{"id":13391,"date":"2019-03-13T14:43:58","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T18:43:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=13391"},"modified":"2024-09-11T16:17:44","modified_gmt":"2024-09-11T20:17:44","slug":"john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/13\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\/","title":{"rendered":"John McCain’s Disastrous Militaristic Legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Future of Freedom Foundation<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/h3>\n

John McCain’s Disastrous Militaristic Legacy<\/a><\/h2>\n

by James Bovard<\/p>\n

When Sen. John McCain passed away in August, he was lauded far and wide for his long career of public service. Rep. John Lewis, the famous civil-rights activist, hailed McCain as a \u201cwarrior for peace.\u201d In reality, McCain embodied a toxic mix of moralism and militarism that worked out disastrously for America and the world.<\/p>\n

In his funeral eulogies, McCain was portrayed as a hero and a visionary. But early in his congressional career, he barely avoided indictment as part of the Keating Five Savings and Loan bribery scandal that cost taxpayers billions of dollars. McCain repaired his image by becoming a champion of campaign-finance reform and new restrictions on political contributions. In 2002, Congress enacted the McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, which proved more effective at suppressing criticism than at reforming political life. The McCain-Feingold Act authorized harsh penalties for private citizens who accused their rulers of abusing their power. It prohibited most issue ads by private groups on television or radio in the months before a presidential or congressional election.<\/p>\n

In 2003, the Supreme Court (by a 5-4 margin) upheld the new law in response to activities with \u201ca significant risk of actual and apparent corruption.\u201d Justice Antonin Scalia noted in a dissent to the decision upholding the law, that the McCain-Feingold act \u201ccuts to the heart of what the First Amendment is meant to protect: the right to criticize the government.\u201d But that was fine with McCain, since he declared that if he had the power, he would outlaw all negative political ads. He declared, \u201cI detest the negative advertising. I think it is one of the worst things that has ever happened in American politics.\u201d Banning negative ads but not political lies was McCain\u2019s notion of a level playing field.<\/p>\n

When he was awarded the Liberty Medal in October 2017 at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Senator McCain declared, \u201cWe live in a land made of ideals\u2026. We are the custodians of those ideals at home, and their champion abroad. We have done great good in the world.\u201d He warned that it would be \u201cunpatriotic\u201d to \u201cabandon the ideals we have advanced around the globe.\u201d But idealism has fared better in political speeches than in the lives of American soldiers or supposed foreign beneficiaries.<\/p>\n

McCain served 25 years as the chairman of the International Republican Institute, a federally funded entity that intervenes in foreign elections to promote pro-American candidates. McCain often spoke as if the institute was the incarnation of America at its best. In 1997, McCain declared, \u201cWhen we provide the democratic opposition in Albania with 12 Jeep Cherokees and they win an election, I\u2019m incredibly proud.\u201d However, the Institute was involved in violent attempts to overthrow governments in Venezuela and Haiti and was condemned for meddling in many other places. As long as pro-American candidates snared the most votes by hook or by crook, McCain had no complaints.<\/p>\n

During the 1990s, McCain \u201cslowly moved toward the idealist camp and became one of his party\u2019s foremost advocates for the use of force abroad,\u201d the Boston Globe noted. In his 2000 presidential campaign, he pledged a \u201crogue state rollback,\u201d which sounded like \u201cfill-in-the-blank\u201d declarations of war against any regime of which the United States disapproved. He was defeated in the Republican primaries by George W. Bush, who sounded reasonable and moderate in comparison. However, after 9\/11 Bush adopted McCain\u2019s bellicose vision and promised to \u201crid the world of evil.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iraq<\/p>\n

McCain was one of the foremost advocates for attacking Iraq and served as honorary co-chairman of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. In 2002, he declared that invading that nation would be \u201cfairly easy\u201d and that \u201cwe can win an overwhelming victory in a very short period of time.\u201d Two months after the fall of Baghdad, McCain proclaimed that the war was \u201cfully vindicated.\u201d After the war became a debacle, he declared in 2008 that it was \u201cfine with me\u201d to keep U.S. troops in Iraq for \u201ca hundred years.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCain believed Americans should idealize military interventions regardless of the political machinations that preceded them. When Bush created a pseudo-independent commission in 2004 to exonerate him for the missing weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, he selected McCain as one of the nine members. On the day his appointment was announced, McCain publicly declared, \u201cThe president of the United States, I believe, would not manipulate any kind of information for political gain or otherwise.\u201d McCain\u2019s boundless endorsement of the current president ignored the legendary presidential deceits that trademarked the Mexican-American War, the Spanish-American War of 1898, the First World War, and the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n

McCain sanctified a commission (which had no subpoena power) that was a crock from the get-go. As Sen. Robert Byrd scoffed, \u201cThis commission is 100 percent under the thumb of the White House. Who created the panel\u2019s charter? The president. Who chooses the panel members? The president. To whom does the panel report? The president. Whom shall the panel advise and assist? The president. Who is in charge of determining what classified reports the panel may see? The president. Who gets to decide whether the Congress may see the panel\u2019s report? The president.\u201d Predictably, the commission concluded that Bush was not to blame for starting the Iraq War on false pretenses.<\/p>\n

McCain loved to strut on foreign trips where American reporters were sure to hail him as a visiting savior. He was ridiculed as \u201cthe new Baghdad Bob\u201d who took a \u201cmagic carpet ride\u201d after he visited a Baghdad market in 2007 and claimed, \u201cNever have I been able to go out into the city as I was today.\u201d McCain touted his visit: \u201cWe stopped at a local market, where we spent well over an hour, shopping and talking with the local people, getting their views and ideas about different issues of the day.\u201d Rep. (now Vice President) Mike Pence, who accompanied McCain, ludicrously asserted that the scene was \u201cjust like any open-air market in Indiana in the summertime.\u201d At the time of his market visit, McCain was wearing a flak jacket, accompanied by 100 U.S. troops, and protected overhead by attack helicopters. Prior to McCain\u2019s arrival, U.S. troops cleared almost everyone else at the scene. After he departed, Iraqi merchants bitterly scoffed at his claims that the market was safe. One shop owner growled, \u201cThey paralyzed the market when they came. This was only for the media. This will not change anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the American media lapped it up and the charade did nothing to prevent McCain from securing the Republican presidential nomination the following year. The shining moment of his campaign was his proclamation, \u201cWe are all Georgians now!\u201d in response to a border clash that the Republic of Georgia commenced against the Russian Federation. McCain\u2019s bellicosity against Russia never died. He also proclaimed during that campaign, \u201cI know how to win wars. And if I\u2019m elected president, I will turn around the war in Afghanistan, just as we have turned around the war in Iraq, with a comprehensive strategy for victory.\u201d McCain never explained how he learned how to win wars (not a lesson taught in North Vietnamese prisons) or why he advocated bombing more than a dozen nations throughout his congressional career.<\/p>\n

Syria and Libya<\/p>\n

Perhaps the only lesson McCain learned from the Iraq War was that the American media would unquestioningly glorify him for demanding foreign intervention. In 2011, he was outspoken demanding U.S. bombing of Libya \u2014 widely considered the biggest foreign-policy blunder of the Obama administration. In April 2011, he visited rebels in Benghazi and labeled them heroes. Yet, as a Wikileaks disclosure revealed, he had sung a different tune two years earlier when he visited Tripoli. Meeting with officials of Muammar Qaddafi\u2019s regime, McCain \u201cpledged to see what he could do to move things forward in Congress\u201d regarding a Libyan request for U.S. military equipment, according to a confidential U.S. embassy cable. After the United States helped topple the Qaddafi regime, chaos erupted and four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador, were killed in Benghazi. A few years later, slave markets were operating in the nation that McCain and Obama had so proudly liberated.<\/p>\n

McCain returned to the Middle East for an encore visit with Syrian rebels in 2013, whom he then ceaselessly championed as a moderate alternative to the regime of Bashar Assad. Under pressure from McCain and others, the Obama administration provided massive military aid to anti-Assad forces, but much of the weaponry ended up in the hands of terrorist groups. The absurdity of U.S. policy became undeniable when Pentagon-backed Syrian rebels openly battled CIA-backed rebels. That did not deter McCain from endless pious preening, such as his early 2017 tweet: \u201cOn 6th anniversary of Syrian civil war, Assad & Russia cont. to commit genocide \u2014 when will the world wake up to the slaughter in Syria?\u201d Since McCain had used the word \u201cgenocide,\u201d that meant the U.S. government was morally obliged to topple the Assad regime \u2014 even though Libya showed the catastrophic results of intervention. A year later, McCain wailed, \u201cFor seven long years, the United States has sat idly by in the face of genocide. We seem to have become immune to images of devastation and brutality coming out of Syria every day. Two successive U.S. administrations have failed to do anything meaningful to stop the slaughter and enabled Assad\u2019s reign of terror to thrive.\u201d Actually, the U.S. government had dropped tens of thousands of bombs and missiles on Syria, despite not having a dog in that fight. Donald Trump twice sent cruise missile barrages against the Assad government after unproven allegations were made that the government had used chemical weapons. (The al-Qaeda-linked terrorist groups fighting Assad were also frequently accused of using chemical weapons.)<\/p>\n

Most of the media ignored McCain\u2019s role in making the Syrian conflict longer and bloodier than it otherwise would have been. That is no surprise, since American politicians across the board are perennially absolved by the ideals they invoke when championing foreign wars. But the moral bonus points are void beyond the national borders. Idealistic pretenses can spur vast resentment because \u201cthe American judges himself by the way he feels, whereas the foreigner judges him by what he does,\u201d as Irving Babbitt explained after World War One.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of nasty dictators in the world but U.S. government efforts have dismally failed to spread democracy this century. John McCain was in the forefront of prominent Americans who had \u201clearned nothing and forgotten nothing\u201d from recent U.S. pratfalls. Instead, he continued talking as if foreign interventions could be a deft blend of Jesus and General Sherman, righteously burning a swath through Georgia.<\/p>\n

America cannot afford an idealism that consists of little more than combining bombing and wishful thinking. We should not forget the Americans, Iraqis, Syrians, and Libyans who died in part because of policies McCain championed. The most valuable lesson from McCain\u2019s career is to reject the folly of militarized idealism.<\/p>\n

This article was originally published in the December 2018 edition of Future of Freedom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Future of Freedom Foundation John McCain’s Disastrous Militaristic Legacy by James Bovard When Sen. John McCain passed away in August, he was lauded far and wide for his long career of public service. Rep. John Lewis, the famous civil-rights activist, hailed McCain as a \u201cwarrior for peace.\u201d In reality, McCain embodied a toxic mix of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1963,122,43,36,1419,1962,401,1964,578,1965,262,1961],"class_list":["post-13391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-campaign-finance-reform","tag-hypocrisy","tag-iran","tag-iraq","tag-john-mccain","tag-liberty-medal","tag-libya","tag-mccain-feingold-act","tag-national-endowment-for-democracy","tag-robert-byrd","tag-syria","tag-warmongers"],"yoast_head":"\nJohn McCain's Disastrous Militaristic Legacy - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"John McCain embodied a toxic mix of moralism and militarism that worked out disastrously for America and the world.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/13\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"John McCain's Disastrous Militaristic Legacy - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"John McCain embodied a toxic mix of moralism and militarism that worked out disastrously for America and the world.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/13\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-03-13T18:43:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-09-11T20:17:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/ffflogo.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jimbovard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/13\\\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/13\\\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"headline\":\"John McCain’s Disastrous Militaristic Legacy\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-03-13T18:43:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-09-11T20:17:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/13\\\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1866,\"commentCount\":4,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/13\\\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2013\\\/08\\\/ffflogo.gif\",\"keywords\":[\"campaign finance reform\",\"hypocrisy\",\"Iran\",\"Iraq\",\"John McCain\",\"Liberty Medal\",\"libya\",\"McCain-Feingold Act\",\"National Endowment for Democracy\",\"Robert Byrd\",\"syria\",\"warmongers\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/13\\\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/13\\\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/13\\\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\\\/\",\"name\":\"John McCain's Disastrous Militaristic Legacy - James Bovard\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/13\\\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/13\\\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2013\\\/08\\\/ffflogo.gif\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-03-13T18:43:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-09-11T20:17:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"description\":\"John McCain embodied a toxic mix of moralism and militarism that worked out disastrously for America and the world.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/13\\\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/13\\\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/13\\\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2013\\\/08\\\/ffflogo.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2013\\\/08\\\/ffflogo.gif\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/13\\\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"John McCain’s Disastrous Militaristic Legacy\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"James Bovard\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\",\"name\":\"Jim\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Jim\"},\"description\":\"Bovard's homepage is at http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \\\"the roving inspector general of the modern state\\\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \\\"one-man truth squad.\\\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \\\"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\\\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/jim.bovard\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/jimbovard\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"John McCain's Disastrous Militaristic Legacy - James Bovard","description":"John McCain embodied a toxic mix of moralism and militarism that worked out disastrously for America and the world.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/13\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"John McCain's Disastrous Militaristic Legacy - James Bovard","og_description":"John McCain embodied a toxic mix of moralism and militarism that worked out disastrously for America and the world.","og_url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/13\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\/","og_site_name":"James Bovard","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","article_published_time":"2019-03-13T18:43:58+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-09-11T20:17:44+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/ffflogo.gif","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Jim","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@jimbovard","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jim","Est. reading time":"9 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/13\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/13\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\/"},"author":{"name":"Jim","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"headline":"John McCain’s Disastrous Militaristic Legacy","datePublished":"2019-03-13T18:43:58+00:00","dateModified":"2024-09-11T20:17:44+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/13\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\/"},"wordCount":1866,"commentCount":4,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/13\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/ffflogo.gif","keywords":["campaign finance reform","hypocrisy","Iran","Iraq","John McCain","Liberty Medal","libya","McCain-Feingold Act","National Endowment for Democracy","Robert Byrd","syria","warmongers"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/13\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/13\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\/","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/13\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\/","name":"John McCain's Disastrous Militaristic Legacy - James Bovard","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/13\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/13\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/ffflogo.gif","datePublished":"2019-03-13T18:43:58+00:00","dateModified":"2024-09-11T20:17:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"description":"John McCain embodied a toxic mix of moralism and militarism that worked out disastrously for America and the world.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/13\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/13\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/13\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/ffflogo.gif","contentUrl":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/ffflogo.gif"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/13\/john-mccains-disastrous-militaristic-legacy\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"John McCain’s Disastrous Militaristic Legacy"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/","name":"James Bovard","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f","name":"Jim","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","caption":"Jim"},"description":"Bovard's homepage is at http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","https:\/\/x.com\/jimbovard"],"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13391"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20456,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13391\/revisions\/20456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}