I suppose we should not be surprised that nothing but old ideas are coming from this antiquated campaign. The newest in the long list of stupid ideas from the McCain camp is his idea for a "League of Democracies." Basically the GOP attempt to undermine and circumvent the United Nations. Problem is they are also trying to encourage our candidates to sign on to this dumb as wood idea.
Amid the continuing brouhaha about issues of race and gender in the US presidential campaign, we may be in danger of losing sight of the most important question that has arisen in the candidates' skirmishing over international affairs. That relates to John McCain's advocacy of the establishment of a "league of democracies", and the mounting clamour for Barack Obama to espouse the same idea as his own.Be sure to write your democratic candidate of choice and tell them what you think of this plan! And some well placed letters to the editor wouldn't hurt either.
McCain says he'd establish the league in his first year in office: a close-knit grouping of like-minded nations that could respond to humanitarian crises and compensate for the UN security council's tendency to be hamstrung by the likes of Russia and China when it needs to take decisive action against the world's evil-doers. Neocon guru Robert Kagan, an avid proponent, says: "The world's democracies could make common cause to act in humanitarian crises when the UN security council cannot reach unanimity." The league's strength would be that it "would not be limited to Europeans and Americans but would include the world's other great democracies, such as India, Brazil, Japan and Australia, and would [therefore] have even greater legitimacy"- Shashi Tharoor The Guardian, Tuesday May 27 2008
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