Testifying on Capitol Hill this week before lawmakers skittish about proposed U.S. military action in Syria, John Kerry sought to assuage fears that America would stumble into another Middle East war by frequently pointing to his friend and supporter sitting with the other senators.
John McCain, the secretary of state said, is someone who understands "what going to war means."
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Indeed, both Kerry and McCain do understand what going to war means: They are Vietnam veterans, with Purple Hearts, Silver Stars and other medals, and the crucible of combat has shaped their respective legislative careers. But anyone watching the hearing or the interactions between the two men and their president as they press for the intervention couldn't help but marvel at how they got there.
Kerry and McCain are President Obama's top surrogates advocating for a U.S. strike on the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad. It's a role for which they are both well suited, but not one that either originally envisioned playing. If personal experience of war is a common bond between them, so, too, is presidential ambition. Both men sought the job of commander-in-chief. Now, they are helping Obama with arguably the biggest foreign policy decision Congress will make since the Iraq War vote in 2002.
Each won his party's respective nomination, and their military experiences were substantial elements in their campaigns -- Kerry's became fraught with controversy while McCain's was his top credential. (They could also have shared a ticket, as Kerry asked McCain to consider being his running mate in 2004.) Each man failed to win the Oval Office but, ironically enough, Barack Obama played a significant role in their campaigns, too. Then-Senate candidate Obama gave a rousing speech at Kerry's nominating convention in 2004, in which he praised the nominee's military experience. The address catapulted Obama from Chicago to the national stage and sparked talk of his presidential potential. Four years later, Obama would beat McCain in a historic election that sent the first African-American to the White House.
McCain and Kerry both returned to the Senate after their unsuccessful presidential bids. The latter was the first to do so since George McGovern, following his 1972 loss to Richard Nixon. After being passed over by Obama for secretary of state in favor of his colleague -- and Obama's 2008 rival -- Hillary Clinton, Kerry became the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and a key voice voice on affairs abroad. McCain continues to serve on that committee and is the top Republican member of the Armed Services panel. Both worked together two years ago in advocating for intervention in Libya.
McCain has become an occasional, if unlikely, ally of Obama's in the Senate. While he gave the White House a tough time over the nomination of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, McCain worked with the president and Senate Democrats on fiscal issues, immigration reform and, most recently, averting unprecedented changes to filibuster rules. In these ways and others, the Arizona senator has re-emerged as the maverick he'd portrayed himself as until the 2008 campaign.
Whether he and Kerry can get members off the fence and into the yes column on the Syria resolution is uncertain. By Thursday evening, after both men had sat through dozens of hours of testimony and briefings, the chance of passage seemed dimmer than it did earlier in the week.
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