McCain Checkmated by Maliki and Obama

At the end of WWII  the British public voted Chruchill out of power . After fighting two World Wars.  British economy was struggling. Churchill had no effective plan to deal the economy. Or  the growing independence movement in the Colonies.  Atlee, with a promise of independence to India and a focus on rebuilding British economy won handily. Once Gandhi endorsed Atlee's plan, Churchill had no moves left.

So what is the relevance to today? McCain is a one-issue politician, as Churchill was. The one issue being war. And like Churchill, people will reject him as soon as the war stops being the main issue. To McCain's surprise, Maliki of Iraq just endorsed the Obama plan for Iraqi independence. Checkmate.

The inability to balance  war and politics while forming  a coherent strategy for the economy  brought an end to both men's careers.

McCain says that he knows how to win wars. This is a dubious a claim, but let us allow it for the sake of argument. So what else is McCain about? Unlike Churchill,  McCain is no intellectual. He admits frankly that he doesn't know much about the economy. Or computers.  He can't deliver a good speech. He is not very smart: finished near the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy.

McCain's lack of breadth in American politics has kept him out of the Presidency until the very end of his long 26 year career. He is a man who thinks of the world as a collection of Banana Republics whose destiny can be determined in Washington. The thought that some of those countries might have their own politics comes as a rude shock to him.

Like Chruchill, there is much to be admired in McCain. Both come from illustrious families, with a long record of service to their  country. Their personal bravery is not in question. At a difficult time when their country needed them, both rose to the occasion and made their ancestors and countrymen proud.

But there is more to National leadership than being a warrior. Wars are too important to be left to Admirals. (Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty, the top Admiral. McCain did not quite make it to Flag Rank.)  You need to allow for surprising moves by other sides, including your allies. You can win a war and still lose the peace because your allies out-flanked you politically.

All Maliki had to do to subvert McCain was to support Obama's plan. He watched as  McCain and Bush ridiculed Obama's plan as  surrender. He heard them  say that we will leave Iraq if the Iraqis want us to. After all, we claim we are not occupiers, but defenders of Iraq. Maliki slipped the knofe into McCain when he said he wanted a timetable for American withdrawal. Now he has pushed the knife in and given it a lethal twist by endorsing Obama's plan. Marc Ambinder quotes a prominent Republican strategist who occasionally provides advice to the McCain campaign:

"We're fucked."

Yes. They. Are.

According to McCain, this is contrary to everything Maliki had told him in private. Shocking, shocking, that there is politics going on here. Where is the politician who has not  promised an ally  support  and then switch  to another, when it suits him?

To think of the Iraq war only in military terms in McCain's mistake. There is politics over there too. Whatever the wisdom of the original invasion, and whoever gets the  credit for bringing Democracy to Iraq, the politicians over there know will be running America in six months. And they are getting on the bandwagon, just like those in Europe. Why didn't McCain see this coming? Because, like Chrchill at the end of WWII, he is an old man. Whose time has come and gone.

Move over. Make room for the new reality.