So Glad McCain Never Became President

Yesterday Slate reporter Dave Weigel attended a meeting of the Foreign Policy Initiative, at which a bunch of neocon intellectuals and Republican lawmakers ranted against proposed cuts in the Defense budget. For some reason American voters still say they trust Republicans to balance the budget more than Democrats, even though Republicans have not cared about the deficit since Reagan was elected. They want lower taxes and more Defense spending, deficit be damned -- and lately they have been up in arms against any cuts in Medicare spending, too. Weigel:

The hawkish, interventionist wing of the party can’t succeed if the cuts aren’t stopped. The most forward-looking part of the FPI’s conference came when the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy chatted with Sen. John McCain. They quickly agreed that America needed to intervene in Syria, setting up a partial no-fly zone and arming rebels. “War weariness is a big factor,” said McCain, griping about the possible opposition. “People are very weary, and there’s a fear of getting into a prolonged conflict.” But that would be overcome. So would the defense cuts.

McCain's belligerence has been completely untamed by our exhausting interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. I, for one, am deeply war-weary, and have no plans to overcome it.