McCain: U.S. Succeeding in Iraq
March 24: Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., speaks during a campaign stop in Chula Vista, Calif. (AP Photo)
CHULA VISTA, Calif. — Fresh off his eighth Iraq visit, Sen. John McCain declared that “we are succeeding” and said he would not change course.
To underscore his view of the stakes in Iraq, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee twice referenced a recent audio tape from Usama bin Laden in which the Al Qaeda leader urged followers to join the Al Qaeda fight in Iraq and called the country “the greatest opportunity and the biggest task.”
“For the first time, I have seen Usama bin Laden and General (David) Petraeus in agreement, and, that is, a central battleground in the battle against Al Qaeda is in Iraq today. And that’s what bin Laden was saying and that’s what General Petraeus is saying and that’s what I’m saying, my friends,” McCain said. Petraeus is the top U.S. commander in Iraq.
“And my Democrat opponents who want to pull out of Iraq refuse to understand what’s being said and what’s happening — and that is the central battleground is Iraq in this struggle against radical Islamic extremism,” he added.
McCain also said Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton were naive and “dead wrong” to want to withdraw troops.
“We’re succeeding. I don’t care what anybody says. I’ve seen the facts on the ground,” the Arizona senator insisted a day after a roadside bomb in Baghdad killed four U.S. soldiers and rockets pounded the U.S.-protected Green Zone there, and a wave of attacks left at least 61 Iraqis dead nationwide.
The events transpired as bin Laden called on the people of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to “help in support of their mujahedeen brothers in Iraq, which is the greatest opportunity and the biggest task.”
Despite all that, McCain told reporters: “I don’t think I would change the strategy now unless General Petraeus recommended it. I think he’s trusted by the American people, the president and by me. And General Petraeus again showed me facts on the ground where the surge is succeeding.”
Democrats took issue with his remarks and cast his candidacy as a repeat of President George W. Bush’s tenure.
“As Americans mark another somber milestone in the war in Iraq, John McCain continues his pattern of parroting the Bush administration’s misleading rhetoric on the war,” Democratic Party spokeswoman Karen Finney said in a statement.
In the midst of a western fundraising swing after a week abroad, including visits to Iraq, the Middle East and Europe, the Arizona senator did not mention the grim casualty milestone or last week’s fifth anniversary of the conflict as he spoke to veterans and others at a stuffy Veterans of Foreign Wars building during a town-hall style campaign event outside of San Diego.
“I’ve commented on hundreds of occasions of the sacrifice the great and brave young Americans have made in Iraq and elsewhere in the world in the struggle against radical Islamic extremism,” McCain told reporters afterward. He said a bracelet he always wears with the name of Matthew Stanley, who was killed in Iraq, is a symbol not just of his sacrifice but also of Stanley’s 4,000 fallen comrades.
“My thoughts and my prayers go out to those families every day,” McCain added.
Also left unsaid during the event was the fact that 2007 was the war’s deadliest year with 901 American troop deaths. That was when Bush took McCain’s advice and sent thousands more U.S. troops to Iraq to quell violence in Baghdad. McCain long had called for such a strategy shift, and he effectively linked his presidential candidacy to the war last year even as public support for it plummeted.
“I’m not painting to you the most rosy scenario but I am telling you, compared to a year ago, before we started this surge, and with this great general, one of the great generals in American history, General David Petraeus, that we are succeeding in Iraq,” McCain told his audience.
Asked later if he was offering the war-weary public any different path forward in Iraq than Bush, McCain reached back to the past.
“I’m offering them the record of having objected strenuously to a failed strategy for nearly four years. That I argued against and fought against and said that the secretary of defense of my own party, and my own president, I had no confidence in. That’s how far I went in advocating the new strategy that is succeeding,” McCain told reporters.
BROUGHT TEARS TO MY EYES WITH THE MENTION OF STANLEY WRIST BAND HE ALWAYS WEARS.
It’s nice to finally hear some optimism about the war in Iraq. The left-wing, Obama-endorsing media hasn’t touched on the war in quite sometime now…why?? Because we ARE winning the war in Iraq, and the left-wing media is too afraid to report anything that shows we’re winning the war.
John McCain is the kind of man that we need in the White House. I would much rather have someone who sees the glass as half full, rather than half empty. Obama doesn’t know the first thing about foreign policy, and Hillary is a straight-up communist. I don’t want either of them sitting in the oval office…EVER.
People don’t realize that this war is setting the foundation for peace in the middle-east over the long-run. In such a fast-paced world where everyone wants results NOW, it’s hard for a lot of people to see the progress that is being made over in Iraq. Wouldn’t you rather have someone in the White House who is optimistic rather than a democrat who is happy when something in the war goes bad because it makes them look better??
Freedom comes with cost. The greatest cost is the loss of life.
All three of my children serve in the United States armed forces. My son, Jerod, was wounded during his second tour and was awarded the Purple Heart by the Marine Corp Commandant. He has since been promoted to Sergeant, reenlisted and is a member of Marsoc.
My oldest daughter, Rochelle, is a surgical apprentice in the United States Air Force. She enlisted in part to take care of her brother. She was disappointed when she was not able to deploy to Afghanistan.
My youngest child, Danielle, followed in her bother and sister’s footsteps and joined the Air Force Reserve. She is at Sheppard AFB and soon will be at Travis AFB.
All three of my children understand the meaning of “serving our country”.
I am the father who never served but, in a promise to my son, fight the war here while he fights in over there. Give credit to my children for their patriotism. Give credit to them for demonstrating such wisdom at an early age. All three of them are intelligent, handsome and full of hope and promise for the future.
The economy will recover in time with or without government help. Freedom will not endure if people forget what freedom really is. Senator McCain has not forgotten.
Some people have mentioned to me that Senator McCain is 72 years of age. My response is thank God. This country needs a man with experience, wisdom, leadership, and a time tested expression of patriotism. I say 72 is a very good number.
God help us if either Obama or Hillary Clinton are elected. They appear to have neither wisdom or experience and, they both gravely lack common sense.
I am humbled by my children’s wisdom at such a young age and Sentor McCain’s time tested wisdom.
Faithfully,
Keith Zimmerman