Monday With McCain

We have a lot of work to do. It's a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq-Pakistan border.---referring to a border that does not exist, ABC News interview, July 21, 2008.

Is Iran Next?

Shortly after I posted on Saddam Hussein's desire for Iraq to use the Euro instead of the US Dollar for reserve currency, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a similar statement.

Monday With McCain

I disagree with what the majority of the American people want -- Sen. John McCain, on Iraq

Monday With McCain

I don’t think Americans are concerned if we’re there for one hundred years or a thousand years or ten thousand years. McCain commenting on how Americans view the U.S. occupation of Iraq

Monday With McCain

There are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods today. --prior to visiting a Baghdad market while being flanked by 22 soldiers, 10 armored Humvees, and two Apache attack helicopters

Intellectually Challenged

Dick Cheney was in Iraq again recently, telling the press corps that followed him there that the US had to invade Iraq to fight the Al Qaeda terrorists who were responsible for 9/11.

Just weeks before he stood in front of the troops and media there, he had received the exhaustive Pentagon sponsored review of about 600,000 documents that found absolutely no correlation between Iraq and anything having to do with 9/11. The story here though is not that Dick Cheney is a sociopathic liar – That’s an old story, no new surprises there.

To me the story is that this decrepit, creepy old man understands something very special about the new American culture.

Susan Jacoby wrote a book titled The Age of American Unreason. In that book, she analyzes why Americans will endlessly be victims to creepy little manipulators like Cheney or Karl Rove.

Jacoby says Americans are in very serious intellectual trouble – we are living in an era of anti-intellectualism, anti-rationalism, and generally a period of low expectations. That is why we elect a lightweight like George Bush twice and believe in him as a leader.
Jacoby points out that in 1982, 82% of college graduates actually read novels just for the fun of it. Today that number is somewhere around 60%. In fact, more than 40% of Americans under the age of 44 never read a single book in the course of an entire year. So needless to say, shaping public opinions becomes overwhelmingly easy for Cheney’s and Bush’s and Karl Rove’s and Rupert Murdoch.

Its almost like they are handling a silly putty right out of the package.

John McCain On Iraq

Senator "100 years in Iraq" has given a VERY clear picture of what counts as success in Iraq and when he would allow American troops can leave Iraq:

"Success in Iraq is the establishment of a generally peaceful, stable, prosperous Democratic state, that poses no threat to its neighbors, and contributes to the defeat of terrorists. It's the advance of religious tolerance over violent radicalism. It is a level of security that allows the Iraqi authorities to govern, the average person to live a normal life, and international entities to operate."


International entities? Like Exxon-Mobil, Halliburton, KBR, and Blackwater?

John McCain Supports The Military?

John McCain to a VFW group: "Those who have borne the burden of war for our sake must be treated fairly and expeditiously as they seek compensation for disability or illness. We owe them compassion, knowledge, and hands-on care in their transition to civilian life. We owe them training, rehabilitation, and education."..."Whatever our commitments to veterans cost, we will keep them, as you have kept every commitment to us. The honor of a great nation is at stake."


Unfortunately, what John McCain says and what John McCain does are two different things. John McCain:
1)Voted against a $650 million increase in Veterans Medical-Care funding just before 9/11,
2)Voted against increasing VA funding by $1.8 billion in 2004,
3)Voted against increasing VA funding by $1.5 billion in 2006,
4)Voted against increasing VA Out-Patient funding by $430 million in 2006,
5)Voted against the $20 billion VA Medical Facilities Upgrade Bill in 2006,
6)Does not support the new GI Bill

In any election cycle, I can understand the value of political rhetoric. But when your entire campaign is based on your military service like John McCain's is, I think you should actually start supporting the troops. Or stop campaigning on the claim that you have, that you are, and that you will support the troops.

A Sad Anniversary: 5 Years Of Arrogance

Courtesy of the Huffington Post. A photo Mosaic.

In remembrance of the 4,000 brave men and women who sacrificed everything for us -- and the two men who would continue this great tragedy, despite the cost to our soldiers, our military, and our nation.

Bastards...

John McCain: Foreign Policy Expert

Here's what he told CNN in 2002:

"I am very certain that this military engagement will not be very difficult. It may entail the risk of American lives and treasure, but Saddam Hussein is vastly weaker than he was in 1991. He does not have the support of his people."

"And I'd ask one question: What member of the Iraqi army is willing to die for Saddam Hussein when they know he's going to be taken out? So I don't think it's going to be nearly as difficult as some assume."

Interesting to see McCain wondering how many Iraqi soldiers are willing to die for Saddam, while he and the rest of the establishment at least pretend to believe that Iraqi soldiers will be willing to die for Bush, if "trained" (i.e., indoctrinated) sufficiently.

John McCain: “The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should"

Obviously, John McCain doesn't understand anything about the Middle East either. Is McCain senile? Or does he do this on purpose? Glad Joe Lieberman was there to correct Pappy McCain!

Republican presidential nominee John McCain, who is touting his foreign policy credentials on a tour of the Middle East, got himself tangled up on which Islamic extremist group Iran is accused of supporting.

Senator McCain, at a news conference in the Jordanian capital of Amman, accused Iran of supporting the Sunni extremist group al-Qaeda in Iraq.

US officials believe Iran has been backing Shiite extremists in Iraq, not a Sunni group like al- Qaeda.

"It's common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al Qaeda is going back into Iran and is receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran. That's well known and it's unfortunate," Senator McCain said.

Connecticut Independent Senator Joe Lieberman, traveling with Senator McCain on a swing through the Middle East and Europe, whispered in his ear and Senator McCain quickly corrected himself.

"I'm sorry; the Iranians are training the extremists, not al-Qaeda. Not al-Qaeda. I'm sorry," Senator McCain said.

Democrats quickly jumped on Senator McCain, a strong backer of President George W. Bush's troop build-up in Iraq.

"After eight years of the Bush administration's incompetence in Iraq, Senator McCain's comments don't give the American people a reason to believe that he can be trusted to offer a clear way forward," said Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Karen Finney.
McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said the senator "misspoke and immediately corrected himself."

"Democrats have launched political attacks today because they know the American people have deep concerns about their candidates' judgment and readiness to lead as commander in chief," he said.

Senator McCain's next stop is Europe, where Mr Bush has been heavily criticised for a perceived "go it alone" approach on a wide range of international issues.
Before his arrival in London, Senator McCain wrote in the Financial Times that the United States must be a "model country" and work with others to tackle challenges such as terrorism and global warming.

The newspaper said Senator McCain distanced himself from what allies see as the unilateralism of the Bush administration, promising to "listen to the views and respect the collective will of our democratic allies."

In a column in the newspaper, Senator McCain promised to renew the "mutual respect and trust" between the United States and Europe and vowed to put America at the forefront of international efforts to tackle climate change.

"When we believe that international action is necessary, whether military, economic or diplomatic, we will try to persuade our friends that we are right. But we, in return, must also be willing to be persuaded by them," Senator McCain wrote.

President Bush Pampers U.S. Troops

President Bush admitted Tuesday that he has been supporting a top-secret U.S. troop morale-boosting project implemented by defense contractor Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc. (KBR) named "PROJECT SNAP."

It is alleged that KBR grudgingly accepted a cost-plus contract to supply U.S. troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan with luxurious, 100% cotton terry towels imported from Turkey that have been lovingly embroidered with the KBR logo. At three times the normal cost of towels of course. President Bush defended the expenditure saying "It was all Rove's suggestion (soft multi-color embroidered Turkish towels). One night me and Karl was sittin' around strategerizing about the whole camel-jockey thing going on over in the Middle East and Karl said we needed to do sumpthing to improve troop esprit de corps. I told ol' Rover (Rove's pet name) that I didn't think the troops would go much for that foo-foo Frenchy espy corpse crap he just said. Rover just laughed, then cried, and told me that whenever he was away from home for a good long time and got homesick, there was nothing in the world that made him and his rolly-polly buddies at the YMCA feel like they wus right back at home than some good towel-snapping and sword-fighting action in the showers. I smiled at Rover and we escaped to the shower to discuss the details."

The increased spending for shower room supplies however, has been more than offset by new Bush administration policy--policy that allows Halliburton/KBR to supply water for U.S. troop showers that originated from the highly-toxic Euphrates River. (Anyone remember the controversy from Operation Desert Storm where water to be utilized for troop showers was transported in oil tankers that previously stored petroleum without being sanitized? Nice!)