Senator McCain gives Major Foreign Policy Address

There is little doubt that the gathering was chosen because the audience shared many of the Candidates positions. His address was greeted with thunderous applause and a standing ovation.

LOS ANGELES (Catholic Online) - Senator John McCain ascended the platform against the backdrop of the Log of the World Affairs Council.

This was a well planned event.

He looked composed, serious and ready to give what his campaign had billed as a Major Address on foreign policy.

Having spent the last week in Europe and the Middle East, the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party sought to sound Presidential. His carriage and his manner resembled Dwight D Eisenhower at times.

The old soldier, who hated war because he had experienced it, set a somber tone throughout this address.

"Our great power does not mean we can do whatever we want whenever we want, nor should we assume we have all the wisdom and knowledge necessary to succeed," he said soberly, to a crowd of foreign affairs experts.

"We need to listen, We need to listen... to the views and respect the collective will of our democratic allies. When we believe international action is necessary -- whether military, economic or diplomatic -- we will try to persuade our friends that we are right. But we, in return, must be willing to be persuaded by them."

He sought to both distance himself from the Bush Administrations approach to diplomacy on several fronts while strongly supporting the continuation of the Iraqi War.

It was a tough balancing act, with mixed results.

However, there is little doubt that John McCain gave what has been his most substantive and well presented speech in the Campaign.

He laid out a diplomatic approach which he maintained was predicated on a new era of listening to and respecting the views of our European Allies. He called for a "new compact" and a League of Democracies. Yet, he continued to support the current policy in Iraq without much difference.

He separated himself from the current Republican administration with his strong condemnation of torture, saying "America must be a model citizen if we want others to look to us as a model....We can't torture or treat inhumanely suspected terrorists we have captured....There is such a thing as international good citizenship."

He called for the closure of the infamous Guantanamo prison.

He addressed the global warming issue and proposed a cap and trade system on emissions of green house gases and a successor to the Kyoto Treaty. "We need to be good stewards of our planet," he said...and join with other nations to help preserve our common home."The risks of global warming have no borders. We and the other nations of the world must get serious about substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years, or we will hand off a much-diminished world to our grandchildren."

Then he addressed every region of the world, calling for a specific United States approach to fostering Democracy and Freedom as an International Neighbor.

He was harshly critical of Russia, saying "Rather than tolerate Russia's nuclear blackmail or cyber attacks, Western nations should make clear that the solidarity of NATO, from the Baltic to the Black Sea, is indivisible and that the organization's doors remain open to all democracies committed to the defense of freedom."

But, as was expected, he saved his strongest criticism for Al Qaeda and Islamic extremism.

In a question and answer session following his address he said "Those who claim we should withdraw from Iraq in order to fight Al Qaeda more effectively elsewhere are making a dangerous mistake," he said later. "Whether they were there before is immaterial; Al Qaeda is in Iraq now, as it is in the borderlands between Pakistan and Afghanistan, in Somalia and in Indonesia."

There is little doubt that the gathering was chosen because the audience shared many of the Candidates positions. His address was greeted with thunderous applause and a standing ovation.

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