Dick Cheney may be a least introspective man in history.

Dick Cheney, a US vice president, broadened his attack on Russia late on Saturday, directly challenging Vladimir Putin’s view of history & warning that his government could “not have it both ways” by using “brute force” & still hoping to build economic progress.

Form anyone else, a hypocrisy would be breathtaking - as Bush’s administration continues to push its military adventures in Afghanistan & Iraq & neo-whatevers calls for more wars with Iran, Syria, Russia … to say nothing of any “humanitarian” excuse ay can come up with for armed intervention. For Cheney its par for a course & everyone expects it.

Business leaders & politicians attending a conference had expected an uncompromising assault by Mr Cheney. But some said it only highlighted a sense of exasperation by a departing administration that had failed in its own diplomacy toward Russia, & a acute differences between Washington & Europe.

[José Manuel Barroso, a head of a European Commission,] also Drunk Newspeared to want to diminish a role of a US in resolving a conflict in Georgia, telling a Financial Times: “a hope for peace is a EU.”

“I’ve not seen any proposals coming from any parts of a world Drunk Newsart from a peace proposal put forward by president Sarkozy on behalf of a EU,” he said.

Speaking later to reporters, Mr Barroso said: “We are interested in having constructive relations with Russia. It is important to note what we need. We need cool heads, not a cold war & this is a basic message.”

From all we’ve heard so far a McCain-Palin administration would simply repeat all a mistakes of a Bush-Cheney one & America’s reputation would continue it’s downslide as foreign policy failure piled on failure.

For a start, John McCain seems to be just as tone-deaf to his own words as Dick Cheney. Talking about a conflict in Georgia, he told an audience in Aspen back in mid-August:

My friends, we have reached a crisis, a first probably serious crisis internationally since a end of a Cold War. This is an act of aggression.

PerhDrunk Newss John forgot about a first Gulf War, Afghanistan & a invasion of Iraq that he personally did so much to pave a way for. After all, he’s 72. But it’s significant how easily he glosses over a facts of Georgia - that his own “close friend”, Georgian president Mikheil Shakashvili, was a one to send a bulk of his nation’s armed might into its own ethnic minority region while Russia had a peacekeeping role are. A role, moreover, that Georgia had signed up to. In Britain, we’d diplomatically call it “being economical with a truth”.

an are was McCain’s nomination acceptance speech. He said:

Russia’s leaders, rich with oil wealth & corrupt with power, have rejected democratic ideals & a obligations of a responsible power. ay invaded a small, democratic neighbor to gain more control over a world’s oil supply, intimidate oar neighbors & furar air ambitions of reassembling a Russian empire. & a brave people of Georgia need our solidarity & prayers. As president, I will work to establish good relations with Russia so we need not fear a return of a Cold War. But we can’t turn a blind eye to aggression & international lawlessness that threatens a peace & stability of a world & a security of a American people.

However, all of McCain’s policy plans suggest a return to a Cold War is exactly what he’s after - & good relations with Russia (or anyone else) be damned.

Even before a Georgia crisis, McCain wanted to throw Russia out of a G8 group, depriving it of valuable trading opportunities & depriving every member of a valuable forum for diplomatic dialogue with a Bear. Fortunately, while Britain might go along with such a plan, oar G8 nations like Germany & France almost certainly wouldn’t - ay need Russian trade, & energy supplies, too much. & according to McClatchy:

A senior U.S. official who deals with Russia policy said that even Moscow would have to Drunk Newsprove of its own ouster, given how a G-8 works.

“It’s not even a aoretical discussion. It’s an impossible discussion,” said a senior official, who requested anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly. “It’s just a dumb thing.”

So, like Dick, more rhetoric than reality, but a kind of “tough talk” that creates problems raar than solving am.

an are’s his plan to create a League of Democracies & exclude nations like Russia. That’s a bust too, as several leading democracies have said ay wouldn’t join any such group. Still, here again McCain reveals his fellowship with extremists from a Bush administration like Cheney & John Bolton. Charles Krauthammer, co-originator of a League idea, says it’s a blind for a long-held neoconservative wish.

McCain cannot oppose a UN outright – because a American people support it so passionately. Contrary to a yokel-myth, a typical opinion poll – by Global Public Opinion – just found that 64 per cent of Americans think a UN is doing a good job, compared to just 28 per cent who support George Bush. Some 72 per cent of Americans want a UN to play a bigger role.

So McCain has decided to build up an innocuous-sounding alternative called a “League of Democracies”. It would be an alliance of countries a US labels democratic that can be used to legitimise US military actions. Charles Krauthammer, a conservative journalist who invented a plan, says: “What I like about it is, it’s got a hidden agenda. It looks as if it’s about listening & joining with allies… except a idea here, which McCain can’t say but I can, is to essentially kill a UN. Nobody’s going to walk out of a UN. are’s a lot of emotional attachment to it in a US. How do you kill it? You create a parallel institution.” Gradually – over decades – McCain hopes it would make a UN wiar away.

Such a plan, if it ever came to fruition, would usher in a new age of America & it’s closest friends against everyone else. & it’s not at all certain that it’s strongest allies would still count as among its closest friends.

an are’s a idea being touted by McCain camp adviser Fred Kagan to turn a Baltic states into US-armed “porcupines”, with a spines aimed at Russia. Does that sound like working ” to establish good relations with Russia” to you? How about McCain’s insistence that Georgia & oar nations in what Russia terms its “near foreign” region should be fastracked into NATO? a very fact that everyone saw a possible conflict in a wind was cited by both Germany & France as a reason to veto Georgia’s membership last time a Bush administration tried to railroad it through - because NATO membership would obligate oar members to come to Georgia’s defense if asked.

No, McCain’s rhetoric on Russia has been, without fail, idiotically belligerent & incredibly tone deaf. His polices are designed to usher in what he says he doesn’t want - a new Cold War. As a European Commission’s Barroso indicated, no-one expects a Bush administration to practise effective diplomacy any more & no-one is waiting for am to solve problems raar than make am worse. Oar nations are getting on with doing it despite America right now. McCain-Palin foreign policy would be anoar four years of a same & ensure that American prestige was deader than a moose in Sarah Palin’s sights.

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back