Via Michael Tomasky, I found this unsettling post from Robert Dreyfuss over at The Nation. Dreyfuss reports on the tenous situation on the northern Lebanon border with Syria, were the Lebanese media reports there are at least 10,000 amassed Syrian troops. It's becoming increasingly clear that Syria believes that groups operating in northern Lebanon pose a serious threat to its security. This set of circumstances is particularly disturbing because Syria is currently in the midst of negotiations with Israel over a peace deal that would include a return of the Golan Heights to Syria.
Despite the obvious consequences of a Syrian invasion of northern Lebanon including civilian casualties and a possible collapse of the talks between Syria and Israel, it could also be a huge boon to John McCain. This is of course completely illogical, however, the voting patterns of the American people are rarely steeped in logic. Rationally, one would conclude that an increasingly calamitous and unstable situation in the Middle East would call for a different approach. However, as was demonstrated in 2004, the Republicans usually shift into full bear fear mongering mode (with a great deal of help from the MSM) in order to remind the public that only they can protect America from the terrorists. The surrender happy Democrats would cut and run. There's no doubt that McCain in his infinite wisdom would proclaim that "we are all Lebanese" now, just as he did when Russian made incursions into Georgia. We see this over and over again from McCain. The man is prone to hyperbole. In fact, it's probably fair to call him a hypochondriac. Whenever anything happens, he completely freaks out. When Russia invaded the South Ossetian region of Georgia it was the "greatest foreign policy challenge since the fall of the Soviet Union." Also, McCain has regurlarly called the current financial crisis (actually, he calls it a fiscal crisis, which Matt Yglesias is right to point out is wrong) the "greatest crisis since World War II." Admittedly, the current fall out on Wall Street could prove to be the greatest crisis since World War II, but is irresponsible for McCain to say so before the entire scope of the problem is known. Anyways, to get back to my point, many in the media like Chris Matthews and Wolf Blitzer and Tom Brokaw would tout McCains resolute stances on national security and foreign policy. It doesn't matter that John McCain's views are completely wrongheaded, in today's media landscape a strong disposition towards military force and increased tensions with America's "enemies" is equated with deep understanding of international affairs.
Photo courtesy of Flickr user failasoof April 25, 2007
