August 31, 2004

John McCain gave an eloquent speech Monday night, but it was filled with sophistry.

He said that Republicans agree with Democrats that "our alliances are as important to victory as are our armies."

That's a hard assertion to square with Donald Rumsfeld's infamous comment about "Old Europe." (By the way, Rumsfeld seems to have vanished from the convention speeches and videos.)

McCain then played demagogue, echoing the common sentiment that our allies are ingrates. "We've been a good friend to other countries in moments of shared perils, so we have good reason to expect their solidarity with us in this struggle," he said. But they were with us after September 11. The United States had near universal support and sympathy. Only when Bush obsessively pursued Saddam Hussein, who was not an imminent peril, did they break with Washington.

McCain also almost sneered at the effort to work with allies when he said, "We can't make victory on the battlefield harder to achieve so that our diplomacy is easier to conduct." This could be called the Rumsfeld Doctrine.

McCain then rose to defend the Iraq War. He minimized the problem of the vanishing weapons of mass destruction. "Whether or not Saddam possessed the terrible weapons he once had and used, freed from international pressure and the threat of military action, he would have acquired them again," McCain said.

That's quite a different case from the one that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney made when they took the nation to war. Bush said Saddam had "some of the most lethal weapons ever devised." Cheney said Saddam had "reconstituted nuclear weapons."

McCain cannot whisk those claims under the rug.

Plus, with U.N. weapons inspectors able to go anywhere in the country, and with U.S. spy planes covering every square inch of Iraqi territory, Saddam Hussein was hardly coming out of his box, as McCain claimed.

In a futile way, McCain urged civility during the upcoming campaign. "It should remain an argument among friends," he said.

No sooner was he off the stage than Rudy Giuliani dispensed with the pleasantries.