John McCain recently displayed yet another example of how truly disingenuous he is, by criticizing the Georgian-Russian Conflict with the statement that, “In the 21st century, nations don’t invade other nations.” Watch the video below, and then let’s talk.

I don’t want to spend too much time on this blog just talking politics. This site is supposed to be about the intersection of capitalism and culture. But, it’s an election year, and, I suppose you just can’t get away from it. Lord knows I’ve spent enough time writing about the virtues of Ron Paul.

The fact that John McCain was able to come from so far behind in the primaries to achieve the position he’s in now makes me sad for the gullibility of so many Americans. The man is utterly, desperately, completely disingenuous. He talks about how much he sympathizes with people who disagree with him, which would be great, except that he’s so obviously full of crap. His advisers are lobbyists and sycophants who tell him that the policies he wants to work, will work. And how can anyone have fallen for the way he laid it on so thick during one of the Republican debates when he took his microphone off the podium and walked out to address the wife of a veteran who disagreed with the war? That stunt should have buried him. When a person is truly compassionate, these gestures emerge organically. When a person is deceitful and conniving, these gestures are contrived. And how can ANYONE not see this in John McCain?

Don’t forget how the late Tim Russert caught John McCain being disingenuous about the war earlier this year. The man is a hypocrite. Why are so many Americans buying his lines? About this most recent gaff, Huffington Post had this to say:

It was the type of foreign policy rhetorical blunder that has regularly plagued the McCain campaign and could have diplomatic ripples as well. Certainly the comment was meant in innocence. But for those predisposed to the notion that the U.S. is an increasingly arrogant international actor, the suggestion by a presidential candidate that, in this day and age, countries don’t invade one another – when the U.S. is occupying two foreign nations – does little to alleviate that negative perception.

I suppose the larger issue does, in fact, pertain to culture, if not capitalism: We’re a nation very often, very easily led by men of mediocrity.

According to an article in The Vancouver Sun, former U.S. Secretary of State, General Colin Powell criticized George W. Bush’s handling of the aftermath of the Iraq War and the American occupation. He was giving a speech at the Vancouver Exhibition & Convention Centre, and he went on to acknowledge his part in building a global case for the Iraq War by delivering a now infamous speech to the United Nations:

Powell told the audience that he wouldn’t have agreed with the decision to go to war had he known that the data about Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction was exaggerated.

Powell said that every word of what he called his “infamous” presentation about WMD had been vetted by the intelligence community – “and I had no reason to disbelieve it.”

The former secretary of state has previously described his prewar UN speech as a “blot” on his record.

Powell went on to say that the Bush administration fell into “disarray” over how to govern Iraq after it overthrew Hussein.

“If we had handled the aftermath of the fall of Baghdad differently then we wouldn’t be where we are today,” said Powell.

He went on to call upon our next president (whoever he may be) to draw down U.S. troops and hand over power to the Iraqi government. From a 4-star general with a record like Powell’s, one hopes the new American guard will give his advice serious consideration.

Reuters is reporting that Turkey began attacking rebel positions along the Turkey-Iraq border on Friday, and the US has discouraged this move. It seems they think Turkey should seek diplomatic solutions. This is interesting, considering that the primary reason we’re in Iraq ourselves is that we ignored similar advice. Added to that the fact that Turkey actually has a legitimate threat to its national security what with Turkey and Iraq actually sharing a border. It would be interesting to see how Condoleeza Rice would respond to the question of whether or not Turkey should take military options off the table– something the US continually says it will not do when it comes to our difficulties with other far-flung nations like Iran and North Korea, where it unfortunately seems exceedingly likely that we’ll turn our military attention if we ever get ourselves out of Iraq.

The US government has said it’s considering joint action against the PKK, which seems to suggest that they’re not actually opposed to military action as long as we’re the ones running the show.