Speaking at the 2017 Security conference in Munich, 80-year-old Sen. John McCain (R-Az.) denounced President Donald Trump, telling European allies that Trump’s foreign policy is in “disarray.” Citing the Feb. 14 resignation of National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn for failing to inform Vice President Mike Pence about his Dec. 28 conversations with Russian U.S. Amb. Sergey Vislyak related to sanctions, McCain did his best to undermine U.S. foreign policy. Needing reassurance that U.S. foreign policy can be counted on to confront aggression in Europe, McCain chose to paint Trump as inexperienced, incompetent and disorganized. “I think that the Flynn issue obviously is something that shows that in many respects this administration is in disarray and they’ve got a lot of work to do,” McCain told his European counterparts, raising more anxiety for European security chiefs.
McCain did the exact same thing many times over during former President Barack Obama’s eight years in office. While agreeing with Obama on most foreign policy issues, McCain leveled similar criticism over Obama’s two terms. McCain’s criticism of Trump is eerily similar to Obama, essentially saying that if he were commander-in-chief he’d do things differently. Yet McCain agreed wholeheartedly with Obama’s support of the six-year-old Saudi proxy war in Syria, causing some 300,000 deaths, 12 million displaced persons, creating the worst humanitarian crisis since WWII. Obama proxy war, with McCain’s blessing, only differed in the degree of aggression. McCain urged Obama Oct. 12, 2016 to set up a dangerous no-fly zone, insisting that if Syria or Russia violated the zone, he’d shoot down their warplanes. McCain’s ideas were so dangerous European Union officials took notice.
When Democratic nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton agreed with McCain on the no-fly zone, it prompted former German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeir to warn the world of possible WWIII. While there’s nothing new about McCain spouting off, there’s something very out-of-line of the Senate Armed Services Chairman undermining the commander-in-chief. Losing to Obama in 2008, McCain continued to act like commander-in-chief, often second-guessing Obama’s decisions and visiting Syrian opposition groups. McCain’s backing of the Free Syrian Army, now morphed into Syrian Democratic Forces, turned over tons of U.S. military hardware to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] when the Iraqi Army collapsed in 2013. After Obama withdrew U.S. forces Dec. 15, 2011, it didn’t take long for ISIS to overrun Iraq and Syria in 2014.
McCain’s disdain for Obama’s foreign policy now transfers to Trump, whose criticism of McCain in 2015 for spending the Vietnam War as a prisoner of war fuels his vendetta. Whatever was said in the heat of a presidential campaign shouldn’t interfere with a new president’s foreign policy. McCain lost his chance in 2008 to be commander-in-chief. He became Obama’s biggest foreign policy critic on Capitol Hill, publicly denouncing Obama’s foreign policy for the past eight years. With Trump in office for four weeks, McCain has resumed his critic’s role, this time crossing the line, exposing his dirty laundry in Munich. McCain knows that Flynn, as Trump stated Feb. 16 at a 77-minute press conference, did nothing wrong talking to Amb. Vislyak Dec. 28 about Obama’s expulsions and new sanctions for alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential race.
Trump fired Flynn for not telling Vice President Mike Pence the full conversation of what he and Vislyak talked about Dec. 28, the day Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats. “The president, I think, makes statements (and) on other occasions contradicts himself. So we’ve learned to watch what the president does,” McCain told European Defense ministers, giving the worst possible impression. No elected official should be disparaging the president on foreign trips, no matter how much they disagree. In case McCain hasn’t checked, Trump’s his commander-in-chief. McCain’s conduct goes beyond insubordination, bordering on treason. Cleaning up McCain’s mess, Voce President Pence now has to help European allies get beyond McCain’s vendetta against Trump. Since Trump promised to reset U.S.-Russian relations, McCain has only thrown roadblocks in his way.
Whatever McCain’s personal antipathy toward Trump, he shouldn’t undermine U.S. foreign policy or, more importantly, Trump’s job as commander-in-chief. McCain spent eight years ripping Obama’s foreign policy after his bitter defeat in 2008. No one forced him to pick former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. Holding grudges against Obama and now Trump, McCain can’t be allowed to undermine Trump’s foreign policy. Trump’s criticism of NATO during the campaign has been grossly distorted by McCain and fed to European allies. “President Trump came into office and has thrown his full support to NATO. He too espouses NATO’s need to adapt to today’s strategic situation for it to remain credible, capable and relevant,” said U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis, contradicting McCain’s remarks. Unless McCain can get on the same page, he should stop embarrassing the U.S.
