Strike The Root Blog

In response to Joe Biden’s prediction that Dear Leader Barack Obama would face a major foreign affairs crisis within his first six months in office (read as: some foreign government[s] won’t do what he tells them to do), John McCain proudly declared while shamelessly pandering to Pennsylvanians yesterday (maybe they got a lot of adjustable rate mortgages?) that he’s already been tested by crisis:

McCain recalled being ready to launch a bombing run during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, which Biden said over the weekend tested a new President John F. Kennedy and was the template for the kind of “generated crisis” the 47-year-old Obama would face within six months of taking office.”I was on board the USS Enterprise,” McCain, a former naval aviator, said in the capital city of Harrisburg. “I sat in the cockpit, on the flight deck of the USS Enterprise, off of Cuba. I had a target. My friends, you know how close we came to a nuclear war.”

As the crowd of several thousand began to swell with cheers and applause, he added with dramatic effect: “America will not have a president who needs to be tested. I’ve been tested, my friends.”

As the article notes, McCain has previously written of his experience in the Cuban missile crisis:

“The Enterprise, sailing at full speed under nuclear power, was the first U.S. carrier to reach waters off Cuba,” McCain wrote in his memoir, “Faith of My Fathers.” “For about five days, the pilots on the Enterprise believed we were going into action. We had never been in combat before, and despite the global confrontation a strike on Cuba portended, we were prepared and anxious to fly our first mission.”

He added: “Pilots and crewmen alike adopted a cool-headed, business-as-usual attitude toward the mission. Inwardly, of course, we were excited as hell, but we kept our composure and aped the standard image of a laconic, reserved, and fearless American at war.”

In other words, McCain and his fellow would-be executioners could barely contain their glee at the juicy prospect of dropping bombs on Cubans. Ye gods! In both his speech and the book you can practically hear him lick his lips in anticipation of the opportunities for slaughter he thought awaited him and his comrades.

(And take note of Biden’s creepy “Stand By Your Leader” exhortations in Seattle…)

(Cross-posted at The Postmodern Tribune.)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 at 5:19 pm and is filed under Uncategorized, war, nationalism, politicians, statism, terrorism, military, Yourmerica. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.