John McCain: For Tyranny Before He Was Against It

The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : John McCain: For Tyranny Before He Was Against It

By Doug Bandow on 4.22.11 @ 9:52AM

Sen. John McCain is off in Libya striking a heroic pose promoting another unnecessary war for America. Reports ABC:

U.S. Sen. John McCain, one of the strongest proponents in Congress of the American military intervention in Libya, said Friday that Libyan rebels fighting Moammar Gadhafi's troops are his heroes.

The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee made the remark after arriving in Benghazi, a city that has been the opposition capital in the rebel-held eastern Libya.

McCain said he was in Benghazi "to get an on the ground assessment of the situation" and planned to meet with the rebel National Transition Council, the de-facto government in the eastern half of the country, and members of the rebel military.

It is worth remembering that Sen. McCain was for Qaddafi before he was against the dictator. Nearly two years ago Sen. McCain, along with Senators Graham and Lieberman, was supping with Qaddafi in Tripoli, discussing the possibility of Washington providing military aid. That is, assistance for the military now fighting the heroic freedom fighters being visited by Sen. McCain. Andrew McCarthy reports on the ludicrous episode, revealed by WikiLeaks:

On and on it goes, made all the more nauseating by the reality that nobody was under any illusion that Qaddafi had truly reformed. McCain made a point of telling the press that "the status of human rights and political reform in Libya will remain a chief element of concern." Note the gentle diplomatic understatement: Qaddafi is - and was, as McCain well knew - a savage autocrat. Yet this brute fact was softened into "an element of concern" regarding "the status of human rights and political reform."

But that was then. Now Sen. McCain is outraged by the tyrant's misbehavior.

Sen. McCain was physically courageous in Vietnam. But, unfortunately, his geopolitical judgment--like wanting Americans to confront nuclear-armed Russia over the country of Georgia, in a war actually started by Georgia--has never been as impressive. His determination to get America more deeply involved in its third conflict in Middle East in a decade demonstrates an impulsive recklessness that would not have served Americans well in the presidency.