"The GOPs Russia Hawks Are Not Your Friends, Democrats" - Slate

[NRaleighLiberal]

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/12/john_mccain_and_lindsey_graham_are_not_your_friends_democrats.html

Sure, John McCain and Lindsey Graham talk tough about Trump, but there’s good reason not to trust them.

By Jim Newell

"The Democratic Party is on the hunt for Russkies. It’s a sensible reflex after an election in which Russia, according to the intelligence community, hacked and leaked Democratic emails to improve Trump’s electoral chances. It deserves an investigation and a diplomatic response. What we do not need, though, is Democrats running into the flexed arms of Sens. Lindsey Graham and John McCain.

Democrats, these are not your foreign policy friends.

Give them points for consistency: Regardless of who’s president, Graham and McCain are the two most vocal hawks in the U.S. Senate. When their hawkishness was targeted at President Obama, Democrats laughed them off as unreconstructed Cold Warriors who couldn’t get with the times. Graham and McCain were deeply critical of Obama’s inability to expel Russia from Crimea and his hesitancy to arm Ukraine against pro-Russian rebels in the east. The U.S. directly escalating a tense regional conflict would have been a major risk for the people living there, and it’s unclear what such a move would have done to change the situation except further inflame it. Graham recognized in 2015 that arming Ukraine may not have changed the regional calculus, but did say that arming Ukraine would have made him “feel better.” Just about every option in Syria is terrible, but both McCain and Graham brush aside any risk that further escalation there—a no-fly zone, say, or ground troops—might backfire, or do more harm than it prevents.

Democrats seemed at one point to recognize that this devil-may-care aggression toward Russia was hyperbolic, but electoral politics has intervened. If Russia as a state actor is, indeed, responsible for the ingenious bit of spycraft whereby someone sent John Podesta phishing emails that he clicked on, then that requires a commensurate response from the U.S. government. What it doesn’t require is for Democrats to look to John McCain and Lindsey Graham as their buddies, a couple of fellow patriots who will put aside partisan considerations to serve the ideal of free and fair elections. They’re not doing this for you, Democrats. They’re doing it because they’ve long harbored a desire for a more aggressive posture toward Russia, and the Democrats, in their disillusionment over Hillary Clinton’s loss, are now the most useful idiots in the room."

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[Jean-Jacques Roussea]

1. What a stupid article

I'd rather embrace Graham and McCain's foreign policy then become a puppet state. GOD us liberals are so fucking cynical. I'd give Graham a blowjob if it stopped Trump. Whatever happened to setting aside differences to fight a common enemy? This unilateral distrust is toxic and we need to be able to discern those who're pushing an agenda for nefarious purposes and those who're just wearing their beliefs on their sleeves.

[pangaia]

2. I wouldn't trust those two shits for a NY minute..

[CentralMass]

3. Wait a minute. Putin has invaded Crimea and the Ukraine and he

has an uprecidented amount of military activity around the borders and air space around the Baltic States,, members of NATO. The NATO treaty states that to "Attack one if us is to attack all of us." Putins action are a prelude to war.

Even if McCain and Graham are only interested in that one issue, they are right.

Letting Trump and his cronies enable Putin to do what he pleases so that they can go on an oil & money feeding frenzy is not an option.

[demon in basement]

4. in these Orwellian times

I'll take allies wherever I can find them, because I am WAY too old to start Научиться говорить Российской!!!