- posted on 09/02/2012 09:21:32This entry was posted on Sunday, July 27th, 2008 at 4:52 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
The Sunday news programs delved into Senator John McCain’s war of words against Senator Barack Obama’s Iraq War plan. Senator Obama plans to withdraw American troops from Iraq if he is elected president. McCain contends Obama does not understand the Stakes in Iraq. John McCain’s last weekly radio address makes those assertions. Here is a portion of that transcript.
Good morning. I’m John McCain, and this week the presidential contest was a long-distance affair, with my opponent touring various continents and arriving yesterday in Paris. With all the breathless coverage from abroad, and with Senator Obama now addressing his speeches to “the people of the world,” I’m starting to feel a little left out. Maybe you are too.
Back here in the country that we are competing to lead, a lot folks were having trouble trying to square Senator Obama’s multiple positions on the surge in Iraq. First, he opposed the surge and confidently predicted that it would fail. Then he tried to prevent funding for the troops who carried out the surge. But now that it’s clear that the surge has succeeded, and brought victory in Iraq within sight, Senator Obama can’t quite bring himself to admit his own failure in judgment. Instead, he commits the even greater error of insisting that even in hindsight, he would still oppose the surge. Even in retrospect, he would choose the path of retreat and failure for America over the path of success and victory. That’s not exactly my idea of the judgment we seek in a commander-in-chief.
Oddly enough, my opponent advocates the deployment of two new combat brigades to Afghanistan — in other words, a surge. We’re left to wonder how he can deny that the surge in Iraq has succeeded, while at the same time announcing that a surge is just what we need in Afghanistan. I’ll leave all these questions for my opponent and his team of 300 foreign policy advisors to work out for themselves. With luck, they’ll get their story straight by the time the Obama campaign returns to North America.
What do you think about the Iraq War? In your opinion, who is right?
July 28th, 2008 at 10:58 am
It just stands to reason that if you dramatically increase your manpower the chances of successfully controlling a country improves. Liken it to doubling the amount of police patrols in a US neighborhood. Continuing with that analogy, how do you educate the citizenry of that neighborhood of the benefits of a safe peaceful community before your increased patrols end……which they must eventually. So the real work to be done is cultural and political change. This is the part that Obama gets and McCain does not.
July 28th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Obama went to Berlin, pulled over 200,000 people into a public square almost in the middle of the week, in the middle of the summer, in the middle of the day, and not only captivated them for almost 45 minutes but after he ended his speech, the people still didn’t want to leave. LOL!
McCain as a countermove, goes to a German restaurant in Ohio that holds about 100 to 200 people, has sausages, ales and beers, and rubs elbows with the diners and patrons there and that would be his photo op of the day. LOL! OK, Alrighty then! LOL!
I think McCain had to say something about Barack’s trip, so he said this statement above.
On the war, it’s a mess. I don’t look at Obama’s stand on the war as McCain described it: “he would choose the path of retreat and failure for America over the path of success and victory”
That is a Bush statement. That type of thinking is what got us into this mess in the first place.
“You are either with us or against us.” Not to go movie pop culture on us all but that reminds me of what Obi Wan Kenobi told Anakin in Star Wars: Revenge of The Sith: “Only a Sith deals in absolutes.”
Sometimes in life, it’s not about a failure or a victory. It’s about taking a good look at what has happened, what the real situation is and asking “where do we go from here? What is our best course of action from this point on?”
At this point, it’s not about a victory or a lost to me. It’s about doing what’s right to get out and transitioning the govt to the Iraqi people. Doing the most logical, smartest thing. How much more can you do when we have had the losses and injuries in soldiers that we have had?
This transition has taken too long in my opinion.
There have been several windows of opportunity to leave (I’ve been counting) and each one, America has passed on. Each time they do that, it’s making it harder to leave. At some point the real draw down must begin. The world has spoken. The world is crying out for 8 years of peace.
Whoever gets in is going to have to clean up Bush’s mess but I’m more interested in the fellow that says “OK, I know this is a mess, but here’s what we’re going to do to fix it as best as we can and then we have to leave” instead of the fellow that is saying “No. We’re going to keep on going like we been going. We gonna stay there until this is a victory. 100 years? No problem! Let’s stay 100 until we’ve won!” What tha?
Will this war be really be remembered as a “just” war in the future?
I think the success of this war will be the planning of getting out. I agree with Carl that it’s the way that change will be done that is the hard work, cultural and political yes.
Peace!
~LT