McCain: "We Will Withdraw"
ROCHESTER, NH – During a visit today to the state that resuscitated his presidential campaign, John McCain cautioned the Granite State's independent-minded voters gathered for a town hall meeting that Democratic rival Barack Obama is politicizing the Iraq war.
"I had the courage and the judgment to say that I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war," McCain said, referencing a tag line he used to defend his support for the troop surge in Iraq. "It seems to me that Senator Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign."
Just prior to the start of today's town hall, McCain's top foreign policy advisor, Randy Scheunemann, told reporters on a conference call that Obama's "judgment on the most important national security questions facing our country in 2007 was wrong, and it demonstrates both his inexperience and his ideological rigidity."
McCain's perspective was not embraced by everyone in the crowd of 800 gathered at the local Opera House, and at least one audience member, an older woman, said she prefers Obama's view of the situation in Iraq. Speaking to McCain during the event, the woman expressed strong opposition to the U.S. involvement in Iraq, saying that "we are in Iraq against international law," and all of the deaths that have occurred in that country verge on "criminal."
"Now the idea that we might someday have a stable democratic government there is not ours to impose on that country," the questioner said. "We should not be there in my opinion. We need to leave the country. The people of that country are asking us to leave. The prime minister of that country is asking us to leave."
McCain allowed the woman to speak and follow up several times, but each time he was unmoved by her impassioned plea against the war, reiterating that the U.S. has "succeeded."
"The fact is that everybody recognizes, including Prime Minister Maliki, that we have to have conditions-based withdrawal, and we all – we are gonna withdraw," McCain said. "We will withdraw. The fact is, is whether we withdraw in victory or whether we withdraw in defeat. And again, you and I have different versions. We have succeeded. The Sadr City is safe. Mosul is safe. Basra is safe. The people of Iraq, and I've been there, are now leading normal lives."
(NBC/NJ's ADAM AIGNER-TREWORGY)
Barack Obama is politicizing the Iraq war. That cannot be denied. But he is a politician, the Democrats are a political party, the Presidency is a political office, and Iraq is a important political issue. But the troops are real people not political issues. However, when politics are at their best they serve the people. It sounds bad to say Obama is politicizing the Iraq war, but IS it bad? It depends on what you think of Barack Obama.
Is John McCain politicizing the Iraq war? Unquestionably! If you listen to him critically it's self-evident. "I had the courage and the judgment to say that I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war." That is a great slogan, but it's purely political in nature. Look at the first word "I", meaning John McCain not Barack Obama. When McCain talks about how he was right on Iraq, which he might be, he talks about how Obama was wrong. If John McCain isn't politicizing the Iraq war then it doesn't matter who's right or who had the courage to say what. It's only important that we have succeeded, if we truly have, and where we go from here.
I have nothing against politicizing a war if it's done the right way and for the right reason. That is to better serve the people.
And so to both candidates:
Own up to politicizing the Iraq war and explain how it better serves us.
I'm tired of McCain's whining. I haven't been to Iraq and I don't know if the surge "worked" (whatever that means). I do know that no one in a war torn country could possibly be leading normal lives. I do know that America should not have gone into Iraq in the first place. Last I checked, we live in one earth and no nation should blindly pursue it's own selfish interest at the cost off everyone else. There should have been no Iraq war and there should have been no occupation. Everyone see's the sense in Afghanistan. The majority sees no sense in Iraq. So regardless of how McCain wants to spin it now, this Iraq war was and is a mistake.
McCain was a major cheerleader when Bush sold this war with lies.
Obama has been consistent on his stand on the Iraq war. It was a mistake from the start and no gimmick or white-washing can obliterate that fact. "The surge" as a justification in any form to me is a slap on the face of the people of Iraq. Sunnis or Shiites they are intelligent people that can effectively take care of their affairs without our unnecessary interference if they choose to. This is the message the Prime Minister of Iraq is sending us. We should not overstay our 'welcome'. We will regain our stand on the world stage. Let's get out our children who have performed marvellously in their mission of standing up for us through thick and thin.
Obama has been consistent on his stand on the Iraq war. It was a mistake from the start and no gimmick or white-washing can obliterate that fact. "The surge" as a justification in any form to me is a slap on the face of the people of Iraq. Sunnis or Shiites they are intelligent people that can effectively take care of their affairs without our unnecessary interference if they choose to. This is the message the Prime Minister of Iraq is sending us. We should not overstay our 'welcome'. We will regain our stand on the world stage. Let's get out our children who have performed marvellously in their mission of standing up for us through thick and thin.
Obama has been consistent on his stand on the Iraq war. It was a mistake from the start and no gimmick or white-washing can obliterate that fact. "The surge" as a justification in any form to me is a slap on the face of the people of Iraq. Sunnis or Shiites they are intelligent people that can effectively take care of their affairs without our unnecessary interference if they choose to. This is the message the Prime Minister of Iraq is sending us. We should not overstay our 'welcome'. We will regain our stand on the world stage. Let's get out our children who have performed marvellously in their mission of standing up for us through thick and thin.
Obama has been consistent on his stand on the Iraq war. It was a mistake from the start and no gimmick or white-washing can obliterate that fact. "The surge" as a justification in any form to me is a slap on the face of the people of Iraq. Sunnis or Shiites they are intelligent people that can effectively take care of their affairs without our unnecessary interference if they choose to. This is the message the Prime Minister of Iraq is sending us. We should not overstay our 'welcome'. We will regain our stand on the world stage. Let's get out our children who have performed marvellously in their mission of standing up for us through thick and thin.
Obama has been consistent on his stand on the Iraq war. It was a mistake from the start and no gimmick or white-washing can obliterate that fact. "The surge" as a justification in any form to me is a slap on the face of the people of Iraq. Sunnis or Shiites they are intelligent people that can effectively take care of their affairs without our unnecessary interference if they choose to. This is the message the Prime Minister of Iraq is sending us. We should not overstay our 'welcome'. We will regain our stand on the world stage. Let's get out our children who have performed marvellously in their mission of standing up for us through thick and thin.
Obama has been consistent on his stand on the Iraq war. It was a mistake from the start and no gimmick or white-washing can obliterate that fact. "The surge" as a justification in any form to me is a slap on the face of the people of Iraq. Sunnis or Shiites they are intelligent people that can effectively take care of their affairs without our unnecessary interference if they choose to. This is the message the Prime Minister of Iraq is sending us. We should not overstay our 'welcome'. We will regain our stand on the world stage. Let's get out our children who have performed marvellously in their mission of standing up for us through thick and thin.
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