by Johanna Neuman
Republican John McCain, chiding his Democratic opponents for promising a hasty withdrawal from Iraq, said today that it was “imprudent and dangerous” to leave the combat zone too quickly.
“I do not believe that anyone should make promises as a candidate for president that they cannot keep if elected,” he said. “To promise a withdrawal of our forces from Iraq, regardless of the calamitous consequences to the Iraqi people, our most vital interests and the future of the Middle East, is the height of irresponsibility” and “a failure of leadership.”
In a preview of the political fireworks surrounding this week’s Capitol Hill appearance by Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, McCain challenged Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton to be honest about the consequences of withdrawal.
“Doing the right thing in the heat of a political campaign is not always the easiest thing,” he said. “But when 4,000 Americans have given their lives so that America does not suffer the worst consequences of our failure in Iraq ..... we must put the nation’s interests before our own ambitions.”
Hailing last year’s “surge” in U.S. troops as “a critical moment in our nation’s history,” McCain told the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Kansas that Congress should reject, as it did last year, calls for what he called “a reckless and irresponsible withdrawal of our forces just at the moment when they are succeeding.”
The Arizona senator called on U.S. politicians to shun a policy of “withdraw and re-invade.” And he called on Iraq to use its surplus budget funds to create jobs, and to encourage reconciliation between Sunnis, Shiites Shia and Kurds. “Much more needs to be done,” he said. “Iraq’s politicians need to know that we expect them to show the necessary leadership to rebuild their country, for only they can.”
McCain said did not predict how long U.S. troops would need to stay in Iraq, saying only that he hopes to withdraw them at the earliest opportunity moment and that security needs “will require that we keep a sufficient level of American forces in Iraq until security conditions” improve. During a New Hampshire town hall meeting in January, McCain said that U.S. troops might have to stay in Iraq for 100 years, prompting both Clinton and Obama to question his judgment.
Today, acknowledging that the situation in southern Iraq remains unsettled, McCain said that the U.S. troop buildup had produced a glimmer of “something approaching normal” in Iraq.
“We are no longer staring into the abyss of defeat, and we can now look ahead to the genuine prospect of success,” McCain said. “Success in Iraq is the establishment of a generally peaceful, stable, prosperous, democratic state that poses no threat to its neighbors and contributes to the defeat of terrorists.”
With Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker to testify before Congress on Tuesday, all three presidential candidates will have an opportunity to ask questions - McCain and Clinton on the Armed Services Committee in the morning, Obama on the Foreign Relations Committee in the afternoon.
Clinton famously told Petraeus when he appeared before the committee in September that his report on the progress in Iraq required “a willing suspension of disbelief.” Obama, a freshman senator from Illinois, said Friday that he liked the question asked of Petraeus last time he appeared before the committee, posed by Virginia Sen. John W. Warner: “How has this effort in Iraq made us safer and how do we expect it will make us safer in the long run?”
The Clinton campaign, meanwhile, was picking up the pieces after Sunday’s staff shake-up in which pollster Mark Penn was ousted as her chief strategist. Campaign manager Maggie Williams said today that Penn will continue “to provide polling and advice to the campaign,” but that communications director Howard Wolfson and pollster Geoff Garin will direct the campaign’s message.
In keeping with the new message focus, the New York senator today unveiled a $300-million-a-year proposal to increase government funding on breast cancer research. On “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” aired today, Clinton said she thinks the government should also fund research on racial disparities in diagnosis and treatment for the disease, which she hopes will be effectively cured within 10 years.
Meanwhile, Obama picked up the endorsement of another superdelegate - Montana state legislator Margaret Campbell, the 69th superdelegate to back Obama since the Super Tuesday primaries on Feb. 5. During the same period, Clinton has a net loss of two superdelegates, with some 330 still uncommitted.
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Comments
McCain has demonstrated over and over again that he does not understand even the most basic of facts about his signature issue, the Iraq War.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/03/18/a_mccain_gaffe_in_jordan.html
Sen. John McCain, traveling in the Middle East to promote his foreign policy expertise, misidentified in remarks Tuesday which broad category of Iraqi extremists are allegedly receiving support from Iran.
He said several times that Iran, a predominately Shiite country, was supplying the mostly Sunni militant group, al-Qaeda...
McCain said he and two Senate colleagues traveling with him continue to be concerned about Iranian operatives "taking al-Qaeda into Iran, training them and sending them back."
Pressed to elaborate, McCain said it was "common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran, that's well known. And it's unfortunate." A few moments later, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, standing just behind McCain, stepped forward and whispered in the presidential candidate's ear. McCain then said: "I'm sorry, the Iranians are training extremists, not al-Qaeda."
Al Qaeda in Iraq is of course entirely dominated by Sunni extremists who view all Shiites as heretics. The rise of Al Qaeda in Iraq and everything it has done there has been shaped by it's contempt for Shiites. The course of the insurgency, down to and including the "Sunni Awakening", has reflected that fanatical hostility that Al Qaeda brought to bear inside Iraq. Iranian involvement in financing and supporting Shiite militias in Iraq came partly in reaction to the rise of Al Qaeda in Iraq.
This isn't just a minor slip. This betrays a profound lack of foreign policy expertise, a shallowness so extreme that if the remark had been made by Barack Obama, say, it would have called into question his viability as a presidential candidate.
So you should expect the "serious" thinkers of the traditional media to dismiss the gaffe as 'trivial'. We are not allowed even to consider the possibility that John McCain is a foreign policy lightweight...not with all those splendid crazy Neocon foreign policy advisers he's assembled....the same nuts who worked for BushCo and gave us the Iraq disaster.
http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/03/17/mccain-advisers/
Think Progress reported that McCain made the same crazyassertion on Hugh Hewitt's program.
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/18/mccain-iran-al-qaeda/
Posted by: lylepink | April 7, 2008 4:49 PM
John W McBush still can't even get his facts straight on the Iraq war.
McCain, who once had to be corrected by faithful sidekick Joe Lieberman as he was performing one of his gaffes during a recent Middle East visit, once again displayed his penchant for misspeaking about the war during his Sunday appearance on Fox News Sunday.
"McCain blunders on Iraq, again: Confuses Iraqi cleric with Prime Minister on ceasefire deal"
04/06/2008 @ 3:08 pm
Filed by David Edwards and Chris Tackett
"During an appearance on Fox News Sunday, John McCain again repeated the false claim that Muqtada al-Sadr declared the ceasefire in Basra last week and said he thought the Iraqi army was performing well".
"It was al-Sadr that declared the ceasefire, not Maliki," said McCain. "With respect, I don’t think Sadr would have declared the ceasefire if he thought he was winning. Most times in history, military engagements, the winning side doesn’t declare the ceasefire. The second point is, overall, the Iraqi military performed pretty well. … The military is functioning very effectively."
"As the blog, Think Progress notes, "it was members of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government who brokered the ceasefire, to which Sadr agreed. Experts agree that Sadr’s influence was strengthened — rather than diminished — by the Basra battle."
"It's not the first time McCain has erred when talking about Iraq. Last month, McCain wrongly said Iran trains Al-Qaeda members".
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/McCain_blunders_on_Iraq_again_Confuses_0406.html
Posted by: John E | April 7, 2008 4:51 PM
Senator McCain's entirely right to call the democrats out on their dangerous rhetoric but even Senator Obama is already planning to flip-flop on his "troops out now" pledge should he ever be elected - and president would be the first real election he's won since the state senate.
A memo from one of his foreign policy advisors says he'd keep 80,000 troops in Iraq and foresees the same type of presence McCain wants (non-combatant oversight role with a military base to normal people "100 years of war" to the crazy Bill Husseins out there").
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/04/04/obama-adviser-keep-80000-troops-in-iraq/
I don't mind that Obama wants to do the right thing. I mind that he's lying to the crazy leftists out there that his policy is much different from McCains. It's not.
Posted by: Jeff | April 7, 2008 4:54 PM
Remember when John W McBush said he'd be fine with American troops in Iraq for 100 years?
Well, according to the Republican National Committee, he never said it, or not really like it's being quoted, or there were mitigating circumstances, or...and...but...but...
The Republicans and their lackeys (Jeff) are trying to say that McCain didn't mean we'd be at war for the full hundred years. Well, then why say it? There's little indication we've "subdued" Iraq enough that we'll ever not be at war there. To do that, to eliminate any attacks on the US occupying forces, will probably never happen. But if one were open to the possibility that we could eventually subdue all Iraqi opposition, what would be a good estimate of how long it might take?
100 years sounds about right to me...and to John McCain.
The difference between John McCain and the Republican dead-enders vs the Democrats and the two-thirds or more of Americans willing to face reality is that we realize it's time to start leaving Iraq. John McCain wants us to stay there another 100 years to see if things get better. And the RNC is trying desperately to convince people John McCain didn't mean it. Or didn't say it. Or...something.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf7HYoh9YMM
Posted by: John E | April 7, 2008 4:56 PM
“Much more needs to be done,” he said. “Iraq’s politicians need to know that we expect them to show the necessary leadership to rebuild their country, for only they can.”
However, even if they make no progress, McCain will keep US troops in harms way in Iraq forever. There has been no consequence for the Iraqis failing to meet the benchmarks Bush set out last January. That will continue with McCain. Iraqi politicians will do nothing, while US troops die fighting their civil war. 3 died just yesterday attacking Maliki's political enemies is Sadr city.
Maliki knows he has an endless supply of US lives to spend fighting his political enemies, and John McCain is pledged to maintain that policy.
Posted by: Michael | April 7, 2008 5:00 PM
It's not just me, John. The non-partisan Columbia Jouralism Review, the Associated Press and factcheck.org all say that Obama is lying when he or one of his crazed supporters like you try to imply that he meant we'd be fighting a war in Iraq for 100 years.
The questioner asked him if he thought we'd be in Iraq for 50 years. McCain answered “Make it a hundred. We’ve been in Japan for 60 years. We’ve been in South Korea for 50 years or so. That would be fine with me, as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed. It’s fine with me and I hope it would be fine with you if we maintained a presence in a very volatile part of the world where al Qaeda is training, recruiting and equipping and motivating people every single day.”
Do keep repeating what the Columbia Journalism Review called "downright lying" though, John. Nothing brightens my day more than smacking down one of your pathetic attempts at a smear. If you're going to be a shill at least try to be good at it. Here's factcheck.org to set you straight: http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/smear_or_be_smeared.html
What do you think of Obama's top foreign policy advisor advocating essentially the same plan as McCain's?
Posted by: Jeff | April 7, 2008 5:08 PM
McCain is a warmonger, he's more dangerous to the well-being of our country than even Bush and Cheney are.
There is no issue more serious then the continued militarization of our country and our culture and I want to call attention to someone who not only embraces the song of war, he literally sings it!
Let everyone see firsthand (with a little help from our composers) that the McCain embraces war in a dangerous and irresponsible manner.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2kyXN4ZVQg
Posted by: geraldean2 | April 7, 2008 5:33 PM
The failure in leadeship began when shrub illegally invaded Iraq based on lies his henchmen told to the world. If mcbush is so concerned about leadership, he needs to seriously start distancing himself from the failed mis-administration that is the horrendous legacy of the worst vice presidency in the history of the universe. As long as he keeps parroting the cheney manure, he'll contiue to sound hopelessly out of touch with mainstream America.
Posted by: rncbs | April 7, 2008 6:32 PM
Jeff,
If McCain is going to continue calling himself a foreign policy/war expert he might want to take the time figure out the difference between the Sunnies and the Shiites in Iraq.
Most fifth graders in this country have already got that figured out.
Posted by: goga54 | April 7, 2008 6:37 PM
Remember when Bush Jr promised us no nation building only to build a nation in Iraq....well, I'll go with McBush on this one who isn't telling me one thing and then his ex adviser tells me otherwise.... and otherwise, in this case, meaning what Bush and McBush are stressing all along.
"He will, of course, not rely on some plan that he’s crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. Senator..."What he’s actually said, after meting with the generals and meeting with intelligence professionals, is that you – at best case scenario – will be able to withdraw one to two combat brigades each month. That’s what they’re telling him. He will revisit it when he becomes president..."You can’t make a commitment in March 2008 about what circumstances will be like in January of 2009," she said. "He will, of course, not rely on some plan that he’s crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. Senator. He will rely upon a plan – an operational plan – that he pulls together in consultation with people who are on the ground to whom he doesn’t have daily access now, as a result of not being the president. So to think – it would be the height of ideology to sort of say, 'Well, I said it, therefore I’m going to impose it on whatever reality greets me.'"
-Samanth Powers.
McCain in 08!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: the French mime | April 7, 2008 7:01 PM
It's not just me, John. The non-partisan Columbia Jouralism Review, the Associated Press and factcheck
Posted by: Jeff | April 7, 2008 5:08 PM
Jeffy,
Let me count the ways that I'm not surprised that the Wingnuts would pay off some "journalist's" to try and correct John McBush's 100 years in Iraq statement....
The best part about this is that everytime McCain and his flunkies try to backtrack on it, it just ends up reminding everyone that McCain really DID say it.
Posted by: John E | April 7, 2008 7:01 PM
Goga54, see my earlier post about why you and your friends in the fifth grade are wrong. Or are you telling me you know more about the history of Al Qaeda and Iran than the 9/11 Commission?
Geraldean, you're pathetic. No one knows the personal costs of war more than the POW McCain, who has two sons in the military. Your Obamessiah said he doesn't agree that McCain's a "warmonger" but I guess that doesn't stop you from lying. Typical of the wacko left.
Posted by: Jeff | April 7, 2008 7:11 PM
You're brain is more addled than even usual if you're really suggesting that the Columbia Journalism Review can be bought and paid for. Unlike you, John E., the CJR has standards. And the AP? You think the AP can be purchased? By anyone?
Everyone knows exactly what McCain said and, unlike you, they don't hear only what they want to.
GoGa, time to go back to fifth grade and read the 9/11 report. You clearly need remedial reaeding "The 9-11 Commission documented at length Iran's continuing assistance to Al-Qaeda and recommended that the U.S. government further investigate Iranian links to Al-Qaeda": http://www.meforum.org/article/670
Posted by: Jeff | April 7, 2008 7:23 PM
Let me count the ways that I'm not surprised that the Wingnuts would pay off some "journalist's" to try and correct John McBush's 100 years in Iraq statement....
Posted by: John E | April 7, 2008 7:01 PM
You're saying that Columbia Jouralism Review, the Associated Press and factcheck.org were all paid off? That's rich.
OK blubberhead, suppose you document what you think McCain "really DID" say. Cite a source and/or give us a link to McCain's actual words.
Posted by: MJ | April 7, 2008 7:25 PM
Posted by: geraldean2 | April 7, 2008 5:33 PM
So you're still letting John E assume other people's post names for his pranks, eh Silva? So does that mean we can all do that? I can post as John E now?
Posted by: Anonymous | April 7, 2008 7:30 PM
Johanna Neuman, as a working journalist how do you feel about the child on this blog writing that the Columbia Journalism Review and the Associated Press not only could be, but were "paid off" by a presidential campaign?
As a journalist, wouldn't you say that's a personal attack on the unimpeachable credibility of AP and the CJR?
Posted by: Jeff | April 7, 2008 7:31 PM
Let's throw 54,000 more good lives after 4000 good lives before we re-evaluate the sitcheeation, hey?
This war will soon move up to just behind the Korean War in regard to US deaths.
This was the cake walk proposed by Rummy, Cheney and Bush and the Neo-con controllers (Pearl, Wolfy) running Fool and the Gang.
Mr. McCain, who I admire on some levels, has been handed a perfect VN War metaphor to screw up over again.
Wake up, Johnny! It won't work now, just like it didn't work then!
Posted by: C.Morris | April 7, 2008 7:50 PM
Of course nobody here speaks with more authority about war and the military than our little John E:
"I've signed back up,in Feb [2007]. I will be off. If I can replace one young kid over there,then I feel I have done my part."
Posted by: John E. | Oct 13, 2006 5:45:30 PM
By the way, how did you manage to post 50 times per day while shooting it out with the insurgents? Musta been rough.
Anyway, why don't you share some of your war adventures with us? We would all like to hear some first hand accounts of the war. I'm sure there are some really thrilling stories about you and GI Joe in the backyard sandbox.
Posted by: John Monica E Lewinsky | April 7, 2008 7:55 PM
Wake up folks. Nobody -- not Obama nor Clinton -- nobody is going to end the American military involvement in Iraq in 2009. Or anytime before the 2012 election.
People who get their information about the world from sources other than YouTube already know that.
Posted by: MJ | April 7, 2008 8:37 PM
MJ,
like the fox in Bri'ar Rabbit, we are stuck on the tar baby, Iraq.
But we have to start working our way loose. We need to take a cane to Maliki and the Iraqi rulers.
It's seems like we listen to these Iraq and US spokes people, and they aren't even in the same galaxy, let alone on the same page.
We have been played for fools on a gigantic scale. And not just by Iraq. (See Israel and the Cuban exile controllers.)
Posted by: The Lenin Sisters | April 7, 2008 9:01 PM
McCain really seems out of touch with regard to the war. I don't know if it's some holdover from Vietnam or what. He sounded nuts today before the mortars cut him off on TV. I've lost faith in him. Nice guy, but...
Watch this and you'll get my drift.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajm5JTf7jZs
Posted by: Logic Prisoner | April 7, 2008 9:22 PM
Wake up folks. Nobody -- not Obama nor Clinton -- nobody is going to end the American military involvement in Iraq in 2009. Or anytime before the 2012 election.
People who get their information about the world from sources other than YouTube already know that.
Posted by: MJ | April 7, 2008 8:37 PM
.....and you know this how, you tard???
Because John McCain told you??
Posted by: geraldinetoo | April 7, 2008 9:22 PM
Wake up folks. Nobody -- not Obama nor Clinton -- nobody is going to end the American military involvement in Iraq in 2009. Or anytime before the 2012 election.
People who get their information about the world from sources other than YouTube already know that.
Posted by: MJ | April 7, 2008 8:37 PM
Glad you have it all figured out for us MJ. Should you end up being right we'll have the republicans like Bush/Cheney and McCain to thank. Bin Laden has manipulated them like a puppet master. Sucks to have dumb/corrupt and senile people running this great country of our into the ground.
Posted by: Anton Chigurh | April 7, 2008 9:26 PM
Jeffy,
Videotape doesn't lie.
Here's McCain making his stupid 100 years in Iraq statement:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFknKVjuyNk
Here's McCain singing Bomb Bomb Iran:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2kyXN4ZVQg
I love it that the Wingnuts are making a big deal of this because the longer the Dems can keep the Wingnuts talking about McCain's crazy
statements, the better for the Dems.
PS - "MJ" or whatever you're calling yourself today, Get A Life You Dumb Old Man!
Posted by: John E | April 7, 2008 9:30 PM
John, watch your own video! It's the exact words I've posted! The key part you're ignoring is "as long as Americans aren't getting hurt or killed I have no problem with America keeping a presence in a very volatile part of the world and I hope you wouldn't, either."
Did you even watch it? The groupthink you engage in is just maddening. It's like you've convinced yourself the video is something different than the direct quotes I've posted here and even a cursory viewing would show you it's not.
So how is Anbar province today, by the way, John? Has GI Joe beaten cobra yet? Have you replaced one kid like senator McCain's son yet? Your addled brain is astounding sometimes.
Don't you think Bill Hussein R. and the rest of the more intelligent lefties on this blog would be jumping in and defending you if you had a leg to stand on? Even Logic Prisoner has stayed miles away from your statement that the republicans "paid off" some journalists to run corrections of the 100 years statement. You really need to give it up.
Because you won't give up this indefensible position you've forced me to repost the corrections credible media outlets have run to refute your distortion of the 100 years comment.
Here goes: The Annenberg Public Policy Center called Obama’s statement a “serious distortion to the point of rank falsehood”; Washington Post's FactChecker column says the claim does not pass the Pinocchio Test; and the Columbia Journalism Review, not exactly a bastion of Republican support, declares the "Press needs to call Obama on distortion of McCain’s statement.
Posted by: Jeff | April 7, 2008 11:14 PM
This says it all.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/07/john-mccains-iraq-speech-interrupted-with-news-of-attacks-on-the-green-zone/
Posted by: DD | April 7, 2008 11:44 PM
MJ,
like the fox in Bri'ar Rabbit, we are stuck on the tar baby, Iraq.
Posted by: The Lenin Sisters | April 7, 2008 9:01 PM
Yep. And Clinton knows that and so does Obama, in spite of what they imply in their soundbites. That's why if you delve into the details, they admit that an immediate withdrawal is impossible.
PS: Thank you to John E Obama Girl for posting a link that confirms what Senator McCain actually said... and it's not 100 years of war in Iraq.
Posted by: MJ | April 8, 2008 7:06 AM
How about it doesn't matter what the US no matter who is talking wants...how about we ask the Iraqi people via an election...should the US stay or should they go? We are pretty full of ourselves if we think they want us there until "success" happens. It could be done electronically so we could get faster results...oh wait...we destroyed their electrical systems.
Posted by: lochnessmonster | April 8, 2008 7:07 AM
“Iraq’s politicians need to know that we expect them to show the necessary leadership to rebuild their country, for only they can.”
As long as we are there, holding their hands, this is impossible. 4,000 US Soldiers have died in vain for an immoral war that does nothing to secure America in any way.
The responsible thing to do is to leave, so as force the Iraqi politicians hands. No more help if they can't play nice with each other. There is no other way. Military force is never an answer, it is always part of the problem.
Posted by: David J | April 8, 2008 9:22 AM
PS: Thank you to John E Obama Girl for posting a link that confirms what Senator McCain actually said... and it's not 100 years of war in Iraq.
Posted by: MJ | April 8, 2008 7:06 AM
Nope, it's actually longer. It's an infinite commitment to Iraq with absolutely no requirement for action on their part.
If the Iraqi government does nothing toward reconciliation, and the insurgency continues, McCain has committed to remaining no matter what. There are no "benchmarks" there are no committments from the Iraqi side. The only committment is ours: To send our troops to die for as long as the Iraqi's care to shoot. We have signed the US military over to Iraq. They have a blank check payable in american lives.
Posted by: Kyle | April 8, 2008 10:07 AM
Jeffy,
Old man McCain said he'd have no problen staying in Iraq for "100 years" and he even expanded his insane statement to saying that staying in Iraq for "1000 years" would be fine by him.
The Wingnuts aren't going to be able to put that cat back in the bag but like I said earlier, I love it that the rightwing lunitic fringe is making a big deal about it because it lets everyone take another good look at the video's showing McCain saying it....again.
Posted by: John E | April 8, 2008 1:49 PM