John McCain Goes Ballistic on Code Pink Protesters

In case you didn’t know, John McCain absolutely hates it when people disagree with him or his friends.

Case in point: At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee last week, when former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger showed up to testify before the committee, which McCain now chairs, protesters from Code Pink, a social justice group formed by women, displayed signs calling Kissinger a war criminal. They also held up handcuffs and chanted that Kissinger should be arrested.

McCain, who has never been able to control his temper, called the Code Pink protesters “low-life scum” and added:

“You’re gonna have to shut up or I’m going to have you arrested.”

During an appearance on CNN on Sunday, McCain, rather than admit he had gone too far, doubled down on his criticism of Code Pink and said:

“I think they’re terrible people that would do that to a 91-year old man with a broken shoulder, to physically threaten him. That is beyond any normal behavior I have ever observed.”

Later in the same interview, McCain called Kissinger “one of the great statesmen of my life.”

Henry Kissinger a great statesman? Maybe, but it does help if we consider that while a member of the Nixon and Ford Administrations, Kissinger was one of the chief architects of policies that saw the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile, the subjugation of East Timor by the Indonesian military, and the secret Christmas bombings of Cambodia in direct contradiction of what was being told to the American people. Is this all part of Kissinger’s theory of realpolitik, a theory which resulted in the deaths of millions of innocents across the globe?

Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink, said she and her group are not sorry they protested at the hearing and added:

“While McCain called us disgraceful, what is really disgraceful is the Senate calling in a tired old war criminal to testify about ‘Global Challenges and the U.S. National Security Strategy.’ After horribly tragic failed wars, not just in Vietnam but over the last decade in Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s time for the US leaders like John McCain to bring in fresh faces and fresh ideas. We owe it to the next generation that will be cleaning up the bloody legacy left behind by Kissinger for years to come.”

As for the protesters “threatening” Kissinger, take a look at the video yourself and see if he looks in any way intimidated or afraid. The most threatening thing we face in this new era of GOP control of Congress is going back to the failed policies of the past.

This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org

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