Cutting off your nose to spite your face is generally thought of as "an expression used to describe a needlessly self-destructive overreaction to a problem."

With Sen. McCain's recent--and borderline loony, comments that he will be "Hamas' worst nightmare;" it's becoming increasingly clear that John McCain will cut off America's nose to spite its face.

Sen. McCain made the comment while dishing out a little red meat on a conference call with conservative bloggers. The comment, made in the context of criticizing Barack Obama, is as follows:

All I can tell you is that I think it's very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president of the United States ... I think that people should understand that I will be Hamas' worst nightmare ... If Sen. Obama is favored by Hamas I think people can make judgments accordingly.

This statement is not just wrong-headed and foolish, but rather, incredibly dangerous and destructive. It's exactly the kind of foreign policy perspective that spends far too much time seeking to punish others for perceived slights and too little promoting our own bests interests.

Matthew Yglesias had an interesting, and what I believe should be the predominant, reaction to Sen. McCain's comments in his blog at the Atlantic yesterday:

As well as being kind of scumbaggy, this way of looking at the world reveals a seriously flawed foreign policy outlook. Consider Saddam Hussein. He's a bad dude. And which American president is his worst nightmare? Well, it's George W. Bush. Thanks to Bush, Saddam got booted from power and killed. Compared to George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, Dubya was a disaster for Saddam. But of course Dubya's Iraq policy has also been a disaster for the United States of America, whereas Clinton and Papa Bush ran policies that made us better off. International politics shouldn't be conceived of as some nutty zero-sum race to the bottom where our goal is to make Hamas cry -- the question is who are we trying to help and do we have ways to do it. Probably the worst thing that could happen to Hamas would be for it to be supplanted by some more radical group like al-Qaeda. But that wouldn't help Israel or the United States, any more than getting into a self-destructive conflict with Iran is a good idea just because it might make some bad Iranians suffer.

Unfortunately, Sen. McCain's loony comments seem to form the prevailing view over the past eight years. Everything is about retribution. It's about punishment. It's about taking an eye for an eye. What it's not about is taking actions that promote the long-term interests of the United States and its allies.

It's time for a little nuance. It's time for a little "turn the other cheek". What it most definitely is not time for, is John McCain's retributive views on dealing with the people that he doesn't like.

John. C. Reilly's police officer in movie "Magnolia" debates these issues aloud in a voice-over narrative near the end of the movie. John McCain could learn a thing or two from this statement:

And what most people don't see is just how hard it is to do the right thing. I have to take everything and play it as it lays.

Sometimes people need a little help.

Sometimes people need to be forgiven.

And sometimes they need to go to jail.

And that is a very tricky thing on my part . . . making that call.

Very tricky indeed.

Isn't it about time to turn the page on the needlessly self-destructive "lock 'em up and throw away the key" crowd? Aren't we long past realizing that this sort of hyper-macho, bring-'em-on posturing has been a disaster to the long-term prosperity of America? Do we really want another hot-tempered practitioner of sandbox diplomacy in the White House?

John McCain's foreign policy world-view, and domestic policy view for that matter, is a retribution-based folly that would only ensure this country's continued moral erosion around the world and make us all decidedly less safe.

The policies and worldview of John McCain are America's worst enemy.