McCain’s foreign policy

McCain’s speech focused on the challenge of preventing countries like Iran and North Korea from developing nuclear weapons. He tried to stake out a middle ground between the policies of Bush and Obama. If elected President McCain said he would strengthen arms control agreements. This analyst says that marks a clear difference from Bush. In his speech, McCain expressed frustration with the fact that Iran and North Korea made so much progress in their arms programs under Bush, but the analyst points out that McCain has not been specific about how he would handle things differently. This analyst would disagree and he says the biggest difference between McCain and Bush boils down to listening to and taking seriously these countries’ concerns and problems. He says McCain’s commitment to being a model international citizen is evident when it comes to issues such as global warming, which is probably the biggest mark of divergence from Bush. But the most pressing foreign policy concern for American voters is Iraq, and that’s where Obama and Clinton have tied McCain to Bush. This analyst says the comparison is fair and McCain has been influenced by neo-con ideology. On the future of US policy for Iraq, McCain argues that by opposing the troop surge, Obama wants to surrender and McCain doesn’t want surrender.