WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain is well-known for scorching denunciations of Democrats, who he says would raise the "white flag of surrender" by cutting off funds for U.S. troops in Iraq.
On the campaign trail today, McCain is seen as an unyielding hawk. But before his first presidential run in 2000, he declared he would work with the Democratic Party's brain trust to devise his foreign policy.
But 15 years ago, it was McCain himself who startled colleagues by proposing to cut off money for a struggling and embattled U.S. force in another perilous place: Somalia
And while he now describes himself as a "foot soldier in the Reagan revolution," he infuriated Republicans as a freshman congressman in 1983 by trying to thwart President Reagan's deployment of troops in Lebanon.
The presumptive GOP nominee for president, McCain -- who leads a congressional delegation to Europe and the Middle East this week -- has adopted a surprising diversity of views on foreign policy issues during his 25 years in Congress. It is a pattern that brings uncertainty to the path he would take if elected.
McCain, an ex-Navy pilot and Vietnam POW who has built his campaign around his national security expertise, has advanced views on Iraq and Iran that are tough and assertive, and that seem to put him squarely in the neoconservative camp.
Yet McCain has on many occasions resisted calls for use of U.S. troops. Even now, he adopts positions that are closer to those of traditional, pragmatic Republicans than the more hawkish neoconservatives.
One sign of the internal contradictions in his views is growing friction between rival camps of McCain supporters -- between neoconservatives and those with more traditional views, widely called "realists." Both sides believe they have assurances from McCain that he would largely follow their path, and that like-minded allies would have key roles in the new administration.
The conflicting signals have caught the attention of foreign policy experts. "Who is the real John McCain?" asked Dmitri Simes, president of the Nixon Center, a Washington think tank and stronghold of the realist thinkers.
Simes said McCain, one of the Nixon Center's advisors, has privately assured prominent supporters in the traditional foreign policy camp that "his more exuberant statements don't necessarily reflect his real views."
"John is a traditional national security guy," said retired Adm. Bobby Ray Inman, a former top intelligence official who is listed by the campaign as an important supporter. If McCain reaches the White House, Inman predicts, "there's going to be a lot of disappointment on the neoconservative side."
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics...9.story?page=1
My questions are, in relation:
Can anyone predict based on his current history what to expect in the future if McCain becomes president as far as dealing with other foreign contries?
How confident,do you think, is the GOP party with McCain's proposed policies?
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