But of course, we remember rhetoric very similar back in 2004:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/03/1 7/main/index.html

Across the continent, Vice President Dick Cheney savaged Kerry's record on national security issues, saying the four-term senator from Massachusetts has provided "ample doubt" about his readiness to lead the nation.

"Whatever nuances he might fault us for neglecting, it is not an impressive record for someone who aspires to become commander in chief in this time of testing for our country," Cheney said.

So are we back to the good ole politics of fear-mongering? While Senator McCain is certainly correct, it seems like he's trying to amp up the threat Iran poses; one that was created partly because of the GOP and McCain's best friend, George W. Bush:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0825/daily Update.html

The United States, with Coalition support, has eliminated two of Iran's regional rival governments -- the Taliban in Afghanistan in November 2001 and Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq in April 2003 -- but has failed to replace either with coherent and stable political structures. The outbreak of conflict on two fronts in June -July 2006 between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza, and Israel and Hizbullah in Lebanon has added to the regional dimensions of this instability.

Consequently, Iran has moved to fill the regional void with an apparent ease that has disturbed both regional players and the United States and its European allies. Iran is one of the most significant and powerful states in the region and its influence spreads well beyond its critical location at the nexus of the Middle East, Turkey, the Caucasus, Central Asia and South Asia.

This influence has a variety of forms but all can be turned against the US presence in Iraq with relative ease, and almost certainly would heighten US casualties to the point where a continued presence might not be tenable. Sources in Iraq are already warning that the major cities (including Basra and Baghdad) have witnessed a rise in the activities of Iranian paramilitary units and the recent bout of violence and instability in Basra is now considered to be a small display of what would happen if Iran itself was targeted.

How can someone like John McCain, who is now fully behind the Bush doctorine in the middle east, make such brash statements while fully aware of the fact that one of the main reasons that Iran is so powerful now is because of the power vaccum we've created in Iraq, and the one that we will continue to create if we're in Iraq for the next "100 years"?

Can it get much worse in the Middle East for us right now? Senator Obama is certainly correct when he says things like this:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washingt on/2008/05/barack-obama-vs.html

Obama, speaking later in Billings, Mont., clearly had gotten word of McCain's sharp remarks. Early in his speech, he sought to undercut the "Realpolitick" stance McCain is trying to corner for himself by calling it "naive and wishful thinking" to insist a country "meet all your conditions" before sitting down with its leaders.

Noting the ongoing negotiations that occurred throughout the Cold War -- under both Democratic and Republican administrations -- Obama asked why the U.S. should not "have the same courage and confidence" to talk to its enemies.

It's time to stop the fear mongering and understand what's at risk in Iran, and the beast that we have created in the middle east. John McCain is wrong on Iraq, and wrong on our actions in connection with Iran, because he has pledged to continue the misguided and unfortunate policies of George W. Bush. For John McCain, someone who likes to preach to American Patriotism as the "American President Americans have been waiting for", he sure seems to think Americans are terrified with a different approach to problems in the Middle East. Listen, John: We're sick of the Republican way. Stop trying to scare us into staying with it, because it's not going to work anymore.

UPDATE:Map, downthread, has given me this link to a presser from Barack, where he smokes John McGeezer on foreign policy:

http://thepage.time.com/transcript-of-obama-presser-2/

This is my favorite part:

BO: Well I don’t take what Bush says personally, but I was offended by what is a continuation of a strategy from this White House now mimicked by Senator McCain that replaces strategy and analysis and smart policy with bombast exaggerations and fear mongering. That’s what we heard yesterday. The notion that you would go before the Israeli Knesset on the 60th Anniversary of Israel’s independence and use a term like appeasement and suggest somehow that Democrats, people like myself who believe that we should have tough diplomacy to accompany our military power in dealing with problems in the region, is wrong. And for Senator McCain then to compound it by somehow suggesting that I couldn’t protect the safety of the United States when it is George Bush’s policies, supported by John McCain, that have empowered Iran.