Would John McCain Have Took The U.S. Into Iraq if He Won in 2000?
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  Would John McCain Have Took The U.S. Into Iraq if He Won in 2000?
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Author Topic: Would John McCain Have Took The U.S. Into Iraq if He Won in 2000?  (Read 8348 times)
Bo
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« on: March 17, 2010, 08:53:54 PM »

No.
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useful idiot
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« Reply #1 on: March 17, 2010, 08:58:40 PM »

Probably not...
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Bo
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« Reply #2 on: March 18, 2010, 01:49:42 AM »

Completely depends on who he had surrounding him...Dick Cheney as Secretary as Defense or somewhere in the administration is not entirely unlikely.  The difference is that a McCain led war would have looked, from the beginning, like the U.S. war effort in the Petraeus era.

Cheney was Sec of Def under Bush Sr., yet Bush Sr. didn't remove Saddam and Cheney actually defended Bush Sr.'s decision in 1994 (after his term was over).
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Magic 8-Ball
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« Reply #3 on: March 18, 2010, 01:56:11 AM »

I doubt it.
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WillK
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« Reply #4 on: March 18, 2010, 04:46:22 AM »

I can picture him singing "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb Iraq" just like he did about Iran.
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Kalwejt
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« Reply #5 on: March 18, 2010, 07:23:38 AM »

I don't see any of potential Presidents after 2001 other than Bush (McCain, Gore, Bradley) who'd invade Iraq.
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Bo
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« Reply #6 on: March 18, 2010, 05:02:41 PM »

I don't see any of potential Presidents after 2001 other than Bush (McCain, Gore, Bradley) who'd invade Iraq.

Jeb Bush?
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Kalwejt
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« Reply #7 on: March 18, 2010, 07:44:32 PM »

I don't see any of potential Presidents after 2001 other than Bush (McCain, Gore, Bradley) who'd invade Iraq.

Jeb Bush?

Sorry for an confusion, I mean any President who took office in 2001.

Jeb Bush is not an idiot, also.
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Bo
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« Reply #8 on: March 18, 2010, 08:02:16 PM »

I don't see any of potential Presidents after 2001 other than Bush (McCain, Gore, Bradley) who'd invade Iraq.

Jeb Bush?

Sorry for an confusion, I mean any President who took office in 2001.

Jeb Bush is not an idiot, also.

Jeb Bush would have likely been the GOP presidential nominee in 2000 if he won the Florida Governorship in 1994, and he thus could have become President in 2001. Bush Jr. didn't invade Iraq because he was an idiot--he did it to get reelected.
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milhouse24
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« Reply #9 on: March 18, 2010, 11:22:42 PM »

I think Gore would have beaten McCain easily.
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Bo
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« Reply #10 on: March 18, 2010, 11:54:56 PM »

I think Gore would have beaten McCain easily.

Why? McCain was perceived as more moderate than Bush Jr., was a "war hero", and didn't have a DUI story. I think McCain would have easily beat Gore.
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milhouse24
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« Reply #11 on: March 19, 2010, 07:52:08 PM »

I think Gore would have beaten McCain easily.

Why? McCain was perceived as more moderate than Bush Jr., was a "war hero", and didn't have a DUI story. I think McCain would have easily beat Gore.

McCain would have won NH, but Gore would have won Florida.  The Bush name probably swung a lot of people in Florida, otherwise I think they would have gone with Gore. 
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J. J.
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« Reply #12 on: March 20, 2010, 12:09:48 AM »

I think if the intelligence would have been the same, yes.
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Bo
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« Reply #13 on: March 20, 2010, 12:39:44 AM »

I think if the intelligence would have been the same, yes.

Don't you think McCain would have bombed Iraq first to see if he could get some response out of Saddam? I think that as a Vietnam War veteran, McCain would have been much more cautious with war than Bush Jr. was in RL. Keep in mind that Reagan just bombed Libya instead of invading in the 1980s when Libya sropnsored terrorism against Americans. That bombing accomplished the same result as an invasion of Libya would have, but with much less time and money spent and much fewer casualties. Besides, Bush Jr.'s goal in invading Iraq wasn't finding WMDs--it was regime change, as evidenced by his ultimatum to Saddam Hussein.
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shua
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« Reply #14 on: April 04, 2010, 02:11:33 AM »

I voted no, but it's hard to say. I think McCain would have been more aggressive about intelligence reform after 9/11, which would mean more likely not, and he would have focused on Afganistan and Iran.
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« Reply #15 on: April 04, 2010, 07:19:41 AM »

I think Gore would have beaten McCain easily.

Why? McCain was perceived as more moderate than Bush Jr., was a "war hero", and didn't have a DUI story. I think McCain would have easily beat Gore.

McCain would have won NH, but Gore would have won Florida.  The Bush name probably swung a lot of people in Florida, otherwise I think they would have gone with Gore. 

McCain in 2000 probably would have had a decent shot at winning back some of the blue firewall states the GOP hadn't won since 1988.

I agree.

I think McCain would have had a shot in Oregon, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania
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Bo
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« Reply #16 on: May 01, 2010, 01:59:53 PM »

I think Gore would have beaten McCain easily.

Why? McCain was perceived as more moderate than Bush Jr., was a "war hero", and didn't have a DUI story. I think McCain would have easily beat Gore.

McCain would have won NH, but Gore would have won Florida.  The Bush name probably swung a lot of people in Florida, otherwise I think they would have gone with Gore. 

McCain in 2000 probably would have had a decent shot at winning back some of the blue firewall states the GOP hadn't won since 1988.

I agree.

I think McCain would have had a shot in Oregon, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania

I agree about this.

On a diffferent note, do you think McCain would have took the U.S. into Iraq?
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President Mitt
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« Reply #17 on: May 03, 2010, 09:03:09 PM »

Yeah.
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The Mikado
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« Reply #18 on: May 05, 2010, 03:47:19 PM »

I think people are seriously misremembering McCain's character in 2000.  He had people like William Kristol and Dave Frum in his corner saying that George W. Bush was too dovish and McCain was the hawk that could better defend American interests.  McCain was absolutely surrounded by neo-conservatives.  I have little doubt that he'd have invaded Iraq whether 9/11 or not.

It's just that since he lost, people like to project their beefs with Bush onto McCain and turn him into the opposite.  McCain did have domestic disagreements with Bush in 2000, but on foreign policy he was, if anything, to the right of Bush.
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The Mikado
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« Reply #19 on: May 05, 2010, 03:54:31 PM »

McCain in his own words, February 2000:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0002/15/lkl.00.html

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Bo
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« Reply #20 on: May 05, 2010, 04:59:26 PM »


So basically, McCain said that he would be more active in aiding the opposition in rogue dictatorships in the hopes that they will overthrow those regimes in the future. Nowhere here did McCain say that he supports using U.S. troops to overthrow those dictatorial govts. Besides, a candidate often says one thing and does another--Bush Jr. said he opposed nation-building in 2000 yet proceeded to invade Iraq after he was elected. Thus everything McCain says here (or anywhere, for that matter) should be taken with a grain of salt and some skepticism.
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The Mikado
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« Reply #21 on: May 05, 2010, 05:21:55 PM »


So basically, McCain said that he would be more active in aiding the opposition in rogue dictatorships in the hopes that they will overthrow those regimes in the future. Nowhere here did McCain say that he supports using U.S. troops to overthrow those dictatorial govts. Besides, a candidate often says one thing and does another--Bush Jr. said he opposed nation-building in 2000 yet proceeded to invade Iraq after he was elected. Thus everything McCain says here (or anywhere, for that matter) should be taken with a grain of salt and some skepticism.

First of all, you're right that we have to take things with a grain of salt.  That said, that applies to any alternate history conclusion ever.  What I was arguing was that McCain was clearly as hostile to Iraq as Bush and was closely advised by neoconservatives.

PS: Rereading that transcript, I have to wonder what sort of domestic resistance movements McCain was considering supporting in North Korea.
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Bo
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« Reply #22 on: May 05, 2010, 05:47:34 PM »


So basically, McCain said that he would be more active in aiding the opposition in rogue dictatorships in the hopes that they will overthrow those regimes in the future. Nowhere here did McCain say that he supports using U.S. troops to overthrow those dictatorial govts. Besides, a candidate often says one thing and does another--Bush Jr. said he opposed nation-building in 2000 yet proceeded to invade Iraq after he was elected. Thus everything McCain says here (or anywhere, for that matter) should be taken with a grain of salt and some skepticism.

First of all, you're right that we have to take things with a grain of salt.  That said, that applies to any alternate history conclusion ever.  What I was arguing was that McCain was clearly as hostile to Iraq as Bush and was closely advised by neoconservatives.

PS: Rereading that transcript, I have to wonder what sort of domestic resistance movements McCain was considering supporting in North Korea.

In regards to North Korea, maybe McCain hoped to contract some generals there who might secretly dislike Kim Jong-Il and try to have them organize a coup there (similar to what Bush Jr. tried to do in Venezuela in 2002). Still, even though McCain was using hostile language against Iraq (in this interview), Bush Jr. said in one Republican primary debate in 2000 (I beleive) that if he was elected and Saddam would be perecived as a large threat, he would order U.S. forces to remove Saddam (or something along those lines). In 2000, McCain was never nearly that specific and threatening to Iraq as Bush Jr. was that year.
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Derek
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« Reply #23 on: May 13, 2010, 09:40:47 AM »

He wouldn't have had to. Saddam would've cooperated with him the same as he would have with Reagan.
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Bo
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« Reply #24 on: May 13, 2010, 04:40:03 PM »

He wouldn't have had to. Saddam would've cooperated with him the same as he would have with Reagan.

I agree about McCain not invading Iraq, but keep in mind that Saddam also cooperated with Bush Jr. (by allowing the U.N. inspectors to return to Iraq), yet Bush Jr. proceeded to invade Iraq anyway.
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