McCain was never an interventionist, though he's always been a nationalist. Defending Kuwait (an ally) isn't a neocon position, since there were many democrats who also supported the Gulf War. SDI was a national self-defense program, which isn't neoconservative. Kosovo was a NATO exercise in order to bring peace to the region and stop the triggering of a much larger war. NATO was to administer a ceasefire and protect the peace. I don't think you would call Bill Clinton a neocon. The Iran song was a joke and not a policy position. If by Russophobe you mean he's against Russia, I believe you could say most politicians are with the exception of Bush. Israel/Syria was more of an issue about Lebanon than peace between the two nations. McCain did not say that he was against peace talks, but that he wasn't supportive of them either. However, there is no way the US could stop peace talks from happening if the two nations chose to do so. Not committing on a two-state solution is the opposite of being an interventionist, isn't it? And not negotiating with foreign leaders who disagree with us is now neocon as well?
No, McCain isn't a neocon. He's just a plain ol' nationalist like we had back in the 50s and 60s.
Not everybody who holds some of the above views is a neocon, but all are consistent with neoconservative ideology. And I forgot to mention his idea of a league of Democracies, which is consistent with neoconservatism as well. Don't like insitutions? That's okay, create new ones!
That's VERY neo-conservative.
