John McCain’s latest, taking Obama’s words out of context (of course), not noting that Obama said - correctly - that Iran was a minor threat compared to the Soviet Union:

I’ve little doubt though, that the ad will be effective. What it also is is the end of the line.

I’ve always marveled at how conservatives are so willing - eager, even - to cringe in corners, terrified at the threat of countries that we dwarf in terms of our military capabilities. The image of the Iranian soldiers in this commercial is a case in point - omigodIranhasSOLDIERSthey’regoingtokillallofus. Do you, do we, have any idea how many more soliders we have, how many more bombs we have, how many times over we could utterly destroy the country of Iran? But no. That’s not how this emotional trigger works; rationality has nothing to do with it. Iran needs to be perceived as an existential threat - one that could literally end the existence of the United States.

And while this conservative or that will quickly pipe up to say that’s not what they are arguing at all, it’s clearly the impression this commercial seeks to impart, and will impart, amongst a fearful, timid - unthinking, and therefore ultimately doomed population.

Also, the bit about Israel. Once again - in the conservative mind - Israel and the United States are inseparable. Israel’s interests are necessarily our interests; any threat to Israel is automatically a threat to the United States itself. George Washington warned of “entangling,” permanent alliances with other nations; we couldn’t be more entangled with Israel. And there’s a reason Washington warned against this - a reason we seem fated to learn the hard way.

Still, now, five years after the invasion of Iraq, conservatives - cringing in their corners - don’t grasp the lesson of Iraq, that unthinking belligerence extracts a price, a price we have paid. As Sullivan notes, McCain - and most conservatives - seem interested only in compounding this price:

Seeing the world as a series of enemies to be attacked rather than as a series of relationships to be managed and a series of foes to be undermined has proven of limited use. … Along the way, the US has lost a vast amount of its moral standing and its legitimacy as a global power-broker. Insofar as neoconservatives do not understand this, and cannot understand this, they are a clear and present danger to the security of the West. Their unwillingness to understand how the US might be perceived in the world, how a hegemon needs to exhibit more humility and dexterity to maintain its power, makes them - and McCain - extremely dangerous stewards of American foreign policy in an era of global terror.

But this is all tribal. To see “relationships” that need to be “managed” - that’s girly stuff. Better to ATTACK, ATTACK, because omigodIranhasSOLDIERS. Better to respond from instinct rather than intellect; belligerence rather than thought, fear rather than rationality.

Be more afraid, that is John McCain’s campaign message. For the more frightened you are, the safer you will be.

Somehow.