John McCain:

In the 21st century, nations don’t invade other nations.

Video(quote at :26):

Not only is it overly simplistic to characterize the situation as simply the Russians invading Georgia, but there is that whole problem of US policy in Iraq and Afghanistan. Isn’t it an inherent element of McCain’s basic foreign policy philosophy that nations sometimes have to invade other nations? (It certainly is a key result of the Bush Doctrine). Is he saying that the US should now eschew the notion of direct military force abroad in the War on Terror? Does he believe that the US is exempt from this rule?

Perhaps there is more to the quote that the clip provides (I cannot find a full transcript), but this strikes me as (at best) an awfully odd thing to say and would appear to utterly contradict his views on Iraq.

h/t: Think Progress » McCain: ‘

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5 Responses to “Odd Quote of the Day”

1. Pros and Cons » Simplistic Says:
   August 14th, 2008 at 9:41 am

   [...] Steven Taylor over at Poliblog commented on a video quote of McCain stating that in the 21st century, nations don’t invade other nations. Steven allows as how there may be more to the statement than what’s in the clip, so I’ll allow for that. However, he takes McCain to task for his statement being at odds with his Iraq policy. Steven’s questions: Not only is it overly simplistic to characterize the situation as simply the Russians invading Georgia, but there is that whole problem of US policy in Iraq and Afghanistan. Isn’t it an inherent element of McCain’s basic foreign policy philosophy that nations sometimes have to invade other nations? (It certainly is a key result of the Bush Doctrine). Is he saying that the US should now eschew the notion of direct military force abroad in the War on Terror? Does he believe that the US is exempt from this rule? [...]

2. PoliBlog (TM): A Rough Draft of my Thoughts » More on Nations not Invading Nations (or not not, as the case may be…) Says:
   August 14th, 2008 at 11:56 am

   [...] G. at Pros and Cons takes issue with my characterization of McCain’s statement (noted yesterday) that “In the 21st century, nations don’t [...]

3. Harry Says:
   August 15th, 2008 at 1:18 am

   Thanks for the informative post.

4. Criticizing the Mote in McCain’s Eye While Mostly Ignoring the Beam in Obama’s | The Sundries Shack Says:
   August 15th, 2008 at 3:25 pm

   [...] McCain has had an exceptional week. Aside from his statement earlier in the week that “In the 21st century, nations don’t invade other nations”, McCain has [...]

5. PoliBlog (TM): A Rough Draft of my Thoughts » Some History of Georgian Territory (Esp. vis-à-vis South Ossetia) Says:
   August 17th, 2008 at 2:46 pm

   [...] of this is why I said the other day (commenting on something Senator McCain had said) that it is “overly simplistic to [...]