Why? Because there's no way I would ever vote for McCain. I actually find the prospect of that guy being President to be quite disturbing, seeing as he does not seem overly intelligent (he graduated very near the bottom of his military class), and also I dislike his foreign policy, which seems to be following that of Bush (largely because McCain supports attacking Iran). In addition to this, I have listened to Obama speaking, and whilst his economic policies may not be too sound, I think that at this time, it is far more important to have a President with a good foreign policy - i.e. one which prefers negotiating with countries such as Iran, rather than attacking them.
And just in case any rabid right-winger charges in here and screams "nnnaah you cannot reason with Arabs all they want to do is kill all Christians" (yes, I have heard that before), I am going to say that if you think that, you really need to actually visit the Middle East - I am in Bahrain now, and let me assure you that the previous comment is far from the truth.
<S>
Yossarian
I appreciate you taking the time to answer my question. But I do have a couple of points I would like to make.
1. Never assume that a persons GPA or standing in their graduating class is an indication of intelligence. I personally graduated at the bottom of my class yet was offered a full scholarship to the University of Maryland because I nearly aced the SATs. Why? School was boring for me. While everyone else was plodding along studying chapter 8 of their text book, I'd already devoured the entire book and understood the principles outlined.
2. The United States does negotiate with its enemies. What seems to have been conveniently forgotten is Saddam Hussein was given a whole ten years during which he repeatedly snubbed his nose at the rest of the world. Don't forget that he purposely ordered the attack of a smaller neighboring country (Kuwaitt), thereby threatening Saudi Arabia, where you currently reside. The U.S U.N and U.A.E gave him every opportunity to comply with international weapons inspectors, but he would only allow them access when he was threatened with a military response. Also. don't ever forget that during the first Gulf War he purposely ordered the launch of SCUD missiles at targets in Israel and Saudi Arabia in an effort to swing Arab opinion in his favor.
3. As for Iran, who are currently test firing mid range missiles, I give you this quote from Iranian President Ahmadinejad
Ahmadinejad sparked widespread international condemnation in October when he called for Israel to be "wiped off the map."Heres' a link to the story.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/12/14/iran.israel/How are you supposed to negotiate with someone like this?
Let's say in the not too distant future that Iran succeeds in securing launch capable WMD's and their president threatens to launch a strike against Isreal. Who would you want as CIC? Obama? McCain?
Personally I'd prefer McCain mostly because he's already made that decision, long ago, in 1967. As a fighter/bomber pilot in Vietnam he had the final say as to who would die when he consciously chose to release his bombs over a target.
Has Obama done anything remotely like this?
4. I've had the displeasure to be involved in the initial interview of several terrorists who were detained by my unit while I was stationed in Germany in the mid seventies. I was assigned to my units G2 at the time. They attempted to gain access to the base ammo dump and were snagged by a couple of M-16 toting guards. Their whole demeanor was disturbing. They had already chosen to die, there was nothing you could do to them, nothing you could threaten them with, to get them to cooperate in a civil manner. It is not possible to negotiate with a person who has chosen that path. Negotiation involves trading. I'll give you this if you give me that. In most cases the trade involves a life, usually the terrorists life as they normally hold the hostages during a standoff. If they're prepared to to die, the only thing you can realistically do is speed them on their way.
Honestly I've never come across the comment that all Arabs want to kill Christians! Now if the comment was "All Arab terrorists want to kill Christians" Yes, I've seen that.
Carrel, I've checked and McCain graduated 884 out of 889 from his class at Annapolis in 1958.
I don't mean to be harsh. I actually enjoy a good, intelligent discussion, on the issues, but the reasons you cite for your decision are emotional at best.
