This is a picture of the semi-esteemed John McCain, senator and former Presidential candidate who, before he became a politician, was a true war hero. But something happens to people when they become politicians. McCain was a prisoner of war and was tortured for years; one wonders what has changed him more, POW torture or becoming a politician.
The picture shows him standing with some of the luminaries of the Syrian rebellion. The purpose of McCain's trip was to explore the rebellion, highlight the problem and clarify the good guys and bad guys. Whether or not this was even remotely approved by the people actually running our foreign policy was not clarified. Regrettably one of the worthies in this picture is probably the leader of a splinter Sunni group which recently heroically engaged a busload of peaceful Shia pilgrims and kidnapped them. More regrettably, this laughable and ironic error feeds into the current fear among the Shia community that the United States is in league with Israel and Saudi Arabia to destroy Shia Islam.
While the impact of this trip might be obscure, what is certain is that gross stupidity and incompetence is not the province of one political party but rather a characteristic of politicians in general. It is a given; only the degree is ever in question.
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