I've seen a number of reports that Iraqi PM Maliki is insisting that all foreign troops, which these days are virtually all American troops, leave Iraq by 2011. I saw another report that Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, evidently still in a bad mood after the latest US air action that left 90 civilians (read: mostly women and children) dead, wants to get in on that deal. Given the growing pressure from the socalled legitimate governments of the nations Bush invaded and occupied, John McCain may be hard pressed to fulfill his campaign promise of keeping those wars going another hundred years. At least he has Georgia, Russia, and WWIII to fall back on.

Given Bush's record even before 9/11, few people remember that in the 2000 Republican primaries it was McCain who was the neocon darling, while Bush was calling for a "more modest" foreign policy with fewer or none of those "nation building" adventures Clinton kept getting into. Of course, now we can go back and parse Bush's pre-election statements more carefully, where we find occasional hints of later policy. We can track how McCain's neocon legions infiltrated the Bush administration, settling into strategic cells waiting for opportunities to offer heavy stick solutions to any and all problems that may arise -- or would inevitably arise: if war and the threat of force is your only tool for solving conflicts, no effort need be made to defuse conflicts short of war.

Some people remember how in 1964 Johnson had painted Goldwater as a dangerous crackpot warmonger -- a view that wasn't falsified but at least took on an ironic hue as Johnson spent his presidency ever more deeply mired in Vietnam. I suppose Democrats have some reluctance to do the same to McCain, but the latter's track record is even worse than Goldwater's.

Andrew Sullivan: America Against the World. I don't normally read Sullivan, but TPM quoted this, referring back to a WSJ op-ed by Lieberman and Graham. This resonated a bit more because another conservative, "Crunchy Con" Rod Dreher, had an op-ed in the Wichita Eagle this morning expressing horror at McCain's "We are all Georgians" bluster. (See below.) Sullivan: "In my view, the fear card has only one truly compelling target this election: McCain."

Rod Dreher: Sorry, We Are Not All Georgians. Quotes McCain, then scratches his head:

We are? Spare me. You couldn't find one American in a thousand who could locate Georgia on a map, but the Republican hothead who would be president is ready to bind America's sacred honor to the place. And more than our sacred honor, our military might, too.

McCain, a tempestuous Russophobe to the marrow, demanded that the United States accelerate efforts to bring Georgia into NATO, thus extending a trip wire for war with Russia to Moscow's southern border. Because, you know, having conquered Iraq and Afghanistan while barely breaking a sweat, we're rested and ready to let an adventurous Caucasus nation led by a nut drag us into World War III.

Then he takes a swing at Obama:

One would have hoped Barack Obama would meet Russia's aggression with a more balanced, realistic response. Instead, Obama worked his way into McCain's shadow, joining the call for Georgia's NATO membership to go forward. Thus did Obama prove himself to be about as useful as the congressional Democrats who, having come to power in 2006 promising to bring the unpopular Iraq war to a close, went on to give President Bush all the money he asked for to fight it.

What is it with the Democrats? Are they so afraid of being baited by the Republicans as cowards that they sign on to any foolish policy proposed by GOP jingoes?

Well, of course they are. Personally, I think Obama and Biden could have drawn a line against McCain over Georgia which would have gone far toward painting McCain as the war psycho he is, but they ducked the issue instead. Dreher goes on to quote Bacevich about no differences hetween the party standard bearers, which is comforting for the few war-weary conservatives out there. I took a look through Dreher's blog, and didn't find anything of value there. In fact, I had to dig further to convince myself that there aren't two Rod Drehers.

Glenn Greenwald: Warnings to Russia from Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham. Another reaction to the Lieberman-Graham war council op-ed, with more background. One thing worth noting is that the people who keep getting identified as McCain's foreign policy team are way outside even the Republican mainstream. Speaking of which:

ThinkProgress: John McCain's War Cabinet. This probably isn't a complete listing, but it's quite a rogues gallery. Wonder where Michael Ledeen is.