Objectively pro-Empire

There's really no other way to interpret John McCain's statement this morning that it "it's not too important" when American troops come home from Iraq.

It's not too important for John McCain because he fully supports the imperialist policies of America's neo-conservative movement. In 2000, John McCain was the candidate of Bill Kristol and The Weekly Standard, not George W. Bush. This unmitigated and unabashed desire for a sprawling American empire, consequences be damned, is at the very essence of who John McCain is as a person and who he is as a candidate. The reason he has no energy policy, the reason he has no answer to the subprime mortgage crisis, the reason that he flip-flops on core domestic issues on a near weekly basis is because he does not give a damn about any of those issues.

He only cares about engaging in neo-impearelist military adventures.

McCain falls under the umbrella of "National Greatness Conservativism" it's a meme that's long been pushed by the impearilist wing of the GOP to refocus the Party. From a 1997 article in the libertarian focused magazine Reason,

How you feel about the state of "conservatism," and of the world, depends on what you want to conserve. Simply conserving free institutions--which define the neutral rules of the game--is not enough for many conservatives, who confuse small government with no government, and neutral government with vice.

Freedom makes them very nervous. "Wishing to be left alone is not a governing doctrine," wrote William Kristol and David Brooks on this page two weeks ago. They offer their own governing doctrine, "the appeal to American greatness"--a kind of wistful nationalism in search of a big project.

Unfortunately, for them the Cold War is over. So what's a national-greatness government to do? It could go looking for the next war, hope for another Great Depression, or sponsor a trip to Neptune.

Remarkably prescient, no?

Matthew Yglesias has written at length about this subject, I would encourage everyone to read it. These are not mere gaffe's from a politician speaking off the cuff, this is truly what motivates John McCain and the militaristic wing of the Republican Party.