Matt Zeitlin: Impetuous Young Whippersnapper

Welcome Ezra Klein readers. I know he claims to be an atheist and all, but with a name like Ezra Klein, I feel perfectly comfortable calling him a mensch. Now, I know what you’re all thinking, if Ezra likes you, you must really love labor unions, nationalized health care and 18 year old girls in porno flicks. Well, I’m pretty agnostic about labor unions, and I’ve inherited some Kaus like feelings about teacher unions, I’m very much in favor of some sort of government supported health care for everyone and I actually am “finding the present raunch culture wanting, [and]posit a need for an even more sex-saturated media environment.” Well don’t get scared away, I’m still something of a liberal, and I created this blog to make Mickey’s hair fall out (oh wait…). Knowing the superwonk Ezra is, I guess I’ll have to talk about something of substance to keep at least a few of his readers hanging around

Ezra links to Howard Fineman calling McCain a “warrior. He knows the world, its dangers and wonders; he knows the military, its powers and its limitations.” Of course, Ezra being the great blogger he is, jumps all over Fineman, pointing that McCain has supported the Iraq war vociferously.

In fact, his proposed solution to the Iraq debacle is putting in even more troops. Knowing the readiness state and overstretch of our military, it’s unclear if he actually knows anything about the military. But he was a fighter pilot, and was tortured for five years by the Viet Cong, so we have to give him some respect, right? Yes he was, but that doesn’t make up for what can only be called preposterously bad judgment. I know the media and public likes to say that anyone whose served any time in the service is an “expert” on the military, despite their level of combat experience, rank, or time in the military. Unless you’re John Kerry, then you’re just a pussy because you didn’t get wounded enough. But McCain was a flyboy, and he was only that because his father and grandfather were admirals in the Navy and he wasn’t cut out for the commanding officer track. Sure, he was shot down and tortured, but how does this at all qualify him to talk about the best policy to pursue in Iraq? He’s never fought a counter insurgency, has shown no familiarity with the literature or an academic interest in how to extricate us from this disaster of a war, except for more force, more troops and more Green Lanterns. Not to mention the fact that flyboys tend to be the most hotheaded, impetuous and self centered people in the military. Their entire line of work is taking enormous risks with a possibility of death every time they step into the plane. And if you’re good at it, you’ll just get cockier. Hardly the type of leadership we need from our politicians at this time.

Let’s say it together now, McCain has shown awful judgment on the Iraq War and is a super hawk, it’s about damn time we stopped giving him a free ride because the Viet Cong wouldn’t.