Eugene, Eugene, Eugene

Far be it from me that someone turning 87 means they may be too, ah, something or another, um, to comment cogently on current affairs, but if I were, I might wonder if Eugene McCarthy is an example thereof.

Last month, the former Minnesota senator and anti-war presidential candidate predicted that the United States wouldn’t attack Iraq. On Sunday, he shook his head.
“I’m not clear as to what a pre-emptive strike means,” McCarthy said. “I don’t think we should call it a war. It’s kind of a police action.”

Huh? Okay, so the guy made a large misjudgment about whether the war would occur. We don’t know why he thought it wouldn’t. But now that it is, it’s odd that he doesn’t seem to understand the nature of “a pre-emptive strike” (or does he mean that he doesn’t understand how it applies here?). It’s also odd that he’s going for the much less controversial label of “police action” (or “a kind” of one), rather than “war.”

He compared President Bush to the Romans, who, he said, attacked northern Africa because they needed something to do.
“Bush has found a cause,” said McCarthy, who turns 87 Saturday.

Nobody seems to remember that, back when he first took office, Bush seemed to have very little interest in international affairs. He (as well as his two predecessors) had made it clear that Iraq was a threat, but Bush was much more committed to a conservative domestic agenda than going out empire-building.

To now suggest that Bush has nothing better to do than invade Iraq seems to be a bit … odd.

McCarthy, renowned for speaking his mind and dishing out quips, blamed President Bush for using religion to wage his war. “This is a faith-based war,” McCarthy said. “The worst thing is faith-based religion.”

Bush seems to have gone to great lengths to avoid making religion a basis for this war, repeatedly saying that this is not an attack on Islam (by Christianity), but an attack on terror. While there may be some goofballs on the religious Right who have tied this all into some sort of millennial end-of-days thing, I don’t see anything in Bush’s rhetoric (beyond the standard ceremonial Deism) that makes me think he’s bought into that.

And what does “the worst thing is faith-based religion” mean?

Regarding terrorism, McCarthy said Americans should look no further than themselves. The United States terrorized black people for 200 years and, later, other countries with its nuclear capability.

Riiiiiiiight. Yeesh.

I mean, I know that McCarthy is the icon of the Viet Nam era Left, but somebody might keep him out of public view for a while. The guy’s babbling.