Military Responds To McCain’s Escalation Remark With ‘Laughter Down The Line'

[DrDel]

McCain put himself in a tight spot:

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/03/27/ware-mccain-iraq/

Yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) told radio host Bill Bennett that President Bush’s escalation is working. “There are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods, today,” he said. Today, when CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked McCain why Americans still aren’t able to safely leave the Green Zone in Iraq, the senator replied that Blitzer was giving three-month-old talking points:

General Petraeus goes out there almost every day in an unarmed humvee. I think you oughta catch up. You are giving the old line of three months ago. I understand it. We certainly don’t get it through the filter of some of the media.

But according to CNN reporter Michael Ware, who has been in Iraq for four years, McCain is “way off base.” He stated, “To suggest that there’s any neighborhood in this city where an American can walk freely is beyond ludicrous. I’d love Sen. McCain to tell me where that neighborhood is and he and I can go for a stroll.”

The only way for McCain to get out of this mess is to walk down the street of said neighbourhood unarmed, without an armed military escort and invite the press.

Wouldn't that be a nice picture?

He should do it to save face and gain votes.

[drewl]

Is that the same Bill Bennett who screams about family values while being so out of control he blew millions on slot machines?.......slot machines?

[FIDGAF]

He should do it to save face and gain votes.

Right after he updates his will.

[Woolen Horde]

The irony of all this is that while I'm reading this thread there's a big John McCain banner ad on top of the page.

[DrDel]

The irony of all this is that while I'm reading this thread there's a big John McCain banner ad on top of the page.


Haha. No shit. What did it say? That the Bushman is winning the war in Iraqistan?

[BlueJackalope]

Right after he updates his will.

Sounds like a nice stunt for the next Jackass movie. Luv to see all the boys decked out in Captain America costumes running through a Bagdad neighborhood.

This all does make me sad though. I've wanted to vote for McCain for six years and in the last year or so he has turned his back on what made him attractive to independents like me.
I think the GOP needs a reformer, someone who will take on corruption and extremism within its own party

My dream match up for '08 would be Obama vs the 2000 McCain. A win win for both sides with the potential to change the American politial landscape (to the good). My nightmare is Hillary vs the 2007 McCain (or insert radom conservative running on Gods, Guns 'n Gays).

[Brian Rucker]

Hell, I'd like to see a Hagel/Webb independant ticket.

[curst]

Straight talk express? More like straight-jacket talk! Haw!

Don't forget the follow-up story to this, found here (http://thinkprogress.org/2007/03/28/roberts-cnn-mccain-iraq/).

About as good as Lieberman contradicting the past several years of bullshit he's spewed (http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/mar/27/lieberman) with only one sentence yesterday.

[DeepT]

I wonder when McCain divested himself of the last shreds of integrity. It seemed to happen around or before the 2004 election.

I used to think this is the one Republican I would vote for, but now he is just like all the rest.

[BlueJackalope]

I wonder when McCain divested himself of the last shreds of integrity. It seemed to happen around or before the 2004 election.

I used to think this is the one Republican I would vote for, but now he is just like all the rest.

Its a tragedy. I think he is in an impossible situation. I believe he wants to do the honorable thing in Iraq and he believes that is to keep troops there until a stable government emerges. But to keep troops there he has to tie himself to the incompetent/corrupt Bush effort. McCain's idea for a surge was many times what Bush announced he wanted to actually try to win (as opposed to run out the clock). The few times I'v seen him lately he seems tired and old, Bush has done what the viet cong couldn't.

If he does get through the GOP primary (I still think he will) it will be interesting to see how much of the "old" McCain returns.

[jpinard]

I wonder when McCain divested himself of the last shreds of integrity. It seemed to happen around or before the 2004 election.

I used to think this is the one Republican I would vote for, but now he is just like all the rest.

I feel the same way. Sometime in the last few years he got neutered and lost his vision of reality.

[bloo]

If he does get through the GOP primary (I still think he will) it will be interesting to see how much of the "old" McCain returns.

He's going to have a very tough time in the Primaries if his fund raising doesn't turn around soon - and there is little to suggest from stories like the ones mentioned in this thread, that it will:

http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2007/03/mccain_we_wont.html

Factor in California moving its primary up and the importance of money early is even more critical. They won't be able to build the coffers from primary to primary.

Although, he probably won't have to deal with the evil push-polling used against him in South Carolina this time either.

McCain's campaign is already behind the 8-ball.

Romney is quietly raising lots of money, especially in key states like Florida (though I have the Florida from personal sources, not the article below):
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660204251,00.html

[XtienMurawski]

Ah Yes...the STRAIGHT Talk Express (http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/28/john-mccains-myspace-site-gets-an-interesting-straight-talk-twist/).

Mmm-hmmm.

http://static.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/mccain.jpg

[VegasRobb]

1 - He makes the statement
2 - Pundits push it out to the people
3 - People & Pundits use it to score points, reinforce positions
4 - Someone calls shenanigans
5 - It's too late to do meaningful follow up and countering
6 - The statement pretty much stands.

[bago]

McCain's support for the surge was based on the fact that there was no way Bush could be so stupid as to actually ignore the Baker report and do the exact opposite.

It would put him in the situation of appealing to the hawks while blaming the failure on the weak current clan and merging the independant/hardcore bases in the republican party.

Unfortunately, Bush actually WAS that stupid and ignored his daddys greatest bailout and doubled down. Now McCain is stuck.

Hence his insane statements about baghdad recently.

[Lizard_King]

There are plenty of neighborhoods where Coalition personnel are operating at a minimum security level. His comment is so vague and loaded that I can only imagine it is the product of extreme carelessness. There are certainly some of those places in Baghdad, but AFAIK the bad neighborhoods remain volatile, and I would not chalk any progress up to the surge except incidentally. I do know the worst city in Iraq (Ramadi) has come a long way in the last 7 months, and it is clear that the current command is on the same page with General Petraeus on their counterinsurgency tactics. Once again, not surge related, but I would be shocked if there was not similar improvement in other areas.

And there is no such thing as an unarmed/armored humvee outside of Coalition bases.

[Efficacy]

Well McCain is technically correct. If he was with us while we cleared the East side x 1 month ago he could of ran his pasty white ass all around some of the "bad neighborhoods" and not get fucked with.
Course we were a brigade size element operating with air weapons support...
Guess the truth is all in semantics.

[bloo]

Guess the truth is all in semantics.

You keep using that word (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/semantics). I do not think it means what you think it means.

I think you mean "details". I don't see any debate about the meaning of the implied term "safe"

[docvego]

Well it looks like McCain called your bluff you troop and apple pie hating libs!

As you can see here (http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/01/mccain-iraq-stroll/) he took a walk through a Baghdad market yesterday. Since it was such a nice day for a walk he also had the company of 100 soliders, 3 Blackhawks and 2 Apache Gunships. He even wore his bullet proof vest on the outside of his clothing to show how safe it is.

[Matthew Gallant]

Somebody should ask him if he remembers what "quibbling" was from his Academy days.

[bloo]

Somebody should ask him if he remembers what "quibbling" was from his Academy days.

Hehehehe. I remember that from the Naval Academy summer seminar. Good call.

[Woolen Horde]

I got a send-me-a-donation letter from the McCain campaign today. I have no idea why, since I'm a Democrat who lives in San Francisco. Anyway, it's got a four-page, typewritten message about everything he plans to do. However, there is absolutely no mention of Iraq at all. Just a broad sentence that says he's going to fight "the battle against terrorism, protecting our securty and defending our homeland. America did not choose this fight but neither will we shrink from it."

God, what a douchebag. That's why I will never vote for him. I thought about it back in 2000 if he had won the nomination, but McCain is doing everything he can right now to show that he wants to be Shrub Jr. Mr Straight-Talk Express can't mention the most pressing and important matter of the day in his campaign letter, and the bullshit about "not choosing this fight" is just that. Yeah, and Shrub really, really meant it when he said that he really didn't want to invade Iraq.

Fuck You, McCain. Fuck You.

[Brian Rucker]

BAGHDAD, April 2 — A day after members of an American Congressional delegation led by Senator John McCain pointed to their brief visit to Baghdad’s central market as evidence that the new security plan for the city was working, the merchants there were incredulous about the Americans’ conclusions.

“What are they talking about?” Ali Jassim Faiyad, the owner of an electrical appliances shop in the market, said Monday. “The security procedures were abnormal!”

The delegation arrived at the market, which is called Shorja, on Sunday with more than 100 soldiers in armored Humvees — the equivalent of an entire company — and attack helicopters circled overhead, a senior American military official in Baghdad said. The soldiers redirected traffic from the area and restricted access to the Americans, witnesses said, and sharpshooters were posted on the roofs. The congressmen wore bulletproof vests throughout their hourlong visit.

“They paralyzed the market when they came,” Mr. Faiyad said during an interview in his shop on Monday. “This was only for the media.”

He added, “This will not change anything.”

At a news conference shortly after their outing, Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican, and his three Congressional colleagues described Shorja as a safe, bustling place full of hopeful and warmly welcoming Iraqis — “like a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime,” offered Representative Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican who was a member of the delegation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/03/world/middleeast/03mccain.html

I just don't know what to say anymore. These asshats are parodies of themselves.

[jeffd]

Yeah McCain has gone senile or something. It looks like he might be the next casualty in the GOP primaries too; apparently his fundraising is anemic at this point.

[bdfinally]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/03/world/middleeast/03mccain.html

I just don't know what to say anymore. These asshats are parodies of themselves.

Pence's blog entry of his trip

http://mikepence.house.gov/blog/

[SlyFrog]

I loved the NPR interview I heard today. Apparently, one of the members of the delegation visited a carpet seller's shop. He was about to pay for some rug, and the carpet seller pointed to his heart (or some such) and insisted that no payment was necessary (apparently in Arabic, such that the delegate really didn't understand what in the hell the guy was saying). The delegate proceeded in some interview to give some quote about how much the Iraqis love us or some such other twaddle, as evidenced by this happy carpet seller.

So NPR goes out and interviews the carpet seller with a translater. Carpet seller basically says yes, I figured they were guests, and I could not make them pay. Then, when questioned on his views about the U.S., etc., the carpet seller proceeds to say he wished the occupation was over, and that the Americans would leave. Better yet, that he and everyone else supported the resistance, that it was legitimate, but his only beef was why are they blowing up Iraqis, instead of killing more Americans.

[Woolen Horde]

Yeah McCain has gone senile or something. It looks like he might be the next casualty in the GOP primaries too; apparently his fundraising is anemic at this point.

It must be if they're desperate enough to send solicitation letters to San Francisco Democrats!