NP: Secret Machines, Ten Silver Drops

Okay, so I've come across the feeding frenzy over John McCain's appearance on Hardball. This is one of those things I can't stand about partisan politics, and while I understand fully that the left needs their vehicle for rallying the base the same way the right uses talk radio, that doesn't mean I have to like it.

The point being that Greenwald is making an assumption purely because it casts McCain in a bad light here. He quotes him saying we need 100,000 more troops, and that a draft won't be necessary, and even goes so far as to disingenuously connect those dots by saying "there will be a spontaneous and massive wave of volunteers."

I call bullshit. There is a way to get from point A to point B without just wishful thinking, but either the ones trying to tear McCain a new one don't see it, or they're intentionally ignoring it. One of the stupefying aspects of Bush's War On Terror is that the president insists that we, the American people, do not need to sacrifice anything -- well, anything other than Habeas Corpus -- to fight this war. If someone with a bit more credibility were to come in and actually ask for sacrifice, are we so jaded as to think nobody would respond?

Now, the fact that McCain won't connect those dots himself is a legitmate concern, because it would raise the question of why he's not making that call to action right now when we're losing control more and more, and subsequently whether or not he's playing politics with a potential solution.

So I guess I'm okay with the McCain criticism, as long as it actually has substance, and isn't based on inherently disingenuous arguments.