The Third Debate: McCain's Secret Plan to "Get" Osama and Nixon's Secret Plan to End the Vietnam War

MARK KARLIN'S EDITOR'S BLOG

October 15

If you've listened to progressive talk radio lately, the biggest laugh quotation has been McCain telling his dwindling supporters on the stump, "We've got them just where we want them" in reference to the Obama campaign.

Who writes John's material?

Pundits are speculating about whether or not McCain will bring up the desperate and false Ayers and ACORN issues at the final debate.  But you know that Obama is going to see either of those dirtballs move slowly across home plate as he smashes them into the bleachers. After all, Obama made the unusual step for him of baiting McCain to bring such issues up to him personally.  That had the impact of challenging McCain's heroic "manly" image and also indicated that Obama was going to be ready to hit any desperation talk of Ayers or ACORN out of the park. 

Lord knows, Obama has the material to tie McCain and Palin more seriously to terrorists -- domestic and otherwise -- than the trumped up Ayers accusations.  After all, McCain's transition chief (which ain't going to happen) was a lobbyist for Saddam Hussein; McCain "pals around" with domestic terrorist advocate Gordon Liddy; and McCain was involved in at least one right-wing wacko anti-Semitic Iran Contra cabal.  As for Sarah Palin, do we need to say anything more than the Alaskan Independence Party (which is for secession from the "occupational power" of the United States) and the John Birch Society?

But I actually wanted to make mention of John McCain's last debate declaration that he has a "secret plan" to capture or kill Osama bin Laden.  This claim went largely unchallenged by Obama and the mainstream media at the time.  But any American with an ounce of common sense has to wonder, if McCain indeed has such a secret plan, why has he allowed us to be terrorized for years by not sharing it with the Bush Administration?  We guess John is just committed to confidentiality, eh?

Actually, like many people, McCain's assertion that he has a secret plan to get bin Laden reminded me of Nixon's "secret plan" to end the Vietnam War in 1968.  Like McCain, Nixon claimed that he couldn't share his plan with the American people because it would be giving the enemy an advantage.

After Nixon won an extremely close election over Hubert Humphrey, the Vietnam War continued for years. In fact, it didn't end until after Nixon won a second term and then was forced to resign from office.  We interviewed George McGovern (Nixon's '72 opponent) a couple of years back and he told us: "I think it was actually 40 percent of our total casualties occurred in the Nixon Administration, and that's too many. That's 40 percent that never should have died because Nixon came into office in January of '69 after campaigning on the pledge that he had a secret plan to end the war."

Like McCain, Nixon's "secret plan" was so secret that he didn't even know what it was, and we left Vietnam in chaotic defeat under Gerald Ford. 

The GOP has been refighting the Vietnam War -- which should have never been fought for a variety of reasons that are too numerous to get into at this time -- ever since the last soldier was airlifted out of that country.  The Republicans, like McCain, are upset not because Vietnam was a "just war," but because "American exceptionalism" doesn't allow for the perceived "loss" of any conflict, even if one comes to realize that it is unjustified, ruinous and ill-advised to begin with.

That is what you might call the "McCain Doctrine" -- fighting to the last person so that the U.S. can be perceived the "victor" of an unjust and crippling war, because "America is too great to lose to minor league nations and movements." 

But, of course, the costs of such delusions and a tin soldier sense of "honor" are not just hundreds of billions of tax dollars diverted from domestic needs; they are tens of thousands of Iraqi and American lives.

McCain has no "secret" plan to kill bin Laden or end the Iraq War in "victory."  Like Nixon, he is just taking our nation for a ride down loser's alley.

It's 2008, and we can't afford another Nixon-inspired "secret plan," because that means McCain has no plan at all.

MARK KARLIN'S EDITOR'S BLOG

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