Haven't seen much discussion about McCain's foreign policy experience. How does Obama compare? Here are a few tidbits:
McCain's Foreign Policy Experience Has Breadth, DepthBy GLEN JOHNSON, Associated Press | March 14, 2008
WASHINGTON — Like no other candidate, Senator McCain has linked his campaign for president to an unpopular war — and to a lifelong focus on foreign issues that many voters ignore.
Mr. McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone, became famous as a Vietnam prisoner of war and has spent his long Senate career traveling to more foreign countries than most people could even name.
He makes his eighth trip to Iraq this weekend, a visit sure to get a lot of attention. But his weeklong overseas trip also includes Israel, Britain, and France — all countries where he's made many visits.
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As Democrats Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama fight over which of them has the credentials to be the next commander in chief, Mr. McCain offers a much lengthier foreign policy and military resume.
Now 71, he was born in the Canal Zone, where his father, a naval officer, was stationed. A graduate of the Naval Academy, Mr. McCain flew in Vietnam and was a prisoner of war for more than five years. In the Senate, he is the senior Republican on the Armed Services Committee.
He has visited every region of the world, including Antarctica and the Arctic Circle, and frequently meets with leaders of the countries to which he's traveled, both when he visits their countries and when they visit the United States.
Mr. McCain has been across the world so many times that aides named off the tops of their heads some 69 countries he's visited — including Azerbaijan, Estonia, Laos, and Palau — and warned the list was far from exhaustive.Aides say he keeps up to speed on the politics and policies of many nations — a passion he regularly displays to reporters traveling with him — and understands the long-term ramifications of having well-established personal relationships with foreign leaders.
He makes it a point to meet with up-and-comers, too. Aides say he met Angela Merkel at a Munich conference several years ago before she became German chancellor. In summer 2004, Mr. McCain met at a restaurant with Viktor Yushchenko before the Orange Revolution when he was elected Ukrainian president.
Next week, Mr. McCain is expected to meet with Prime Minister Brown of Britain for the first time, and President Sarkozy of France for the third time. He met and corresponded with Mr. Sarkozy both before and after he was elected. The two last saw each other last summer.
Mr. McCain has relationships with every leader in Israel he plans to see, including Prime Minister Olmert, the foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, the defense minister, Ehud Barak, and the hawkish opposition leader, Benjamin Netanyahu.
The senator last met with Prime Minister al-Maliki of Iraq last Thanksgiving, and he's also gotten to know other members of the Iraqi government.
He returns with two of his chief presidential supporters, Senators Lieberman, an Independent of Connecticut, and Graham, a Republican of South Carolina, but he insists it is a fact-finding venture, not a campaign photo opportunity.
"There's nothing like being on the ground," he said. Mentioning a mountainous area in northwestern Pakistan, he added, "I went to Waziristan once and it gave me a much better understanding of how difficult it is to get Osama bin Laden."
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http://www.nysun.com/national/mccains-foreign-policy-experience-has-breadth/72988/
