Gook: John Mccain's Racism and why it Matters

"I hate the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live," - John McCain, when asked about his continued use of the racial slur, "gook." John McCain has told us who he is. John McCain supported the rescinding of Martin Luther King Day. John McCain keeps on his payroll white supremacists, race-baiting "swiftboaters" and lobbyists for dictators and terrorists. John McCain endorsed George Wallace, Jr., a favorite speaker among white supremacists. He fought to keep the Confederate battle flag flying over South Carolina. He seems to subscribe to a brand of religion-inspired bellicosity that calls for the U.S. to wage war for the sake of "imparting our values upon humanity." McCain promised to immediately start wars in North Korea, Libya, and Iraq during his first presidential campaign, and in 2008 he has promised new wars to come. He sent his own money to the contra guerillas, and even visited their illegal war camp. War is the way of John McCain, and racial bias makes it easy to execute those wars. Long before George W. Bush became president, McCain planned an invasion of Iraq. He lobbied for an Iraq invasion just days after 9/11, and when it came time to convince the American people, he insisted that the Iraq War would be "easily" won. The combination of racism and warmongering are perfectly encapsulated in "gook," a racist term formed during numerous U.S. wars, from the invasion of the Philippines (1898-1902) to the occupation of Haiti in 1920, to the Korean and Vietnam Wars. John McCain used this anti-Asian slur freely with the media until he was forced to stop for fear of sabotaging his own presidential ambitions. The portrait of John McCain painted in Gook is far more disturbing than anyracial epithet. A central thesis of Gook: war fertilizes racism, and racism justifies wars and the killing of civilians. This dynamic thrives within the most dangerous leaders of the world. Is John McCain one of them? Irwin A. Tang holds an M.A. in Asian Studies. He is the co-author of Asian Texans and When Invisible Children Sing. See www.irwinbooks.com.