Republicans and Military Personnel Against McCain on the War

Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films at 3:48 PM on August 12, 2008.

If Wes Clark questioning John McCain's ability to lead our country wasn't enough, check out Pat Buchanan saying McCain will make Cheney look like Gandhi.  As this chilling video from Aaron Hodgins Davis suggests, more and more Republicans and servicemembers who oppose the war in Iraq and the possibility of another in Iran are coming out against McCain for following in Bush's hawkish footsteps.

Transcipt after the flip.

BUSH: The danger to our country is grave. The danger to our country is growing. The Iraqi regime possesses biological and chemical weapons.

[VARIOUS SPEAKERS]: Weapons of mass destruction, weapons of mass destruction, nuclear weapons, weapons of mass destruction.

BUSH: Well, our people are gonna find out the truth. And the truth will say that this intelligence is good intelligence. There's no doubt in my mind.

RUMSFELD: There are a lot of people who lie and get away with it, and that's just a fact.

[Scary music, flag-draped coffins, ugly statistics, injured Iraqi civilians, more ugly statistics.]

BUSH [joking in front of an audience]: Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere.

[Audience laughs.]

BUSH: Nope, no weapons over there!

[Audience roars with laughter.]

QUESTIONER: President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq for 50 years--

McCAIN: Maybe a hundred.

BUCHANAN: There's no doubt John McCain is going to be a war president. Can anyone see John McCain as sort of a peactime Calvin Coolidge president? It's preposterous! His whole career is wrapped up in the military, national security; he's in Putin's face, he's threatening the Iranians, we're gonna be in Iraq a hundred years.

RITTER: The Bush Administration has built a new generation of nuclear weapons that we call "usable" nukes.  [TEXT: Cochran statement.] And they have a nuclear, you know, posture now which permits the pre-emptive use of nuclear weapons in a non-nuclear environment if the Commander-in-Chief deems US forces to be at significant risk.

If we start bombing Iran, I'm telling you right now it's not gonna work

McCAIN: Bomb Iran?  Heh-heh. [singing, to tune of Beach Boys' "Barbara Ann"] Bomb, bomb, bomb, anyway, heh-heh.

RITTER: My concern is that we will use nuclear weapons to break the backbone of Iranian resistance, and it may not work. But what it will do is this: it will unleash the nuclear genie. So to all those Americans out there tonight who say, "You know what? Taking on Iran's a good thing,"

McCAIN: My friends, I know how to handle the Iranians, and I'll handle them.

RITTER: And if we use nuclear weapons, the genie ain't going back in the bottle until an American city is taken out by an Islamic weapon in retaliation. So tell me, you want to go to war with Iran: Pick your city. Pick your city. Tell me which one you want gone. Seattle? LA? Boston? New York, Miami? Pick one! Because at least one's going.

And that's something we should all think about before we march down this path of insanity [repeating "insanity" as pictures flash on screen.]

MIKA BRZEZINSKI READING WES CLARK ARTICLE: "The truth is that, in national security terms, he's largely untested and untried" -- John McCain, this is what you're talking about -- "he's never been responsible for policy formulation.  He's never had leadership in a crisis or in anything larger than his own element on an aircraft carrier or in managing his own Congressional staff.

It's not clear that this is going to be the strong suit that he thinks it is. McCain's weakness is that he's always been for the use of force, force, and more force. In my experience, the only time to use force is as a last resort. When he talks about throwing Russia out of the G8 and makes ditties about bombing Iran, he betrays a disrespect for the office of the Presidency."

McCAIN: And I'm sorry to tell ya that we're gonna be in further wars. . . . And we were in two wars today, combatting it, and there are other places in the world where we may have to. These young people that are in this crowd, my friends, I'm gonna be asking you to serve.

There's gonna be more wars. There's gonna be more wars. We're in a greater struggle that is gonna be with us for the rest of this century.

It's a tough war we're in. It's not gonna be over right away. There's gonna be other wars. I'm sorry to tell you, there's gonna be other wars.

[Scary music, scary statistics, scary pictures.]

BUCHANAN: "He will make Cheney look like Gandhi."

Tagged as: republicans, iraq war, john mccain, 2008 election, pat buchanan, iran war, wes clark

ZP Heller is the editorial director of Brave New Films. He has written for The American Prospect, AlterNet, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Huffington Post, covering everything from politics to pop culture.