McCain's Neocons

For my money, it is McCain's political advisers that are the deal breakers. Among the many reasons why we might not want McCain as president, this is very high on the list. For me, it is the highest point on the list. McCain has chosen to follow in the footsteps of George Bush by surrounding himself with neoconservatives.

If you think that the GW Bush slash and burn, shock and awe foreign policy is a good thing then you will love McCain's foreign policy. It would shape up to be more of the same.

Contrary to the notion that the neocons are in disarray, they are right in the center of the Presidential campaign.

McCain's Neocon Advisers

Randy Scheunemann, McCain's chief foreign policy spokesman, in 2002 founded the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, which agitated for the US invasion that was launched in 2003.

Scheunemann and Robert Kagan, another McCain advisor, head the neoconservative Project for a New American Century, which takes a hawkish line on foreign policy issues.

More information on Randy Scheunemann:

A well-connected lobbyist and political insider with strong ties to the neoconservative political faction, Randy Scheunemann has been involved in a number of advocacy campaigns aimed at pushing an aggressive U.S. foreign policy agenda in recent years, helping found the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq (CLI), an advocacy outfit that emerged in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to push for war in Iraq. Along with other like-minded groups, including the now mostly defunct Project for the New American Century (for which Scheunemann served as a director), CLI played a key role in forging coalitions of political figures behind a neoconservative-inspired Middle East agenda that had at its core toppling Saddam Hussein. CLI members included several prominent congressional figures, including Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

A long-standing associate of McCain, Scheunemann serves as an adviser to McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, helping bolster the senator's arguments for continuing the war in Iraq. Criticizing various Democratic-supported ideas aimed at reducing U.S. troop levels in Iraq, Scheunemann said in April 2007: "It's ludicrous. Because the idea that we will be able to better prevent sectarian violence and fight al-Qaida better from Kuwait than how we are doing it now is laughable" (quoted in "McCain's Bulldog," New York Observer blog, April 11, 2007).

It should be as clear as a bell, a McCain Presidency will include more Iraq and expanding the war into Iran and possibly (probably) into other countries as well.

The Project for a New American Century is the source of the axis of evil terminology and policy, the unilateral war machine, the dissociation from the U.N., the private security force AKA mercenary ascendancy, and much more.