War
Criminal
John McCain Systematically Dismantled Donald
Trump’s Entire Worldview
By Aaron
Blake
February 18, 2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- "WP"
-
John McCain is increasingly
mad as hell about President Trump. And
on Friday, he went after Trump — hard.
During
a speech at the Munich Security Conference in
Germany, the Republican senator from Arizona
delivered a pointed and striking point-by-point
takedown of Trump's worldview and brand of
nationalism. McCain didn't mention Trump's name
once, but he didn't have to.
And even considering the two men's up-and-down
history and the
terrible things Trump has said about McCain,
it was a striking display from a senior leader
of a party when it comes to a president of the
same party.
In
his speech,
McCain suggested the Western world is uniquely
imperiled this year — even more so than when
Barack Obama was president — and proceeded
to question whether it will even survive.
“In
recent years, this question would invite
accusations of hyperbole and alarmism; not this
year,” McCain said. “If ever there were a time
to treat this question with a deadly
seriousness, it is now.”
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Not For Profit - For Global
Justice
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In case
there was any doubt that this was about Trump.
Here's what followed:
-
"[The founders of the Munich conference]
would be alarmed by an increasing turn away
from universal values and toward old ties of
blood and race and sectarianism.”
-
“They would be alarmed by the hardening
resentment we see towards immigrants and
refugees and minority groups -- especially
Muslims.”
-
“They would be alarmed by the growing
inability -- and even unwillingness -- to
separate truth from lies.”
-
"They would be alarmed that more and more of
our fellow citizens seem to be flirting with
authoritarianism and romanticizing it as our
moral equivalent."
That's
Trump, Trump, Trump and Trump.
McCain
continued: “But what would alarm them most, I
think, is a sense that many of our peoples,
including in my own country, are giving up on
the West, that they see it as a bad deal that we
may be better off without, and that while
Western nations still have the power to maintain
our world order, it's unclear whether we have
the will.”
Trump
has repeatedly suggested a desire to pull out of
or scale back on international involvement and
agreements. His slogan is “America first,” after
all. And it's not just on free trade: It's also
when it comes to things like NATO, the
transatlantic military alliance that Trump has
suggested the United States is getting a bad
deal on and has flirted with not enforcing.
Then
McCain invoked some of those close to Trump and
emphasized that his message won't square with
theirs:
I
know there is profound concern across Europe
and the world that America is laying down
the mantle of global leadership. I can only
speak for myself, but I do not believe that
that is the message you will hear from all
of the American leaders who cared enough to
travel here to Munich this weekend. That's
not the message you heard today from
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. That is not
the message you will hear from Vice
President Mike Pence. That's not the message
you will hear from Secretary of Homeland
Security John Kelly. And that is
certainly not the message you will hear
tomorrow from our bipartisan congressional
delegation.
McCain
then concluded with another direct shot at
Trump.
“I
refuse to accept that our values are morally
equivalent to those of our adversaries,” he
said. “I am a proud, unapologetic believer in
the West, and I believe we must always, always
stand up for it. For if we do not, who will?
Two
weeks ago, you may recall, Trump suggested the
United States didn't exactly have the moral high
ground on Russia. Asked by Fox News host Bill
O'Reilly about wanting good relations with a
“killer” like Russian President Vladimir Putin,
Trump demurred.
“There are a lot of killers. We have a lot of
killers,” Trump said. “Well,
you think our country is so innocent?”
Ever since, it seems, he and McCain have been on
a collision course. McCain
didn't fight back
when Trump questioned his war-hero status long
ago — perhaps because both men were trying to
win elections — but the battle between McCain
and the White House
is picking up steam.
And on
Friday, McCain traveled across the Atlantic to
deliver a calculated, planned attack on Trump's
entire system of beliefs.
