At the Republican debate in St. Petersburg in November of last year, John McCain unjustifiably claimed that Iraqis would attack the United States if we withdrew our forces from their land, and even equated those of us opposed to American imperialism as Hitler-enablers who subscribe to an immoral code of “isolationism”.

John McCain still supports the Vietnam War based on the grounds that communism would’ve taken over the world had we not killed millions of Vietnamese. This was, of course, a lie drummed up by Western capitalist leaders who viewed any independent nation as a threat to their power. Pro-war hawks like John McCain turn the charge of killing innocents around on the accuser just as Western nations accused the Communists of wanting to control the entire world, a feat which we’ve nearly achieved were it not for a few pesky Muslims and South American presidents.

download fileMartin Luther King Jr. was adamantly against the injustice of the Vietnam War, calling America “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today”. He was crucified for these statements by the pro-war media just as Reverend Wright was crucified for his, and it was King’s objection to American imperialist greed which arguably got him killed.

At the very spot where Martin Luther King was assassinated, John McCain implied that it was necessary to wage wars against more non-aggressive nations like Iran in order to contain their supposed expansionist threat, a threat which he so wrongly saw in Vietnamese Communism. It’s beyond disgusting that McCain would use the life of a martyr for peace like Dr. King to promote more death, injustice, and subjugation. McCain was rightly heckled for voting against honoring King, but did gather some applause as he continued to whitewash MLK into oblivion.

Unfortunately for Senator McCain, the facts do not support his agenda or even those of his Democratic rivals. Iran has not invaded another country since the 18th century. America, on the other hand, has been in a constant state of invasion and occupation of third-world nations for well over one hundred and fifty years. It is also overly-simplistic, if not downright ignorant, to claim that Iran funds terror. Organizations like Hamas, Hezbollah, and even Iraqi militants, which the West points to as proof that Iran supports extremists, are defensive groups resisting occupation in their lands, not abroad. When it comes to fighting offensive groups like al-Qaeda (You know, the ones which actually want to attack us here) Iran has been an important ally. However, McCain would rather ignore these inconvenient facts and insist that the Iranian government is training al-Qaeda just as we all know Saddam was.

In McCain’s Hitler analogy I was tempted to argue that we are the Nazis, but Nazi Germany actually faced legitimate opposition from other empires. America is unchallenged militarily, and is yet still able to whip its citizenry into a state of paranoid aggression against any group its government scapegoats. Martin Luther King said that the Vietnam War was “one of the most unjust wars that has ever been fought in the history of the world” and that our involvement “has torn up the Geneva Accord” and “strengthened the military-industrial complex”. Somehow, I don’t think King’s dream is exactly as John McCain remembers.