McCain rebukes Obama, proposes “surge” for Afghanistan
ALBUQUERQUE, NM — Seeking to counter Sen. Obama’s major foreign policy address today, Sen. McCain pounced on his Democratic rival for announcing his strategy for Iraq and Afghanistan before he is set to travel to the two war zones.
“I note that he is speaking today about his plans for Iraq and Afghanistan before he has even left, before he has talked to General Petraeus, before he has seen the progress in Iraq, and before he has set foot in Afghanistan for the first time,” McCain told about 200 voters at a town hall meeting in Albuquerque, in remarks originally set to be delivered Thursday but moved up to coincide with Obama’s speech. “In my experience, fact-finding missions usually work best the other way around. First you assess the facts on the ground, then you present a new strategy. So this is certainly a departure to what I have usually done.”
The presumptive GOP nominee also criticized Obama’s recent statements about the surge as taking flip-flopping to a “new level”–pointing to Obama’s remarks that he had “no doubt” the military surge would succeed despite other statements to the contrary.
“My friends, flip-floppers all over the world are enraged..it give new meaning (to the term),” McCain told the town hall, later adding aboard his bus that Obama’s evolving position on Iraq “exceeds every (flip flop) that I have ever observed and I have seen some egregious ones.”
His criticism came during a speech where he called the current situation in Afghanistan “not acceptable” and laid out his “comprehensive strategy for victory,” which includes sending up to 15,000 additional troops to that battlefront in order to turnaround recent Taliban advances.
“Our commanders on the ground in Afghanistan say that they need at least three additional brigades. Thanks to the success of the surge, these forces are becoming available, and our commanders in Afghanistan must get them. But sending more forces, by itself, that by itself is not enough,” McCain said, later clarifying that the brigades would not just be American but be made up of a combination of U.S. and NATO forces. But the GOPer added today that more troops is not the only solution to bringing down the violence.
“What we need in Afghanistan is exactly what General Petraeus brought to Iraq: a nationwide civil-military campaign that is focused on providing security for the population. Today no such integrated plan exists. When I am commander-in-chief, it will,” he added.
Speaking to reporters aboard his bus, McCain also had some uncharacteristically tough words for Afghan leader Hamid Karzai, stating that he has not met U.S. expectations.
“Karzai has not been effective. Karzai has not been the strong leader that we hoped he would be,” McCain said. “He’s a very fine man–just not has (exercised the) strong leadership that we would (have) hoped.”
Tags: Afghanistan, barack obama, Hamid Karzai, john mccain
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The dems flounder as their candidate flails in freshman failure.
Obamas failed policies are failing with certain failure for all to see.
Obama’s military experts are not on the war ground, they have no business second guessing the generals who are actively engaged. Obama is a phony…
Obama’s military experts are not on the war ground, they have no business second guessing the generals who are actively engaged. Obama is a phony.
George W. Obama is really an idiot.
Hey, Barry. It didn’t work last time. It won’t work this time. And who you going to send? The Boy Scouts?
If B.O. makes his plans and decisions about Iraq before He acquires the facts about Iraq..
Does that mean B.O. pees before he unzips?
B.O. is sa fraud…
I will, I will,
I’m gonna, I’m gonna,
My plan, I will,
they will follow MY plan,
I can, It will be My job…?
I wonder if B.O. will rename this country after himself also…
This fool thinks He is Iron-spider-super government employee!
How did the democrates ever do this to themselves and this country?
FRAUD.
Obama is the chosen puppet for the Democratic party in 2008. This is because Hillary had too much baggage in her New York carpet bag from Illinois. Obama hasn’t figured out yet that those who put him in the office will start to pull the strings as soon as the election is over.
As far as his military strategy. It’s not credible. Diplomacy is another word for the appeasment of the far left leadership around in this country and around the world including the Iranian government, and those other countries who seek to destroy this country. He has no military strategy and is relying on a good speech writer to. Any candidate who allows a flag of a Marxist to hang in his Texas campaign headquarters is far too left for me.
Have you ever played the carnival game, where the stuffed fuzzy head pops up and you hammer it and it pops up somewhere else on the table? That’s what drawing our troops out of Iraq will be like. We will refocus on Afghanistan and the head will pop back up in Iraq.
The real irony will be when he gets in and has to make a speech to the American people as to why we stay in Iraq! It’s all about regaining the power the Dem’s lost and they will stop and nothing and say anything to make sure they regain that power as evidenced by the last 8 years of Bush bashing.
The reason Obama got this nomination is that the Bush administration and the Republican party were on a course to a more diverse govenrment leadership than we had ever seen. President Bush appointed a more diverse team than any president in history. The Dems scrambled to catch up and in doing so they got a Marxist, Black Liberation Theology candidate. Good choice! Not!
McCain has it right with the strategy he is portraying for Afganistan to embrace security for its population and safety for our heroes.
The poppy industry will cetrtainly be a challenge for America to handle.
Dem for McCain!
Obama wouldn’t make a good Boy Scout leader. Commander In Chief of the USA armed forces…what an overreach!
Obama has “plans” for lots of things he hasn’t seen or doesn’t understand. This is why he should not be President. Spend, spend, spend, and widen the racial divide. Nobama noway.
MCCAIN 08 HILLARY 12
First of all to OBAMA B TRAY US, Obama’s policies have not failed its the policy of Bush/McCain that failed because there judgement was off in decided to go for the war. Get it straight, you don’t need military experience for common sense policies. Also if McCain is supposed to be this great Military man who hates war how come all of that experience failed to come into play when he voted for the war? common sense. Even when McCain went to visit Iraq his information was completely wrong did not even know the difference between al queda or shi’ite even went as far as saying you can walk around without vest or much military protection, dead wrong.. ( if you dont believe me than you have not done your research). Its sad McCain is able to simplify this complicated topic and people are falling for his B.S., people do more research. Even when the Iraq’s are telling us we need a timeable troop withdraw McCain is not willing to listen, he still wants to stay there for decades. This war has dramaticall effected our country/economy and all he is focused on is winning the war. This war was lost the day we step foot in Iraq because you dont wage a war with someone that did not do the harm. Also how can you call this a success or win when it has drained our economy so much and is now a direct cause of the suffering the average American is facing today.
Tim,
Where do you peole get this stuff from? how can you say he wants to spend, spend when McCain is ok with $10 billion plus monthly with this war which is most likely going to reach a trillion soon. I dont know where most of you get your facts from but it always seem opposite of what is really going on. I bet most of you dont even take the time to see both sides of the story. How would you know if a certain coin has both heads and tails unless you look at both sides, for all you know if could both be heads. My point is, you need to take the time to seek to understand before making a judgement. This does not pertain to all none obama supporters but a good percentage.
Karl,
What in the world are you talking about? Appeasment are you kidding me, the only reason you say that is because McCain was throwing it out there with Bush. I guess invading a country that did nothing to us is the best choice for solving an issue. Fisrt we spend close to a trillion fighting a war that should have never taken place than we will spend billions more to help rebuild it, at the same time destroy our economy. You know what, i guess the result shows it is the best solution. Amazing even when the facts are right in your face you still choose to ignore them. The rest of you comments are not worth responding too.
If you vote for McCain you’re Obama-phobic.
The liberals have all lost a grip.
Can you say Flipity Flop? McCain is adopting every policy of Obama’s that he supposedly feels is wrong. McCain is a joke and very out of touch with the economy and foreign policies. Will he now flip flop and meet with terrorist. Now that Bush has changed his policy we know who is next. McCain says he knows how to win wars….just because he has faught doesn’t mean he knows how to lead. Everyone respects those that serves but every server is not qualified to manage
Obama gives politicians a bad name by telegraphing his impressions even before hearing one word from the folks on the ground…..such an approach to problem solving shows Obama true achilles heel…arrogance and inexperience…he could have easily kept his views to himself until after discussions with the commanders and then offered his insight….NO…Obama had to play politics with the country and the US troops…shame on him for such disrespectful behavior to even the US citizens…the height of playing politics…THAT WHICH OBAMA SAID FROM DAY ONE HE WAS A DIFFERENT POLITICIAN!!! NOT just the same as the worst example of old politics! In respects to Afghanistan…Obama just seems to have lost the importance of Iraq to the entire region….there is little question more will be done with this second problem as things wind down in Iraq but seems to be another direct attempt to suggest the surge in Iraq was ill-advised, unnecessary and ..according to Obama…should have gone there all the time…now that would have allowed Iraq to simply degrade into a worse situation and we would never have seen the very positive progress…thankful Obama was not incharge for he would have not listened to anyone…only his far left political advisors and made Iraq another Vietnam…at least Bush had the foresight to listen to his generals and not play politics with the surge.
Congress is the main reason for the problems in America today which is a democratic majority. Why in world would we elect Obama, who has no experienece, is anti-white anti-american and lies about being a Christian. Could they have picked anyone worst?
n. pELOSI is working to destroy this country……..
h. rEID is a coward and a traitor……..
What has happened to the democratic party ?
Hey Tim, “spend, spend, spend”? Nobody spends like the so called conservatives. Bush bankrupted this country and you right wing nuts are trying to tell us to vote for another one? It dosen’t matter who Barack is. He is not a republican and that will be good enough for the American people. A green transexual would win over Mcsame this year.
Won’t even be close!! Ha!
ANd “I know how to win wars, my friends”. what???
Only those that voted for GWBush, some of you twice, are foolish enough to support this man or to believe McCain the our best option.
economy in the dumps, no immigration reform, paying billions for unending occupation in Iraq,.
Thanks Bush/mcCain supporters
This shows just how inexperienced Obama is. Making policy first and then talking to the generals.
We need a leader. The presidency should not be a on the job training program. Obama has become so arrogant it hard to watch that smile of his and his “better than thou” attitude.
Go back to the Senate Obama and try again in 12 years
He isn’t stating anything that he hasn’t said in the past 2 years, so why the big fuss? In order for him to come back and “refine” his strategy as he stated, he has to atleast have a policy in place to refine. And it’s only a basic outline. Funny how McCain was bashing Obama and then ironically took HIS position about Afghanistan. And Bush talking with “rogue” leaders and finally making progress. Funny how the “freshman” senator is schooling the so called experienced leader…
Charlie is IDIOT, the country is NOT bankrupt, another Dem who just makes up stuff _no facts.
Mike,
Its fair to say you are a fool or lack the ability to except the facts. This country is way too close to that point for you to make such a statement.
barbara california,
I dont know what is worst making a judgement when you have the facts and information in front of you and being completely wrong. or having less information and making sound judgement and being right about it. I say less information taking the experience factor in consideration. They saw the same information before the war was waged and the person with less experience made the better judgement call. But in your eyes McCain some how has better judgement, Amazing. Also, McCain was wrong on his facts even when he was in Iraq, Obama was right without going to Iraq. When are you going to stop with this nonesense.
How long do we think we can maintain the surge in Iraq? Our troops are on their 4th tour in Iraq.
Nobody knows what will happen when the surge is over. My guess is things will go back to the way they were before the surge. And only then will we realize the surge results are temporary. Iraq is no closer to forming a government supported by the majority of the Iraqi’s. The civil conflicts between Sunni and Shiites will still be unresolved. There are generations of hatred among these 2 groups. How many US troops are we willing to sacrifice for this error in judgement by Cheney/Bush? How much more money can we afford to throw at this problem?
5 + years, Trillions of dollars , 4000+ US troops dead and countless US troops injured for the rest of their life. We have paid enough towards this BUSH Blunder. We have issues on the homefront that need addressing.
Its been Obama who said we should be focusing more attention on Afghanistan while McCain was still focusing on Iraq. Not a peek from him. Now he is all about the Surge in Afghanistan months after Obama spoke about it. The same thing goes for talks with Iran… He was blasted by the Republicans…. now the Bush administration is talking with Iran. Amazing for all his foresight people still give McCain a free ride. With all his flip flops coming out almost daily now people will see McCain for who he is and finally wake up. The Man can’t even remember what team he mentioned to his captives……. simply amazing!
Obama in a landslide in November!
a conservative republican who will vote for someone different. whats funny is that no one was talking about withdrawl from Iraq until Obama won the nomination, obama talked about the withdrawl, mccain said we will stay there until 100 years, then all of a sudden the maliki govt announces he will not sign anything unless there is a withdrawl plan. proving obama had it right. then obama said the real fight was in afghanistan, now all of a sudden the bush administration wants to put more tropps in afghanistan after obama said thats where the war should be fought . all of a sudden mccain comes out and said only because of the surge can we take troops out of iraq, thats not the real story, its many facets what happened, first off, we hired some of the milititia to fight on our side, that was fighting against us, thats what cause the decrease of violence.ask collin powell, he said we should have never entered iraq in the first place. thats why he resigned from the bush administration.
Obama has said since the beginning of the campaign that the war in Iraq was not necessary. Who is the enemy there? We are there for oil, but did that help us? We were there to “liberate” the people of Iraq. We have strengthened Iran. Obama said at the time that the war against terrorists should be fought in Afghanistan and on the border of Pakistan. MIKE - Where are we getting the money to fight this war?? Do you even know or do you just enjoy namecalling?
In what way are we better off than we were 8 years ago?
You Fox idiots are the same ones that voted this idiot into office. You guys need to do a gut check, admit you screwed up and correct the mistake next time. You know you don’t want mccain but you STILL will vote for him????
Very basic premise here:
YOU DO WHAT YOU’VE DONE, YOU GET WHAT YOU GOT. (PPPEERRIIOODD)
Republicans should never complain about mortgages, high fuel prices, Iraq war, the lack of support in Afghanistan, or anything else in this administration. You were warned the last election and you got exactly what others said. So shut up and enjoy your own blunders!!!!!!
I always get a hardy laugh after coming on this website and reading the posts. But hey, Republicans need somewhere to vent I guess. Still, I am amazed how so many Republicans think nothing of making fools out of themselves. McCain, bless his heart, is trying. He is a good man, but he is way past his prime and is losing it. Yet Republicans will ignore all of the gaffes and support him, even though he isn’t qualified to be POTUS at this point in his life. Sadly, he missed his chance when you all rejected him the last time. It’s too late this time.
Comment by Michael from Atlanta
July 16th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
How long do we think we can maintain the surge in Iraq? Our troops are on their 4th tour in Iraq.
Nobody knows what will happen when the surge is over. My guess is things will go back to the way they were before the surge. And only then will we realize the surge results are temporary. Iraq is no closer to forming a government supported by the majority of the Iraqi’s. The civil conflicts between Sunni and Shiites will still be unresolved. There are generations of hatred among these 2 groups. How many US troops are we willing to sacrifice for this error in judgement by Cheney/Bush? How much more money can we afford to throw at this problem?
5 + years, Trillions of dollars , 4000+ US troops dead and countless US troops injured for the rest of their life. We have paid enough towards this BUSH Blunder. We have issues on the homefront that need addressing.
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The surge is over. The surge troops are surging to afghanistan.