Sitting through class for hours on end sucks. The lectures are not engaging, and the droning of your average professor could lull an insomniac to sleep. However, it’s why we’re here: to go to class to get the grades so we can make the big bucks someday.
You could say it is our job to go to class.
On Tuesday, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., must not have been engaged at his job. In the middle of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the Syrian crisis, McCain thought it would be more productive to try his hand at Texas Hold ’Em than to listen to arguments for and against U.S. military intervention in Syria.
Interesting, since the senator has been the strongest congressional supporter of military action. One would think a war hero who endured years of torture would be more attentive to arguments opposite him before voting to send our service members into harm’s way.
What’s more, the senator was unapologetic about his gaffe, tweeting, “worst of all I lost!”
McCain’s disinterest in opposing arguments and the proceedings in general show a clear disconnect between Congress, McCain and the realities of the situation at hand.
The panel speaking before the committee consisted of Secretary of State John Kerry, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. For approximately three hours, senators discussed and debated the merits of a limited military action in Syria.
As of Wednesday, McCain has withdrawn his support for the president’s plan for a limited strike in favor of more aggressive language in the draft resolution.
Apparently, an attack by a full carrier battle group supplemented by a destroyer squadron would not be thorough enough for the senator.
The limited strike planned would be bad enough, but McCain thinks we should handle the situation like we did in Kosovo.
Newsflash: we still have forces in Kosovo to this day, and our limited action there occurred in 1999.
In Louisiana, we know a thing or two about out-of-touch leaders.
Gov. Bobby Jindal pushed a reform in education that demands teachers prepare students for standardized tests instead of actually educating them, and then appointed a State superintendent who barely had experience teaching.
Here at LSU, F. King Alexander will be spending weekends in Washington, D.C., getting chummy with lobbyists, and has even elected to not work out of the chancellor’s office here on campus.
Disconnected leadership is our reality.
However, when it comes to decisions that could and will result in numerous deaths, be they American or Syrian, we are not wrong to expect it of our elected officials, much less a tenured foreign policy expert, be at least moderately interested in the debate.
McCain needs to seriously consider his priorities before pulling out his iPhone. He was elected to make the best decisions possible for his state and the country, not act like a freshman in western civ.
Then again, maybe it is time for him to fold and get out of politics.