2003 Flashback: McCain Mocked Germany and France
By Jon Perr Saturday Jul 26, 2008 8:30am
In Berlin this week, Barack Obama capped his European tour with an address to an audience whose numbers reached tens of thousands. But while the media will focus on Obama's call to strengthen America's trans-Atlantic alliance with France and Germany, no doubt lost in the coverage will be John McCain's essential role in undermining it. As it turns out, back in 2003 John McCain stood shoulder to shoulder with the Berlin-bashers and Paris-hating purveyors of "freedom fries" and "old Europe."
As President Bush prepared to pull the trigger on the Iraq war in February 2003, John McCain was at the forefront of those browbeating the Chirac government for France's refusal to back the U.S. at the United Nations. On February 10, 2003, McCain declared on MSNBC's Hardball:
"Look, I don't mean to try to be snide, but the Lord said the poor will always be with us. The French will always be with us, too."
The next day on February 11, 2003, McCain co-sponsored a Senate resolution praising 18 European nations backing U.S. enforcement of UN demands for Saddam's disarmament. In his press release, McCain echoed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in thundering at the France and Germany of "old Europe:"
"The majority of Europe's democracies have spoken, and their message could not be clearer: France and Germany do not speak for Europe...most European governments behave like allies that are willing to meet their responsibilities to uphold international peace and security in defense of our common values. We thank this European majority for standing with us."
McCain's venom towards the French and Germans was on full display two days later during a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
On February 13, 2003, McCain warned of "new threats to civilization [which] again defy our imagination in scale and potency" portrayed Iraq as "threat of the first order." He proclaimed that "the United States does not have reliable allies to implement a policy to contain Iraq" and pointed the finger squarely at France:
"Compare our great power allies in the Cold War with those with whom we act today in dealing with Iraq.
France has unashamedly pursued a concerted policy to dismantle the UN sanctions regime, placing its commercial interests above international law, world peace and the political ideals of Western civilization. Remember them? Liberte, egalite, fraternite...
...Gerhard Schroeder's Germany looks little like the ally that anchored our presence in Europe throughout the Cold War. A German Rip Van Winkle from the 1960s would not understand the lack of political courage and cooperation with its allies on the question of Iraq exhibited in Berlin today."
Just days later on February 18, 2003, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Lateline program showed a furious McCain foaming at the mouth over France:
Here's how influential Senator John McCain sees the French.
JOHN MCCAIN, REPUBLICAN SENATOR: They remind me of an aging movie actress in the 1940s who is still trying to dine out on her looks but doesn't have the face for it.
NORMAN HERMANT: Many in Washington are now saying relations with France have been a problem going all the way back to the end of World War II.
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: Perhaps Churchill and Roosevelt made a very serious mistake when they decided to give France a veto in the Security Council when the United Nations was organized.
McCain's feud with the French continued even after the start of hostilities and President Bush's May 1 declaration of "mission accomplished" in Iraq. But in a cynical July 2003 keynote address to the Atlantic Partnership (which promotes "the benefits of a strong and stable Atlantic community of nations"), Senator McCain acted as if he had never uttered his seething words of condemnation. Even in papering over the schism he helped foster, McCain couldn't resist taking a potshot at France:
"France and Germany shared the goals of our campaign to disarm Saddam Hussein's regime. We obviously disagreed over the means. Now that we have achieved our common objective of ending the threat posed by Saddam's Iraq, it's time to stop quarreling over the way we did so and move on. European nations that opposed the war must resist the tendency to say "I told you so," sit on the sidelines as the United States and our partners attempt to transform Iraq, and hope we find ourselves in a sandy quagmire that, in the eyes of some war opponents, would give us our just due...
...The United States must resist the tendency to punish our friends who did not support how we went to war, because things could have turned out differently. By the admission of Germany's leading opposition figures, who lost a close election to the current chancellor's coalition, a government in Berlin led by them would have stood with the United States in the diplomatic campaign preceding the war. France would have been isolated in its opposition, unable to claim to speak for Europe."
But that was five years ago. The United States, humbled by its humiliating fiasco in Iraq, is in no position to say "I told you so" to anyone. French President Chirac and German Chancellor Shroeder, persistent thorns in the side of the Bush administration, are gone, replaced by the more complaint conservative cheerleaders in Paris and Berlin, Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel, respectively. And most importantly, John McCain is now running for the White House and needing to project a presidential image during his European tour. So it's no surprise why John McCain reversed course and discovered his "friendship" with France during a March visit to Paris.
In the New York Times Monday, Republican water carrier Bill Kristol mocked Barack Obama's looming address in Berlin and its "anodyne message his campaign advertised Sunday - a discussion of the 'historic U.S.-German partnership' and strengthening trans-Atlantic relations."
Given the frayed state of the U.S. relationship with Europe, that is a vitally important message for the next American president - whoever it may be - to deliver. As Barack Obama clearly understands, it's not too soon to begin to repairing the Atlantic partnership that was so weakened by George W. Bush and John McCain.
Login or Register to post comments.
Germany and France are not among his "friends!" Nothing annoys so much as his saying, "my friends."
A detail, but wasn't the Berlin audience hundreds rather than tens of thousands? And yes, Jusker, you're spot on--he repeats "my friends" more than most teenagers say "ya know."
He gives a whole new meaning to the term, "war hero."
McCain will lose the French and German vote to Obama. Mark my words.
There is nothing about this man that I can like. His false smile, his "my friends" and his recent habit of talking ever so quietly and softly. Just look at his eyes and you will see a truly evil man. He very obviously hates all women, people of color and old people. And we all know he hates America. How can anyone in their right mind vote to make this man President of the U.S.? No matter what your politics, he is not the answer. But then the repugs aren't looking for answers, only power, and they don't want to lose that. I believe the repugs thought that Mclame was treated so badly in 2000 that the least they could do was nominate him in 2008 for the highest position in the free world. What were they thinking?!?! Do they honestly believe he is up to the job? What a disgrace he would be. Probably more hated than Bush. If possible.
I want this election over with so that we don't have to hear about John McSnide any more!
Georgette Orwell @ 2:
Quoting the NYT, "Senator Barack Obama drew a crowd of more than 200,000, according to German estimates, in Berlin on Thursday."
I'm sure the gossip about free beer and brats might hold some small truth, but come on. Pictures speak. My European friends over there hate Bush so much they won't even speak his name. Nobody loves the schoolyard bully and they're ready for a decent U.S. president again.
Has anyone else noticed that Mclame never talks policy? He only keeps up the same, bashing Obama. Never talks about the economy, health care and seldom about the war in Iraq unless pushed to speak of it. Is it because he has no policy? He doesn't understand the economy, has no solution for health care, and only echoes Bush's talking points on Iraq. What a hopeless person he is. If Joe and Lindsay can't be there to hold his hand he is lost. With that hidden ear piece Mclame really does hear "little voices in his head."
Big Oil's choice http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/26/AR200807...
dennis @ 4:
Obama's trip was so successful your comment has to be taken as a compliment....unless you want to suggest that ALL of those "foreigners" are Obama kool aid drinkers too. The Psyche that generates jealousy is amazing.
May the warmongers be hoisted with their own petards.
Petard, a French word s'il vous plais.
dennis @ 4:
Haha, so funny. More importantly, we've lost the respect of Europe and most of the world too with a failed leadership model that is a good example of what not to be. Nice work, Neocons to tear down what forward looking and other centered people built.
McGoo in 2003:
And so McGoo and the warmongers launched an illegal war of aggression placing their commercial interests above international law, world peace and the political ideals of Western civilization and dragged us into barbarity.
They should be prosecuted for war crimes. WAR CRIMES, REMEMBER THEM?
If McCain't had drawn a crowd of 200,000+ well-wishers it would have been touted as an example of his "foreign policy expertise."
But since it was Obama's event it counts for nothing or worse.
John 'old yeller teeth' McCain gives Rummy a run for the money.
liberAL @ 5:
If Mc Lame were running in 1950 his corporate focused, patriarchal, and controlling style might get some traction. But like most Neocons, he lives in the past and refuses to believe that his rigid, self centered, and bankrupt philosophy has been rejected by the majority in the world today who also reject the status quo.
"Has anyone else noticed that Mclame never talks policy? He only keeps up the same, bashing Obama. Never talks about the economy, health care and seldom about the war in Iraq unless pushed to speak of it. Is it because he has no policy? He doesn’t understand the economy, has no solution for health care, and only echoes Bush’s talking points on Iraq. "
I hope he continues to offer the American people NO positive reason to vote for him other than:
"Its my turn to be president"--
Sort of like a meaner Bob Dole without Dole's political craft or charisma
JEB @ 17:
True enough. I think this old saying may give us some insight:
Great people talk about ideas.
Average people talk about things.
Small people talk about other people.
Mc Cain has nothing redemptive to add to our national debate so he tears down those who want to make a difference. He is the poster boy of failed leadership---just like his party.
dennis @ 4:
Dennis is out of his hole early isn't he? If McInsane was capable of attracting the same size crowd there, Dennis would be saying how much one of our most important allies likes our candidate was VERY important in deciding who we should vote for.
Thank goodness for the comedic relief of trolls to help us make it throught these times.
On why most didn't join the US, simple, what was being asked was wrong to do. Their judgment proved out sound. It was the Us judgment that was faulty.
On McCain ... No matter how hard they try, The can't make a silk purse out of a Sow's ear.
How boring the world would be without the French and we had only Anglo-Saxon forms of sex.
I love how "Christians" only quote the parts of the Bible that help them beat up on people. The Lord also said to help the poor. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Judge not lest you also be judged. How about those things Mr McCain?
"On McCain … No matter how hard they try, The can’t make aOn McCain … No matter how hard they try, The can’t make a silk purse out of a Sow’s ear.
No, in McVain's case its: "They can’t make a silk purse out of an ELEPHANT's ear" ....
His capabilities and thought process are also obviously greatly degraded from when he ran in 2000...He doesn't even know what he is anymore--beyond a front man for neo-con and far-right smear and fear....
So, we revile the French for capitulating to the arrogant world bully, Nazi Germany, in 1940.
And we revile the French for standing up to the world bully, Neocon America in 2003.
Is that how it works?
Could you imagine the world without Bridgett Bardot?
Would Queen Lizzy had been the world's beauty?
Oh and dennis, there are plenty of people concerned with the US standing in the world,
Just not your messiah, boosh
Why do you hate America so?
My God, Tom Brokaw makes me sick! Obama is handling him perfectly, though. And he (Obama) characterised Broder as a "Conservative". Perfect!
Still, if you thought gotcha "journalism" at MTP died with Timmeh, you were wrong.
Crazy gramps is forever playing catch up like the mythical guy Sisyphus who kept rolling a ball uphill to have it roll back down. The corporate media is stuck rolling it with him because they like their tax breaks for looting from the rest of us. It's all about the tax breaks.
Just as they attempt to deflate the Obama overseas coupe by yapping about domestic neglect, the Senator announces a huddle with Warren Buffett, Robert Rubin, Robert Reich Larry Summers and a number of other top notch thinkers about the economy.
Why didn't gramps think of this? Maybe Buffett won't return his calls.
TV world and McCain are just perpetually behind the curve on everything. In war gaming it is called seizing initiative. Obama is always a few moves ahead of them and it is having a cumulative impact and causing an eerie dislocation of McCains campaign and TV World credibility.
Obama has established that core foreign policy 'experience' is trumped by a consensus building readiness to actually listen to the world and our planetary companions are finding it to be a wonderful contrast from this long dark night of flailing exceptionalism, bullying and lying. Who'd a thunk it? And he kept his paws off Ms Merkels shoulders. Hell, Sarkozy is enthused.
McCain and his TV world sycophants increasingly resemble jacklit deer. Remember, it's ALL ABOUT THE MONEY. The looting class doesn't give a rats ass about foreign policy nuances or any of that stuff. They had their very own hand picked crew of looting facilitators running the shop into the ground for nearly 8 years and they dread losing the capacity to steal from the rest of us and dodge taxes.
The deranged financial contraption they have built since Reagan will be dismantled soon because its impact is getting close to catastrophic.
Our way of life is not negotiable. Dick Cheney
http://tinyurl.com/5op8ko
Sure, McCain sponsored the resolution, but you neglect to mention the cosponsors, Biden in particular, and the fact it passed from the Senate to the House with unanimous consent.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:SC00004:@@@X
"The corporate media is stuck rolling it with him because they like their tax breaks for looting from the rest of us. It’s all about the tax breaks."
Yeah--think about the disgusting Charlie Gibson with his misleading and false statements on tax breaks & taxation at that degraded April 2008 debate with Senators Obama and Clinton in Phila,PA...The guy was virtually spitting RNC crap tax talking points at Barak
“The majority of Europe’s democracies have spoken, and their message could not be clearer: France and Germany do not speak for Europe…most European governments behave like allies that are willing to meet their responsibilities to uphold international peace..."
Since when is war, international peace?
What McCain is really upset about is that France would not appease our government.
ysbaddaden @ 25:
Mmmmm....Bardot!
McCain can mock the French, Germans and others for refusing to back the U.S. invasion of Iraq all he wants. However, they along with the rest of us saw this one coming well before Bush's war even started:
Ex-insurgents Want More Money, or Else
"The Iraqi officer leading a U.S.-financed anti-jihadist group is in no mood for small talk -- either the military gives him more money or he will pack his bags and rejoin the ranks of al-Qaeda.
"I'll go back to al-Qaeda if you stop backing the Sahwa (Awakening) groups," Col. Satar tells U.S. Lt. Matthew McKernon, as he tries to secure more funding for his men to help battle the anti-U.S. insurgents."
http://www.military.com/news/article/exinsurgents-want-more-money-or-els...
liberAL @ 8:
You and I think so much alike. I could have written your comments today almost word for word. Everything about McCain repulses me. Looks, sound, and especially his stupid smile when he is talking about something that is not pleasant nor does it call for smiles. He seems to me to be now trying to play the victim so people will feel sorry for him. Damn, I sure hope that doesn't work.
My husband and I were talking this morning about the upcoming debates. Having the two men on the stage together with such amazing physical contrasts is going to be shocking to a lot of people. But McCain won't be able to consult with his keepers, Graham and Lieberman, before he answers the questions and they won't be there to correct his mistakes. He can't call for a timeout to go over and ask them what they think.
"Ex-insurgents Want More Money, or Else"...
Failing avoiding invading initially ---We should have paid everyone off from the initial entry into Iraq onwards--Thats how stuff gets done in that part of the world....Thats how we get the Talibs out of Kabul as well...
Instead we disbanded the Iraqi army--left weapons & ammo lying around to be picked up and provided plenty of reasons for the ex-Baath Sunni hardcorps to oppose us....the perfect mix to quickly ramp up an insurgency....
And where was McCain when all this was going on in 2003 ??---saying everything was going great while GI Joe and GI Jane were busy being ambushed and blown up on the roads of Iraq by the newly minted insurgents....
Just the thought of four years with McCain as president makes me want to cry. Even the fact that he's actually in the running, worries me about the people here in the US. How could any intelligent person even consider voting for him? After watching Obama on MtP this morning, and listening to his intelligent answers to Tom's rather inane questions, how could there be any doubt who we need in the white house next year?
I have problems thinking of either mcgummy or Obama for the next four years. There both so stultifying.
Obama better than gramps and prepared speeches, but he comes across somnolently in interviews.
It was such a pleasure to listen to and watch Senator Obama this morning on Meet the Press. He speaks intelligibly, understands the issues and what is at stake for this country going forward. And I thought he handled the right wing slant to the interview with class and grace. To have a man like that lead our country will be the most wonderful thing that has happened in many, many years.
ysbaddaden @ 37:
That's why he doesn't do Town Halls, ysby. Great speaker in front of a teleprompter, though.
It's what's made folks like Jesse Jackson and Tony Robbins rich and famous. None of them tells us anything you couldn't find written or spoken from a hundred other sources. And like Obama, both those guys are as boring as Velveeta cheese when they sit down for interviews too.
ysbaddaden @ 37:
Would you stay awake if Barack did a song and dance before he answered any questions. Do you think the inanity of the questions might have some effect on the way Barack answers questions. Remember about half the message is delivered non-verbally when someone speaks.
Should McCain ever have the misfortune to be president, he will have a herculean task of blowing and fellating foreigners who have money to bail us out. A lot of those are Europeans, and I would dearly love to see their faces when we go begging.
Heaven forbid anyone speak ill of the French. They deserve so much better from us, given all that they've done.
In Germany I've seen overwhelming majority support for Schröder's anti-war stance since he first made it, continuing up through the Merkel government. Germans are not really as stubborn as one may think, but they do love pointing out where things can go wrong and being able to say "I told you so." when proven right. Since this is clearly the case with respect to Iraq: Respekt!
40 Saint Augustine
I would agree about the inanity of some of the questions.
Your "song and dance" reference is dicey both insulting to Obama and myself. I can handle a certain level of tedium, seeing that I've taken so many legal classes.
I'm not old enough to remember Kennedy, I was two or three when he was assasinated. But he was the last senator to be elected president. This campaign proves why. There's seems to be a "respectul" tone of voice even when senators are addressing someone they clearly don't respect. John Kerry and Hillary Clinton had the same problem. This is a style of speech not necessarily natural to themselves, and was an ill-fit. Hillary had this school-marm style that made me climb the walls as treating every audience questioner as a chance to build up the confidence of a dim-witted five year old. "Now that's a very interesting/clever etc. question..." mccain has his constant "my friends..." refrain. Obama tends to couch his references in inactive verb forms and not active (like Kerry) and tends to lower and lower the pitch of his speech. However, he doesn't hem and haw which is a plus.
Oh and dennis, that was very ironic of you to talk about teleprompters, since it's obvious in the direction of his eyes, that boosh is constantly reading telepromptors, and there was that mysterious bulge in the back of his suit-coat during 2000. And mccain seems to insult everyone in sight with tactless remarks and observations whenever he goes off script.
That wonderful institution termed the American electorate voted in Bush twice.Do you really think that they have had a collective epiphany? When you see the pruned faced "veterans" with their pathetic legionnaire c*ntcaps and their watermelon boobed better halves working their way to a collective orgasm before that died up caricature of a statesman one trembles.
Korean Veteran
what do you expect from an idiot who caused one of the navies biggest disasters
it's funny how they were lying so much bullshit. The support for US invasion in Iraq was the exception amongst most democracies in Europe or the world and even other regimes. The only government supporting them where those of shoddy mostly corrupt extreme-right governments (the only leftist government, = social democrats, being the UK). And even then when democratic government where supporting the USA it was in clear violation of the will of their constituent .
Remember Aznar in Spain ,where before even the Madrid bombings , the opposition to the support of the USA was around 90% of the population. The fact that Aznar played the blame-propaganda of the eternal evil eternal ultimate enemy like most fascist regimes (for Hitler's reich everything was the fault of the Jews, for Stalin it was the capitalists, for USA it was the Muslim terrorrists, and for Aznar it was ETA).
For many people in Spain that was seen as a turning point (Aznar loosing because of the lie-propaganda after the bombings) in Spain history. For the first time people were really aware that the dirty tricks of the time of Franco's fascist regime didn't work anymore. It's not because the government lied like shit and pressured every journalists (foreign and spanish) to tell there talking points, that they could get away with it. Those days were over. (unlike another country I know where a similar leader was reelected without a prob).
Just remember that before the war on every site doing market research the numbers were very clear. Except for Kenya, opposition for the aggression war in Iraq was around 90% in the public opinion. Being in Asia, Europe or Africa, democracies or regimes. The only country were the population was somewhat in favour was Kenya if I remember well. In every other country we saw the UN inspectors and various experts come on tv and tell all the proofs and reasons the WH gave were bogus. For most of the world it was obvious the only true reason was oil.
Now most of the countries bullied into the coalition have left it, showing how vast the support there was.
Yet although the whole world condemned those acts, in USA they only ever spoke of the French, trying to give the impression to modal mericans that most of the world was with them. And only a few grumpy and weak countries were against them, just because they were cowards (not because Dubya was selling shit, God forbids to think that).
In Belgium a funny poll found out that the only elected officials having a positive attitude towards USA under Dubbyas reign where the Flemish extreme-right: "Vlaams Belang" and "NVA". You know the ones who descend from old condemned nazi collaborators. The ones who see traditional role for the family : man at work , woman in the house. The one who defends the true people and who protects them against the violent muslims and negros. The ones who still try to deny the holocaust. etc,etc...
Great allies I might add.
O and I forgot, the catholic conservative wing of Vlaams Belang hates the gay. ^^
Ironic how the repugs mock France and Germany for their pacifist natures, when France had much of the world terrorized throughout the 19th century and the Germans for the first half of the 20th.
And now they have to tell us goodguys in the USA that wars are a bad idea.
joe @ 46:
best quote of the thread
We might not even be the United States of America if it wasn't for the French. There has been times in the past that we and the French have had some tough times. But they helped us (as did Spain and the Dutch) during our revolution against England, help that was disparately needed.
Oh I think think the media did a fine job of undermining Senator Obamas trip. Each time they were burdened with speaking about it, they made sure they pasted the cheap shots of what they thought about him, right below his real message.
As the months roll by to the point that we will finely be riding ourselves of this right wing trash, our media mongols are getting more and more terrified of how many of them will survive in a liberal community, that will not be tolerant of the trash they spew.
Same thing as the Oregon rally for Obama. A rock band opened first, and the media "forgot" to mention that. They "forgot" to mention it this time, too.
"I know the area. It's just like our summer home in the hills of Famington, New Mexico. It's dry and hilly just like Afganistan. Or is it just like our late summer home in Aspen? There are hills there, just like in Afganistan. Or maybe our home in DC - it's hot there, just like Afganistan. No, I know, it's like the Hilton in Hanoi - it's small but cozy." /sarcasm.
Richard @ 53:
In Portland the opening band was the Decemberists. Do you honestly believe that more people went to the waterfront to hear the Decemberists - who most of them probably hadn't heard of (no offense meant to the Decemberists, who are a fine band) - than to hear Barack Obama?
February 2003. Yes, I remember it well. Sure was surprised to see the pictures in Powell's little slide show. Vincent Bugliosi says Colin's only crime is being weak. Shame on the panzy ass general.
McSame has a hard time finding something to believe in except that surge that he single handedly pulled off.
Login or Register to post comments.