McCain favors a 'League of Democracies'

[sabra]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON - Republican presidential candidate John McCain envisions a "League of Democracies" as part of a more cooperative foreign policy with U.S. allies.

The Arizona senator will call for such an organization to be "the core of an international order of peace based on freedom" in a speech Tuesday at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.

"We Americans must be willing to listen to the views and respect the collective will of our democratic allies," McCain says, according to excerpts his campaign provided. "Our great power does not mean we can do whatever we want whenever we want, nor should we assume we have all the wisdom, knowledge and resources necessary to succeed."

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18412440/

[wakeme2008]

1. League of Nations,,, United Nations and now League of Democracies

What is McCain smoking...

[TwilightGardener]

2. Then the League can bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran in harmony.

[Deep13]

3. I favor a United Federation of Planets like in Star Trek.

Too bad we are restricted to what is actually possible.

[rucky]

17. How about the Justice League

are superheroes democratically elected?

[Deep13]

19. Wonder Woman 2008

Is the country ready for a bullet-repelling woman for president? At least she will know if Kim Jung Il is lying about his nuclear program.

[mahina]

25. He'd be great in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Or the Justice League. Whichever.

I want to see him in his superhero spandex suit though.

On the substance of his point, it will be earthshaking for some of our friends on the right. We don't have the right to do whatever we want? Shocking!

[saltpoint]

4. McCain is welcome to encourage whatever world vision he pleases from

his retirement hammock in Arizona.

I don't believe this man will be our next president.

[TwilightGardener]

5. "Based on Freedom" = more neocon bullshit.

[mikeytherat]

6. We need a Democratic Order Of Planets!

We need a doop, oh yes, we do:



mikey_the_rat

[FatDave]

14. Aw, yeah... (nt)

[TwilightGardener]

7. Another point (cause I'm full of them today!)--

why do we need a league with our democratic allies? 'Cause, you know, they are ALREADY our allies. Hell, they followed us into Iraq, except for France and Germany--we already have "the coalition of the willing". What purpose could this possibly serve in terms of policy, that NATO and the UN and G-7 and other organizations don't already fill? This thread has me all fired up for some reason.

[AlCzervik]

8. Will it have a gift shop?

[TwilightGardener]

9. I'm getting me a "League of Democracies" T-Shirt and a snow-globe.

[AlCzervik]

10. awesome! I hope the super friends can sign it for you.

[TwilightGardener]

12. I will have to make a field trip to McCain's "Hall of Justice".

[ashling]

11. McCain favors a 'Sword of Damocles'

Bomb, Bomb, Bomb;bomb, Bomb ......

[Journeyman]

13. "Atlantic Union Now" by Clarence Streit. . . first proposed in 1948. . .

considerably different from McCain's blather (Streit was intelligent, for one, and deeply grounded in the teachings of that most radical of revolutionaries, Thomas Jefferson), Atlantic Union Now and its companion piece, Freedom's Frontier, postulated a world wherein the western democracies united to form a more perfect union. "Leagues" and "Federations" and the like were shown to be inadequate to the challenge; only union would preserve both good government and individual rights.

But then, that's more than one can expect from an aging, incresingly irrelevant relic like John McCain.

[MGKrebs]

15. ...which will spawn a League of Non-Democracies,

further eroding international relationships.

[ClintonTyree]

16. Would he include Saudi Arabia.....

and other "friendly" oil producing nations even though their records on human rights and democracy are atrocious? :shrug:

I bet he would. We have to keep the oil lines of communication open, you know? :eyes:

[jmondine]

18. This sounds familiar

Ah, yes. I believe it was called the Coalition of the Willing.

[lapfog_1]

20. Yeah, well, that's great. Now how do we get to join?

Wouldn't we have to be some sort of democracy first?

Just sayin.

[Deep13]

21. Send in four breakfast cereal box-tops...

...and McCain will send you a Democracy League (tm) decoder ring.

[superconnected]

31. Iran can join. They are a democracy.

And they voted in Amandjed (sp)

[Prophet 451]

22. Are there no lengths neocons won't go to...

...in order to disparage the UN? I read this as "let's have an exclusive club for us and our allies". They could call it the No Lefties Club or the No Nuke Left Behind Club or even the No Homers Club (anyone else remember that episode?).

There's a reason the UN doesn't only let democracies in. Some nations are unwilling or unable to practice democracy and even less are able/willing to practice the (throughly rotten) American version of same. Quite a few of those countries have lots of resources, at least one of them has nukes and they're unlikely to take kindly to some Billionaire Nations Club lording it over the rest of them.

[Imperialism Inc.]

23. Somehow I don't trust McCain to do something like this.

On the other hand I have often thought one peaceful way to promote democracy might be to develop an international organization where having a voice means your people have to have a voice in their government as well.

[MessiahRp]

24. So wait...

Would this mean abandoning the UN in anyway? Because wouldn't the entire point of the UN be marginalized if a different group fo friends were meeting without the UN?

Also it seems like this follows the Bush Policy of only speaking to those we already like and agree with rather than including the entire world on major policy discussion.

Rp

[daleo]

26. The League of Extraordinary Maniacs

Bush and McCain can both be charter members.

[endarkenment]

27. That bloated chipmunk needs bed rest and a drool cup. nt.

[Odin2005]

28. A broken clock is still right twice a day...

[endarkenment]

29. I have a digital clock that is busted and is never right.

it claimes that it is ::::::.

[David Zephyr]

30. Well, that would include Egypt, Iran, Syria and Palestine, wouldn't it?

All democracies.