iran, ‘Diplomatic, Trade, You Name It,’ ‘Basically Isolate Them’
Yesterday, Sen. John McCain met with the editorial board of the Denver Post. Discussing Iran, McCain took an extreme hard-line approach, saying the U.S. should “cut off” all ties to Iran, including “diplomatic” ties:
Let’s cut off all kinds of credit to ‘em, all kinds — diplomatic, trade, you name it. Basically isolate them. Because they are in violation of solemn agreements that they entered into, concerning nuclear weapons. And so I really believe that we could have an effect on Iranian behavior.
Listen here:
Later in the interview, when asked how he could impose sanctions without Russia and China agreeing, McCain replied, “I’m not exactly sure.” Instead, he restated his “radical” and “dumb” idea to create a “League of Democracies” as a way to push his extreme approach to Iran.
McCain said that the U.S. should “at least try this” extreme isolation of Iran, seemingly unaware that such isolation has been the exact policy of the Bush administration. Only after years of failure — and a strengthened and emboldened Iran — have members of Bush’s team finally recognized the need to engage Iran. In other words, McCain is now more extreme on Iran than the Bush administration:
ADM. MIKE MULLEN, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair: I would like to have a healthy dialogue with Iran…I do think engagement would offer an opportunity, certainly, to understand each other better. [6/21/08]
ROBERT GATES, Defense Secretary: We need to figure out a way to develop some leverage…and then sit down and talk with them…If there is going to be a discussion, then they need something, too. We can’t go to a discussion and be completely the demander, with them not feeling that they need anything from us. [5/14/08]
NICOLAS BURNS, Undersecretary of State for political affairs: There is a choice: confrontation or diplomacy. We prefer diplomacy and we are trying to open two diplomatic channels — on the nuclear issue and on Iraq. [5/2/07]
The call to move away from the isolationist policy McCain hopes to revive has been endorsed by five secretaries of state, including McCain adviser Henry Kissinger, as well as McCain’s own neocon foreign policy adviser Robert Kagan. McCain’s “let’s completely isolate Iran” approach makes him even more radical than President Bush, who last year said, “We can have meetings. Talking is not the problem. We can talk to Iran.”
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Yeah, boy. THAT works.
*eyeroll*
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:35 pmMcCain: ‘Let’s Cut Off’ All Ties To Iran, ‘Diplomatic, Trade, You Name It,’ ‘Basically Isolate Them’”
That would play right into Iran’s reactionary leadership’s hands. Do you want to see them develop the bomb? That’s the way to go about it. McCain is not only a flip-flopping liar, he’s a supreme idiot to boot.
http://progressiveworldreview.com
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:40 pmDoes this mean I won’t be able to buy Iranian-made rugs at the College Park, MD IKEA store anymore?
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:40 pm.
I N D I A
.
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:41 pmGo ahead, McPutz. Don’t talk with them. They might actually be willing to strike a deal.
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:42 pmAssuming gunboat diplomacy was ever effective, its day has now decisively passed. Look to the foreign policy record of the current administration if you still have doubts.
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:42 pmWhat an f’in douche bag. If McCain is elected President, I will never vote again.
http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=13&prgDate=10-02-2008&view=storyview
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:43 pmCHECK
Kick Russia out of the G-8, embrace it’s neighbors and attempt to force their admittance in NATO. CHECK
Further alienate and strain the ties with our European allies. CHECK
Keep troops in the Middle East for a infinite amount of time draining America of its financial heft. CHECK
Oppose Israeli attempts to find compromise with its neighbors and refuse to support peace talks. CHECK
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:46 pmWhose side is this guy on anyways?
Sometimes, I get the idea that McCain thinks the only way that he can win is to be the Anti-Obama and not only oppose everything the Obama proposes, but go so far to the other extreme that he can really ramp up the rhetoric.
Unfortunately, an extremist is an extremist is an extremist, no matter what flag he wraps himself in. I think the world can do with a little less extremism and more reasoned diplomacy.
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:46 pmThat is a whole step ahead. Republicans don’t blink, they also don’t think – not that far ahead anyway.
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:50 pmSenator McCain seems to have the emotional maturity of a six year old. He can’t even look colleagues in the eye if he sees them as rivals, and now this?
That’s not a foreign policy, it’s autism.
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:51 pm“McCain: ‘Let’s Cut Off’ All Ties To Iran, ‘Diplomatic, Trade, You Name It,’ ‘Basically Isolate Them’”
Both McSame and Palin are frightening. Gramps wants to cut ties with Iran and Palin said that Russia should be attack. Both of them are walking ticking bombs. And notice that media ignored that Palin said in the debate last night that her and McSame believe in diplomacy. Yet, her running mate is saying the opposite today.
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:52 pmwow…
just wow…
I’d thank John McCain for handing Obama the election if there wasn’t actually a chance he might win this.
Im terrified.
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:53 pmThe only difference I can see between Bush and McSame’s foreign policy is this: at least when Bush proposed it, it was only obviously stupid. It hadn’t yet been proven stupid and ineffective.
Now it has, and McSame still wants to embrace it.
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:54 pmWow this McCain/Palin team are scary. Palin said she would attack Russia because of Georgia and now McCain would cut of ties to Iran. This man is either mentially ill or just plan crazy. Now I know Sarah is just blowing hot air and is clueless as she is in the VP spot for the Oil Company to continue the big profits. By threatening World Powers can only bring our own down fall. Please at lease tell McCain/Palin that President Ahmadinejad isn’t the decision maker of Iran it’s the Grand Ayatollah Khomieni. This is why we have no support for other countries as few of our Law Makers even know who the Leaders of the Middle East are, even the Media Journalist are clueless.
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:57 pmSomeone with an explosive personality like John probably shouldn’t be allowed to talk to friends or enemies. He’s liable to make a friend into an enemy and give the enemy reason to be so.
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:57 pmHas John McCain had a psychological evaluation recently? He oftentimes seems very confused. I worry that he’s experiencing some problems with memory and cognition.
We’ve already had one sitting president with Alzheimer’s – Ronald Reagan – and we know too well the consequences of that. McCain’s stumbles really scare me. Aside from not representing the United States well, what if he makes a major mistake or misspeaks and causes an international incident?
McCain has been “dodgy” about his medical records, but given his age and his already-failing health, don’t we deserve to know the real truth? Reagan’s handlers kept the truth about his mental decline from us until well-after he left office. We cannot be fooled again. We deserve better.
Obama/Biden 2008!!!
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:58 pmJohn McCain is officially done giving a damn about his campaign. He’s now moved on from the independents who didn’t buy his stunt and is polishing off his appeal to kook fringe extremists whose definition of hard work is unwavering loyalty, and foreign policy is “foreign pummeling.”
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:59 pmWould you not talk to them before or after you bomb, bomb, bomb them>?
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:03 pmImperialistic isolationist?
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:03 pmHorseshit, I say!
Don’t talk to them, bomb them.
It takes a lot more confidence, intelligence and guts to negotiate with your enemy. It is a chickenshit, gutless, insecure and stupid coward who resorts to violence without trying diplomacy.
That’s the Repugs in a nutshell.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:03 pmSeeing as how Russia and China are major trading partners (read oil and gas), that would serve their interests perfectly, pushing more and more trade their way.
Why does McIIIrd hate America?
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:04 pmThreatening a country is a war crime according to the Chart of the UN.
What’s new?
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:05 pmMcCain would rather go to war with Iran … and Russia … and anybody else … rather than lose an election.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:06 pmScary old barstid, ain’t he??
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:08 pmLaRouche “They will Kill you”
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:08 pmRight now I am more afraid of Pakistan than Iran. How come no one can come up with a coherent answer as to why the rush with Iran. They won’t have any kind of a nuclear bomb built for at least 5 years (I’ve heard that is the earliest), so WTF is the hurry?
McCain really has no idea what would happen if he blows up the Middle East.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:10 pmLet’s see… he chose as his VP pick a person who for over 20 years has belonged to a church that says that destructive war in the Middle East is the way that Christ will come back to earth…
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:11 pmHe seems to be physically losing it, I would say dying…
Then we will be stuck with Palin as president.
I doubt very much that Obama will get in. Elected yes, but the Supreme Court and the voting machines will take care of it.
I hope I am wrong.
“It would be great if he understood these consequences.”
It would also be great if turnips could play the fiddle.
Cheers,
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:13 pmOT – BUT …….
I saw this on fivethirtyeight a bit ago and laughed so hard,I cried. I just wish I had a copy of it last night while watching the debate!
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2008/10/03/leaked_from_palins_debate_prep.html
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:16 pmRe the Update Let’s not overlook the benefit the Iraq invasion bestowed upon Iran by removing Iran’s Sunni enemy Saddam Hussein and placing the Shia in charge of the country (as much as anyone is in charge).
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:18 pmI’ve heard several times that JM knows how to win wars. What wars has he won? Where’s the proof? Surely they aren’t talking about Vietnam and there seems to be some confusion about Iraq. He has said that we can win in Iraq by winning, but that shouldn’t take away from the ‘fact’ that we’ve already won. I have pre-school nieces and nephews that make more sence than McCain does.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:20 pmI’m beginning to suspect that McCain’s threats against Iran and Palin’s against Russia we are seeing the first stages of an as yet undisclosed policy to break America’s addiction to caviar.
It’s the only thing that makes sense.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:22 pmCluster Tim/Jiff,
PULEEZE take your embedded ads and go away.
I flag you every time you show up here and will continue to do so.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:23 pm“Let’s cut off all kinds of credit to ‘em, all kinds — diplomatic, trade, you name it. Basically isolate them.”
What’s next, Johnny? Nuke ‘em and turn their desert into glass?
Oh, wait, I know – bomb (”bomb, bomb, bomb”) Iran and then invade them with the troops that are now in Iraq? Hey, their not needed – the surge worked!
No, wait, I’ve got it – stage a false attack on Israel and let them nuke ‘em.
No,wait, here ya go – send Sarah to Geneva to negotiate with some senior Iranian official. Hey, her passport needs some entry visa stamps, anyway.
Wait, wait, I’ve know what you should do next – go back to the Senate as a badly defeat presidential candidate, sit back to nurse your wounds, and watch President Obama and Vice-President Biden handle the situation. Ya old fool.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:23 pmCAN SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME WHAT “PRECONDITIONS” GRAMPY McSAME WOULD DEMAND BEFORE MEETING WITH THESE “DANGEROUS DICTATORS”???
Sorry for shouting but that crap about “without preconditions” pisses me off. WTF does it mean?
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:30 pmYou know, this discussion thread was over at comment #1 :)
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:32 pmMcDepends and Flailin are the epitome of white socks with a dark suit (or white socks with sandals).
I am embarrassed for them every time they open their smarmy mouths!
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:34 pmUpside99 @#31, Now that’s funnin fuky!
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:35 pm> McCain said that the U.S. should
> “at least try this” extreme isolation of Iran,
> seemingly unaware that such isolation has
> been the exact policy of the Bush administration.
Someone needs to tell that to the Halliburton subsidiaries
that do business with iran on a regular basis…
Gotta love the way america treats corporations..like people..absurd..dont want to deal with pesky american laws?…, just incorporate in some tropical island and commit crimes with impunity, like Blackwaters newest incarnation, Greystone..
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:36 pmThanx satirev and RUC,
That Flailin flow chart made my week!
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:36 pmGood point 5th Estate, Leftside Annie “nailed it”.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:40 pmSo anywhoo… here’s something I noticed when Palin was trying to hit back at Biden on foreign policy:
PALIN: “America is in a position to help. What I’ve done in my position to help, as the governor of a state that’s pretty rich in natural resources, we have a $40 billion investment fund, a savings fund called the Alaska Permanent Fund.
When I and others in the legislature found out we had some millions of dollars in Sudan, we called for divestment through legislation of those dollars to make sure we weren’t doing anything that would be seen as condoning the activities there in Darfur.
That legislation hasn’t passed yet but it needs to because all of us, as individuals, and as humanitarians and as elected officials should do all we can to end those atrocities in that region of the world.”
Okay, so is Darfur reely reely bad? Yes
Do we have investments there ? Yes
Can we invest someplace else? Yes
So what’s the hold-up, Sarah?
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:42 pmNot to mention that if we isolate them, Iran will have no reason not to develope nukes and every reason to develop nukes.
And Isolation worked so well with Cuba. Definitely we should do it again.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:42 pmMore
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:42 pmAggressive
Vitriol
Even
Rightwing
Idiots
Can
KlingTo
Because they [Iran] are in violation of solemn agreements that they entered into, concerning nuclear weapons
Actually, they certainly are not. Under the terms of the NPT, they have a right to enrich uranium, as they have done. No nuclear weapons have been produced to date. In the meantime, India and Pakistan both (who did NOT sign the NPT) have nevertheless been considered allies and both have developed nuclear weapons. and yesterday, approval given to a treaty with India to give them additional nuclear technology and materials.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:44 pmMcCain must be trying to discourage his die hard supporters from voting for him, why else voice such idiotic ideas.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:45 pmIt isn’t fair to blame McCain’s inadequacies on dementia or cancer or PTSD. He was an obviously not too bright bad student with a bad attitude and a he’s obviously an egocentric manipulative chronic liar hell-bent on self-aggrandizement. The dementia, cancer and PTSD are just an enhancement to the character flaws he had in his youth.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:45 pmMcCain’s advisors must wonder if McCain lies awake at night thinking of ways to embarrass them.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:46 pmDid McCain think of the brilliant stategy of appointing an ambassador to Iran then having him hold his breath till he passed out and hit his head on the UN floor?
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:46 pmWell, I am seriously wondering if McCain has lost it, spend so much money to make one bad judgement after another. He had a slim chance until palin, but now comment after comment just digging into a hole.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:48 pmIn addition the only form of alternative energy McCain/Palin are interested in is NUKE-YOU-LAR so why is it so vital we have it hear but they don’t want Iran to have nuclear energy.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:48 pmA little off topic but when Charles Krauthammer, a total bush supporter, who just wrote an article saying bush will be revered later in history, stated palin said nothing of substance that was a wow moment.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:50 pmI think that Obama/Biden should just sit back, pop a cold one and let the McDepends/Flailin road show auger themselves in.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:50 pmsatirev Says:
mets to the brain
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:23 pm
_______
Mets to the brain? Is that where your brain is in first place all season and then collapses in the last two weeks, failing to even make the playoffs?
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:51 pmtexaslady Says:
McCain must be trying to discourage his die hard supporters from voting for him, why else voice such idiotic ideas.
His die hard supporters would vote Republican even if the candidate was a potted cactus instead of McCain.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:53 pmNothing would sway those people, not even facts.
impeachcheneythenbush Says:
Actually, they certainly are not. Under the terms of the NPT, they have a right to enrich uranium, as they have done. No nuclear weapons have been produced to date.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:44 pm
______
Details, details…
Now, I do think Iran – as well as the United States – should be persuaded to halt further development of their nuclear power program. Iran is a geologically unstable region of the world, as the Bam earthquake in 2003 demonstrated, and the economics of nuclear power just don’t work without massive government subsidies. It’ll just be a drain on their already flagging economy. They’d be much better served by an investment in renewables.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:55 pmtexaslady…
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:56 pmyes I was surprised by KrautNailHitterThing too. Indeed most of the pundits seemed to note the lack of substance.
It was as though they were actually interested in what was being said rather than how things were being said and who came up with a laugh-line.
All American ties with Iran from diplomatic to economical are currently cut since the toppling of Shah of Iran in 1979 and the rise of Irananian Islamic revolution.
October 3rd, 2008 at 4:01 pmIran (1) has no nuclear weapons, and (2) doesn’t have a program to develop nuclear weapons. Can we please stop threatening them?
October 3rd, 2008 at 4:01 pmAnother example of foreign policy being a foreign subject for Palin….
IFILL: You both have sons who are in Iraq or on their way to Iraq. You, Gov. Palin, have said that you would like to see a real clear plan for an exit strategy. What should that be, Governor?
PALIN: I am very thankful that we do have a good plan and the surge and the counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq that has proven to work….”
Okay, the surge was a ‘re-invasion’ of Iraq, not an exit strategy….so…doggone it, that also
October 3rd, 2008 at 4:02 pmNow, I do think Iran – as well as the United States – should be persuaded to halt further development of their nuclear power program. Iran is a geologically unstable region of the world, as the Bam earthquake in 2003 demonstrated, and the economics of nuclear power just don’t work without massive government subsidies. It’ll just be a drain on their already flagging economy. They’d be much better served by an investment in renewables.
The entire planet would be better served by such an investment, no doubt about it. But even nuclear is better than fossil fuels (including “clean” coal). But not by much, obviously due to the issue of “what the he** do we do now with the nuclear waste? And the reality is that any “Manhattan project-style alternative fuels development program is going to take massive investment by the government (i.e., the taxpayer). But I’d sure rather help pay for such a program than bail out a failed economic system or dump money into endless wars.
October 3rd, 2008 at 4:05 pmMcCrazy says – My friends I don’t want no friends that are Iranian, no sir, why just the idea that they are Iranian makes me puke, all Iranian like and all, they hate America and anyone who hates America hates me, that’s right, I take it personal, so first chance I get when the RNC steals this election again, I’m gonna push the red button, why, because they are on my lawn that is why, what more reason do I need, I’m the dictator now, and if I want to push the red button I will, I wouldn’t think of talking with them, how would I do that, I don’t even speak Iranian, or what ever arab jibberish they speak, heck, I will let my new wife…er VP push a red button or two, she has her eye on Russia, I think those ruskies will be real surprised with that kind of maverick like action….ooops, sat on a lobbyist, they’re just all over the place here.
You are a condescending, smarmy, snarky, grumpy senile old fart, and your VP is crib reading air head, phuck off.
October 3rd, 2008 at 4:05 pmI certainly don’t want Iran to develop nuclear weapons but can you blame them for wanting to defend themselves? After all the US has armies on their eastern and western borders and a carrier task force off their southern coast. Add to that all the retoric from the right wing nut jobs about bombing them or assisting Isreal in that endeavor. I just don’t understand what is so wrong with talking to them. It can’t make the situation any worse.
October 3rd, 2008 at 4:08 pmPlease, please, please can we isolate McCain to some mental ward in a VA Hospital?
samsuncle.. good point. Bush demonstrated that he is willing to invade any country of his choice IF the DON’T have nuclear weapons. North Korea was part of the Axis of Terrorism until they developed a nuclear weapon. Suddenly, Bush wanted to negotiate. With a nuclear armed Israel to the west and nuclear armed Pakistan and India to the east, one cannot blame Iran having an interest in nukes. Didn’t Palin say that nuclear weapons are deterrents?
October 3rd, 2008 at 4:26 pmCats r Flyfishn Says:
Please, please, please can we isolate McCain to some mental ward in a VA Hospital?
October 3rd, 2008 at 4:26 pm
______
What for? It’s not like he’ll be admitted or anything. The BushCo-run VA will just give him a lollipop and tell him to “walk it off.”
October 3rd, 2008 at 4:40 pmHow can McCain begin to claim greater foreign policy experience when he clearly does not understand the provisions of the NPT? His lack of knowledge in this, his supposed strength, should scare everybody even more than anything else. His whole campaign is a fraud and lie.
October 3rd, 2008 at 4:44 pmMcCain proves himself – yet again – to be a dolt and a war-monger, living in the past.
October 3rd, 2008 at 4:47 pmIf John McCain is really a “Maverick”, and really opposes so much of the Bush program, then why isn’t he running as and Independent? Isn’t independent what mavericks are???
(I apologize in advance for spamming threads with this meme until someone in the conventional media world starts asking the question)
October 3rd, 2008 at 4:47 pmIsolation didn’t work with Mao, hasn’t worked with North Korea, didn’t work with Saddam, but this dumb batarde wants to isolate Iran. Between “Bomb, Bomb, Bomb” McCain and the ‘where- ignorance-bliss-’tis-folly-to-be-wise-index-card-brained” Palin the pooch would really be eschewed!
October 3rd, 2008 at 4:51 pmThat is a whole step ahead. Republicans don’t blink, they also don’t think – not that far ahead anyway.
Ditto, Failin’ Palin; however, she does wink.
What remains to be discovered is whether she spits or swallows, though. Perhaps Katie can ask her in the next interview.
October 3rd, 2008 at 5:04 pmMcNumbNuts has become so unhinged and incoherent lately that the question of Failin’ Palin being “one heartbeat from the presidency” is more immediate. Let us not forget that the VP steps in when the president becomes incapacitated . . . and, as far as I am concerned, McNumbNuts already is.
October 3rd, 2008 at 5:06 pmI wish someone would ask him who is worse: Iran or Spain.
October 3rd, 2008 at 5:11 pmIran is developing nuclear energy. Period. Rumsfeld sold the Shah on it, on behalf of Bechtel, and I guess the argument is still working. They have rebuilt Bushehr—the power plant bombed by Saddam Hussein, and have built a few more.
Iran is making LEU (low enriched uranium), which is not bomb-grade material. They have agreed to more stringent oversight from the IAEA than the NPT requires. They have the right to develop nuclear energy.
Ahmadinejad does not have authority in defense issues. He never said anything about “wiping Israel off the map”. He said ‘the regime in Jerusalem will vanish from the pages of time’ (better translation, anyway), the way that the Soviet Union did. The Ayatollah has a long-standing fatwa against nuclear weapons. Iran hasn’t attacked anyone in 300 years.
All this hysteria is ridiculous, and I suspect it may have more to do with Israel’s chronic sense of victimization and feelings of entitlement to a pipeline from the Caspian through Georgia and Turkey, so they can sell oil back to Asia. You’ve got to see this on a map to appreciate the full gravity of the chutzpah here. The fact that one of the shortest routes for a pipeline from the Caspian Sea to a shipping lane would be through Iran might also be a factor in all this hysterical chest-beating.
It is the U.S. that is becoming isolated. McCain’s thinking is so dominated by the myths of American exceptionalism and military strength that he can be nothing but a danger to Americans and the rest of the world.
REALITY: Iran is not an existential threat to Israel or anyone else, unless Israel attacks them. There is no reason not to talk with Iranian leaders.
October 3rd, 2008 at 5:25 pmThe white truck with the nice, padded rear section should be arriving soon Cindy. Make sure he always has a straw and his Teddy Bear.
October 3rd, 2008 at 5:46 pm“Insane in the McCain”
October 3rd, 2008 at 6:03 pmFirst Iran, then Spain. Yeah!
October 3rd, 2008 at 7:27 pm