Can't afford another naive president

Senator McCain labored in the first debate to paint Barack Obama as inexperienced and "naive." But is it naive to point out, as Obama did, that today's economic crisis is related to the military adventurism that has cost us nearly a trillion dollars in Iraq? Is it naive to remind listeners that any nation that has sustained comparable economic decline has also declined militarily? It did not sound naive when Obama said that no U.S. soldier ever dies in vain. He sounded, rather, like a leader who would refuse to sacrifice American sons and daughters in an attempt to salvage bad U.S. policy.

No, the one who sounded naive is the older, supposedly more experienced, John McCain. He is the one who insists on talking about victory or defeat in Iraq as if we were fighting a national army in a conventional war. It is McCain who sounds naive when he suggests that the only anti-American force in Iraq is al-Qaida and that leaving before they are extinguished would lead to al-Qaida bases in Iraq. The truth is that, in a stable Iraq, Iraqis would never stand for al-Qaida bases in their country, and the reason al-Qaida militants have their current foothold is because so many Iraqi's - Sunni militants and Shia militia alike - have seen the U.S. as the more dangerous enemy.

Wisdom acknowledges the existence of evil without believing it is embodied in particular persons or countries. We can't afford another naive President who sees reality only in stark terms of good and evil, victory and defeat, honor and disgrace. It is time we elected someone like Barack Obama who is able to discern complexities and articulate solutions for the serious problems we face.

Joe McKeown

Naperville