I voted for John McCain.
I thought it was the right thing to do at the time. I was wrong.
John McCain didn't work for me or you; he worked for Corporate America.
In all fairness, he felt he was doing the right thing. Americans in his era felt that the world could be best transformed through American business, American capitalism. They saw the undeveloped world and its citizens as barbarians to be tamed and brought into the American sphere. The enemy was Russia, China, Cuba - but principally Russia.
Russia has always been the big bogeyman in American politics. So maniacal has been the paranoia about Russia that Hollywood made a movie about it: The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming.
To defeat Russia, to defeat the barbarians at the gate, John McCain and many others felt -and still do feel - that American muscle, our military, must be used. Thus the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and, soon to be, Iran.
If the countries to be saved must be destroyed first - so be it.
John McCain proudly led the War Party in the United States.
History may prove him right; but history does not suggest that.
Conquerors tend to get conquered.
Empires tend to fall.
Considering that, Americans might try friendship first.