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.
What in McCain talking about?? Succeeding in what?? Maybe he forgot that his vote & Hillary’s vote cost 4000 US soldiers their lives, created at least 10,000 US orphans, and over 300,000 Iraqis orphans, succeeding in bringing the price oil to over $100/B, succeeding in increasing the national debt by 1 trillion dollars only from the Iraq war, succeeding in the collapse of the US dollar, succeeding in making other countries asking for money to support the Iraq war, succeeding in making insurgents out of passive Iraqis, succeeding in making McCain look & sound like an IDIOT
Senator McCain has it exactly right. This the price for freedom that is not free.
Senator McCain is exactly right - the dems are in la la land. They’ve been on a “push the hatred of President Bush at any cost” agenda since he was elected. No matter how well the military does they will never admit they’re doing a good job or making progress because they, above anything else, hate Bush and can’t ever admit that any part of his administration is doing good things. What a thoughtful platform. Way to support the troops! NOT. This policy of non-cooperation for purely political purposes is shameful and has no doubt hampered progress and ultimately cost lives. Is that really service before self? Not hardly.
Then they push the rhetoric about McCain parroting Bush when the facts CLEARLY indicate he went against President Bush and Rumsfeld, and when they finally changed the strategy to match McCain’s, the war took a positive turn - grand slam! And doesn’t it show great character in a president to admit choices of the past were wrong and to change tactics based on fact versus what CNN states is popular?
Now it’s not all rosy, but you’re now seeing more of the support folks and trainers/mentors deploy into the region - that’s indicative of stability on the ground, and that spell s-u-c-c-e-s-s, and the dems can’t stomach it because many of them (you know who they are) have a vested interest in America’s defeat. How sad is that?
Ladies and gentlemen, all the troops ask is for you to thank and appreciate them. They are answering the highest calling - to give their lives on behalf of their countrymen. Isn’t it just sad, you have 18-year olds willing to sacrifice their lives on behalf of their country and you have members of the democratic party who don’t even have the courage to sacrifice their political lives for what’s right…in that regard, they could really learn something about character, patriotism, conviction and values from their president who sacrificed his political popularity for what he believed was right.
I agree. We are succeeding… in bankrupting our country.
McCain is exactly right in his thinking on the war. What the democrats and liberals fail to see is that if we pulled out now, all the lives lost would be in vain. The troops say it and their families say it. We have to continue the fight until we eradicate the terrorists. We either fight them over there, or we fight them here, is that what you liberals want? I can see you all running and hiding when they get here, (since you will have given up your guns to the democrats that you elected) You’d better think about getting your baggy a- - pants pulled up so you can RUN, get those earrings out of your eyelids, nose and tongue, and get your liberal a- - - - out of Starbucks and come into the real world.
John;
Like yourself, I am a Vietnam Veteran that strongly believes that if we pull out of there like Vietnam, turn tail and run this time they will be here in the streets of the USA and we will have to fight them here. All these people that are afraid to hurt feelings don’t stop to realize that the terrorists don’t hesitate to behead, torture, beat and rape women and don’t care if they hurt anyones feelings. IT’S TIME TO WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE FOLKS—FIGHT THEM OVER THERE OR FIGHT THEM HERE.
Sen. McCain is dead on correct in his assessment of the importance of victory in Iraq. The democratic candidates are fools pull troops out and somehow manage to snatch defeat
from the jaws of victory. The only way to honor the sacrafice that 4000 of our finest have made is to never let their efforts be wasted. Defeat brought on soley by a lack of commitment from those who agreed to send them will always be unacceptable.
For every year that our government continues with the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the price that I pay for gasoline at the pump is a dollar higher.
all young men love honore but they love to win even better . we have come to a y in the road victory for them or for us and peace.
McCain is right. He should know, this is just like Vietnam. An idiot corrupt president got us in and kept us in, and a retarded scretary of defense mismanaged the war with the IQ of a 5 year old. History repeating itself, to the chagrin of hundreds of millions of Americans and at the cost of countless patriotic servicemen. Now, with Petreaus and McCain, maybe we can get out with honor instead of tossing helicopters over the edge of the Saigon shoreline.
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
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??
BROUGHT TEARS TO MY EYES WITH THE MENTION OF STANLEY WRIST BAND HE ALWAYS WEARS.