It was remarkable to see John McCain's appalling defense of a speech in which the president of the united states attacked a fellow American politician from the safety of foreign soil, by envoking the image of Hitler while in Israel. These are serious issues that deserve a serious debate, not the same tired partisan rants we heard today from George Bush and John McCain in which all our enemies are equivalent to Hitler, and in which any one who disagrees with their disastrous approach to foreign policy is Chamberlain.

Senator McCain has pledged to run a civil campaign based on issues, while at the same time smearing Senator Obama through guilt-by-association tactics that the American people are tired of, and quite frankly they deserve and expect better from their elected officials and those seeking office. 

Why are John McCain and George Bush are afraid to talk to our enemies? Why is military force the only tool that Bush and McCain are willing to use in the vast arsenal of international diplomacy?

John McCain, like George Bush, thinks the only solution to the world's problems is military force, to shoot first and ask questions later. This was the same reckless approach that got us into the disasterous Iraq war which has ravaged our economy, cost the lives of over 4000 American sons and daughters, and countless millions of Iraqis, strengthened Iran's standing in the region, and yes-has aided and strengthened Al Qaeda by serving as a distraction from the war on terror.

One must ask the relevant question: what would have happened if we had chosen diplomacy over war? Would we have found that Iraq's WMDs were non-existent without costing trillions of dollars and thousands of lives? But in their rush to war, George Bush and John McCain dismissed diplomacy and choose military action based on nefarious intelligence. One can't help but see similar parallels in how Bush and McCain are now treating Iran.

It would be a wonderful thing if we lived in a world where we don't have enemies. But that is not the world we live in, and until Senator McCain understands that America's power comes not only from military force, but also through the force of our ideals and our values, the American people have every reason to doubt whether he has the strength, judgment and determination to keep us safe."