Former US secretary of defense William Cohen is experiencing mixed emotions on the home front as Democrats and Republicans vie for the White House at the November presidential election.
"I was the best man at John McCain's wedding, my wife is African American In fact, I have three of five grand children who are biracial," Cohen explained to China Daily yesterday in Beijing.
"We have mixed emotions about it," conceded the man who served Bill Clinton's administration from 1997-2000.
Nevertheless, the veteran Republican rates 71-year-old John McCain a big chance of ascending to the nation's highest office as Democrats are preoccupied with a fiercely contested nomination contest.
"I give him (McCain) a very good chance to become the next American president," he said. "Democrats are fighting between Senator Barack Obama and Senator Clinton. That is working to the advantage of Senator McCain."
Whoever wins the presidency will face two formidable challenges: the economy, and Iraq.
"The focus today is still upon the economy, which appears to be in very difficult check, stock market, the ramping of the value of the dollar, the mortgage crisis, credit crisis, people losing their jobs," Cohen said.
The accomplished statesman also tipped mounting American casualties and the future handling of the Iraq War as major vote swayers.
"In many ways Iraq also tends to draw the attention of the American people. We have lost 4000 lives of our soldiers and thousands wounded, and the thousands we have killed," Cohen lamented.
"If we start to reduce systematically the numbers of troops there as we go into November, then I think that works to John McCain's advantage."
For the former military boss, the problem in Iraq and the wider world today is "not when, but how and in what situation" US troops will leave.
A "precipitous" withdrawal will leave the country in chaos, and affect not only US interests but also those of the wider Middle East and all countries dependent upon "a stable supply of energy coming out of the Gulf region," he said.
Cohen warned that a premature US withdrawal could sky rocket oil prices well above $100 a barrel - "maybe double that".
"So whoever is elected, he or she will have to calibrate how the US can reduce troops from Iraq while maintaining the region's stability," he said.
"No president can afford to say 'we don't care what the situation is on the ground; we are leaving,'" he stressed.
Goal as defense chief
Cohen's 1997 proposal to establish a military hotline between China and the US was finally implemented last month in a proud post-political career development.
"I think the thing I always wanted to do is to have more and more engagement, military to military," said the resident of Maine in America's northeast.
"We wanna have our military officials and members working together on various projects."
Disaster relief is an area both sides should work together on, he said. "Admiral Keating, and his predecessor Admiral Falon were both very much in favor of having greater and greater engagement on a military basis with China," he added.
On the recent Taiwan election, Cohen said the failure of the referendum for the island's UN membership was "something the US was very much in favor of".
"The people of Taiwan have spoken in terms of not seeking to declare independence from China, not seeking to have membership in the UN under the banner of Taiwan or the Republic of China," he said.
"I think this bodes well for the future."
Source: China Daily
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