Today in Alternative History: President McCain Announces His Plan for Withdrawal from Afghanistan

[Boojatta]

However, constructive engagement with members of the Democratic Party is unfortunately not one of McCain's policies. The Democratic Party is an important part of the West, so constructive engagement with the West would require constructive engagement with the Democratic Party.

Well, we can't have everything. When people begin with excessively high expectations, they typically end with disappointment. After all, did anybody promise that McCain would be another Gorbachev? We should be happy that, on this day in alternative history, McCain is at least announcing his plan for withdrawal from Afghanistan, along with his plan to help the Afghan government slow the drift of radioactive dust (an unfortunate byproduct of Operation "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran") across the border from Iran into Afghanistan. Yes, it probably is a good time to withdraw the troops from Afghanistan. McCain always was good with timing. For example, when the financial crisis became severe, he knew that it was time to suspend his campaign. How candidate McCain persuaded Democratic nominee Barack Obama to suspend his own campaign is something I'll probably never know.

Within a year of becoming Soviet leader, Mr. Gorbachev had changed the entire top foreign policy team and had begun to implement what was called the New Thinking. It involved acceptance that real security meant mutual security and interdependence, agreement on arms reductions, withdrawal from Afghanistan (one of Mr. Gorbachev’s aims from the outset, and fully realized by early 1989), and constructive engagement with the West.

From:
Reports in the Mass Media
12.03.2010 Archie Brown. When Gorbachev Took Charge