It Could Have Been Worse

When I first read about John McCain’s trip to Syria, I thought “What an idiot.”  Upon further reflection, I realize that my first impression was correct.

First of all, we armed the rebels in Afghanistan when  they were fighting against the Russians, and that did not work out very well.  In fact, none of America’s interventions have worked out very well recently, and by recently I mean since the mid 1950s or so.

John McCain – Crazy or Just Stupid?

Secondly, since Obama is the president, and not John McCain, direct U.S. intervention is unlikely.  So, it was a bit of a fool’s errand.  (There is the possibility that McCain was doing this at the behest of the White House.  If that’s the case, then he was just a fool on an errand and shame on Obama, but I doubt that that’s the case.)  Obama doesn’t like direct intervention.  That should be pretty clear by now.

Third, before embarking on any high-level mission, or any project in life actually, it’s a good idea to ask yourself two questions:  What’s the best possible result? and What’s the worst possible result?

In this case, McCain’s desired result, U.S. intervention in Syria, would probably have been a mistake of cataclysmic proportions, and it wasn’t likely to happen anyway.  The worst possible result of this (which didn’t happen) would have been for John McCain to have been captured, either by the friendly folks he was visiting, or the Syrian army.  Oh, sure, it was just across the Turkish border, a quick in and out, more symbolic (i.e. grandstanding) than anything else, but nothing is ever certain in a war zone, and John McCain has a long history of miscalculations in dangerous situations.

Even giving him the benefit of the doubt in the Forrestal incident, and not counting the incident where he knocked down the power lines in Spain, he still crashed 3 airplanes, and the last one landed him in a POW camp.

Was his little jaunt into Syria, in some warped way, trying to recreate his glory days?  It’s a question that needs to be asked.  Is John McCain merely stupid, or is he totally insane?