McCain believes 'Obama failed, not our military'

[sabra]

http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/?loc=interstitialskip

McCain believes 'Obama failed, not our military'

Speaking to the American GI Forum this hour in Denver, Republican presidential candidate John McCain plans to again take some hard shots at Democratic rival Barack Obama over Iraq policy. According to a copy of McCain's prepared remarks that his campaign has released, he will say:

"Senator Obama told the American people what he thought you wanted to hear. I told you the truth. From the early days of this war, I feared the administration was pursuing a mistaken strategy, and I said so. I went to Iraq many times, and heard all the phony explanations about how we were winning. I knew we were failing, and I told that to an administration that did not want to hear it. I pushed for the strategy that is now succeeding before most people even admitted that there was a problem.

"Fortunately, Senator Obama failed, not our military. We rejected the audacity of hopelessness, and we were right. Violence in Iraq fell to such low levels for such a long time that Senator Obama, detecting the success he never believed possible, falsely claimed that he had always predicted it. There have been almost no sectarian killings in Baghdad for more than 13 weeks. American casualties are at the lowest levels recorded in this war. The Iraqi Army is stronger and fighting harder. The Iraqi Government has met most of the benchmarks for political progress we demanded of them, and the nation's largest Sunni party recently rejoined the government.

"In Iraq, we are no longer on the doorstep of defeat, but on the road to victory.
Senator Obama said this week that even knowing what he knows today that he still would have opposed the surge. In retrospect, given the opportunity to choose between failure and success, he chooses failure. I cannot conceive of a Commander in Chief making that choice."

[ErinBerin84]

1. he's such a scumbag.

[Cronus Protagonist]

2. "almost no sectarian killings"

hahaha, as opposed to non-sectarian killings, of which there were quite a few, and what does "almost no" mean? Doesn't that mean, really, SOME, and is therefore an oxymoron?

[Vinca]

3. I'm starting to despise this guy as much as Boosh. nt

[Chulanowa]

4. McCain's next strategy?

Chanting "I'm rubber, you're glue!"

[MrsT]

5. "I told you the truth."

He is joking, right? He and Bush have told endless lies about Iraq.

[TwilightGardener]

11. "It will be easy". He actually said that.

[DesertFlower]

6. he's desperate. nt

[anonymous171]

7. lol "TEH SURGE"

[Alter Ego]

8. You lying fuck, McCain.

You have said, and there is video evidence to prove it, that you have agreed with Bush on 95% of the shit he's done concerning Iraq. Nice try.

You lying, festering severed ballsack.

[saltpoint]

9. It did not take nearly as long for U.S. citizens to turn against the Iraq War

as it did for them to break from their government during the Vietnam years.

Obama's original opposition to the Iraq attack remains in his steady favor. McCain is hobbled by his craven pandering to George W. Bush on the same issue.

He's trying for the up-is-down strategy, and will have some media complicity, but voters have already made their mind up that among the things they dislike most about Bush is Iraq, and any Republican who reminds them of that issue and Bush's lies surrounding that issue, is likely a goner in November.

[TwilightGardener]

10. McSurge continues to demonstrate that he has no coherent strategy for Iraq and no exit plan.

McSurge also fails to realize that when a war is waged for fraudulent reasons, it is by its very nature a failure, in all aspects--and prolonging it through escalation simply perpetuates the failure. Keep talkin' about the Surge, you fucking Fossil--the American people and the Iraqis are on to your Neocon shit, and they know the war is fucking over and that it's time for us to come home.

[baldguy]

12. And don't forget: THE SURGE IS WORKING!

April 15, 2008
Iraq bomb kills 2 state Marines
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=739904

May 24, 2008
Iraq bomb injures 6 Marines
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/columnone/la-fg-iraq24-2008may24,0,4361178.story

June 25, 2008
Iraq bomb kills 3 U.S. soldiers, interpreter
http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/l25618448-iraq-soldiers/

June 17, 2008
More Than 50 Killed in Iraq Car Bomb Attack
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/middle_east/jan-june08/iraq_06-17.html

June 29, 2008
Truck bomb kills 7, wounds 3 in Iraq
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/06/29/iraq.main/

July 1, 2008
Iraq: truck bomb kills 1, injures 25
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2008-07-01-Iraq-truckbomb_N.htm

July 15, 2008
Suicide Bomb Kills 28 in Iraq
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1822789,00.html

July 16, 2008
At least 15 killed in Iraq car bomb blast
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2008-07-16-Iraq-car-bomb_N.htm

July 21, 2008
Iraq: Car bomb kills 2 Iraqi Kurdish contractors
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080721/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_contractors_killed

July 24, 2008
Female suicide bomber kills at least 8 US-allied Sunni fighters and wounds 24 in Baqouba
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-iraq,0,219744.story

[hisownpetard]

13. McCain is jumping the snark (sic).

What a desperate little man he is.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

14. How does McCain feel about the will of the Iraqi people that we withdraw?

I hear nothing of that cold hard fact in McCain's statements. McCain's "road to victory" seems to run over the very people whose sovereignty we were supposed to establish. Mccain seems to have conveniently forgotten that the Iraqis heavily favor our withdrawal in the near term, not when some American President decides that hiw own definition of victory has been achieved.

And I don't hear any acknowledgement by McCain that the success of the Splurge didn't really come about as a result of more troops, but more cash. We bribed and paid-off the Sunni militias to stand down, even giving weapons to groups that previously were killing our soldiers. What happens the day that funding runs out? The Splurge is a band-aid, not a permanent solution to Iraq's fundamentally divided society. The Iraqis are ultimately going to have to work out their problems on their own.

[EnviroBat]

15. Iraq = Viet Nam 2008

Lumpy McDipshit wants a "win" at any cost. This fucker should be exiled from the U.S. I, for one will never recognize John McCain as the President if by some, sick twist it came to that.

[Skwmom]

16. The surge was YOUR LAST CHANCE to try to save your presidential bid.

[enough already]

17. Fuck him

Fuck every last one of those republican dirtbags.

[truebrit71]

18. I can't wait 'til the debates...Obama will kick Crash McLame's ass...

...and then (hopefully) the country will see him for the doddering old crook he is...(Keating Five anyone?)