As we all know on, Tuesday night during a CBS interview with Katie Couric, John McCain lied, or was mistaken about The Surge/Sunni-Anbar Awakening timeline in Iraq.
Unfortunately, as we found out CBS News, removed McCain's incorrect answer, kept the original question, then substituted the question, with a different answer.
Yesterday, in response (during the end of McCain's town hall meeting in Pennsylvania), he gave one of his most convoluted/confusing answers yet, on the Surge/Anbar Awakening (and I cried about it all day on Kos, lol)
Fortunately (for us), McCain repeated his bewildering explantion, in front of the Cheese Case (during a unscheduled interview), at the King Supermarket, in the Westgate Mall, in Bethleham, PA.
Remember (probably in embarrassment), he had cancelled a scheduled Press Conference yesterday.
"Barack Obama and his supporters can try to litigate what came first or what was crucial, but that's really an attempt to undermine the significance and the impact of the American troops and their sacrifice and their effort."
How fucking insulting to our troops, that getting history straight about how and why they're fighting can undercut their efforts. As if they're infantile hot-house flowers that wilt in the bright light of fact. Ugh.
I wasn't planning on posting anything today, have to much to do and other thoughts on my mind.
But yesterday I watched, as many have seen by now, someone who should have a much better understanding, above that of it's citizens, what this countries policies are and their implementation.
McClatchy has a couple of reports that hit on a couple of the Points of the 'surge':
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The International Olympic Committee has banned Iraq from competing in the upcoming Summer Olympics games because of what it says is political interference by the government in sports.
An Iraqi Olympic Committee official said the IOC sent letters in Arabic and English confirming the ban.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news for the McCain campaign, but there already is genocide in Iraq. At minimum, around 90,000 civilians have already been killed in the past five years, and those figures are very conservative.
According to Iraqbodycount.org,Iraqbodycount.orgthe number of dead Iraqi citizens is as of this morning between 86,171 and 94,031. Other organizations have much higher numbers of dead Iraqis,including ta study by Johns Hopkins University which estimated as many as 600,000 Iraqis have been killed in the conflict. Regardless of which body count figure is used, the point is that genocide in Iraq has happened, is happening and will happen in the future UNLESS the United States brings its troops home.
Responding to criticism for their unprofessional and unethical editing of a Katie Couric interview with John McCain, CBS News Senior Vice President Paul Friedman said:
The report was edited under extreme time constraints and one piece of tape was put in the wrong order. Fortunately, this did not in any way distort what Senator McCain was saying.
Clearly, Mr. Friedman is either stupid or a liar. Roll the tape:
Perhaps Mr. Friedman can explain how replacing McCain's incorrect claim about when the "Anbar Awakening" began and his mocking of Obama for not knowing this "matter of history," with a contemptible attack on Obama's patriotism didn't distort what McCain said.
The Washington Post has the Silent Posting article buried in the World News section. The article is a four page description of the man's work and the work of his unit known as the "Gravediggers".
Since he was ordered to silence the blog, his fiancee has taken it over and keeps the faithful readers up todate with the unit. The blog was not ordered down due to OPSEC it was supposedly for the fact the one post in question was not approved by a superior officer, the post was about a higher ranking officer wanting him to accept a lateral promotion, which LT G did not want. The Army felt he was ridiculing the officer.
I’ve been doing some serious retroflecting now that we’re nearing the end of the George W. Bush era, and I’m thinking that maybe we who consider ourselves to be environmentalists should actually be grateful to the man for the way that he’s dealt with climate change.
Clark: Well, they didn't bring more troops out to Anbar. What they did is the Saudis, basically in 2005, gave up on the U.S. policy, and they started working directly with the tribes. I went through the region in 2004 and 2005. I went through each of the Gulf States. I talked to the leaders and they said, 'You Americans are crazy. You're ignoring the tribes.' The Saudis put money behind it. They worked the tribes, and that helped bring the condition which made the Sunni Awakening possible.
Scarborough: So, so General, you are crediting the Saudis with success in Western Iraq. You're crediting Iran with success in Eastern Iraq. I think that's giving short shrift for what the troops did.
Clark: No, I don't think so. I think the troops are a very, very important part of this, but I think you have to look at whole situation in there, Joe.
Yesterday, John McCain made millions of people crosseyed while listening to him trying to clarify his statement regarding the surge and the sunni awakening. This is what he said:
While Sen. McCain has been going off on a tangent accusing Sen. Obama of selling America down the river for political gain, there is a question that isn't being asked of the senior Senator from Arizona.
"If Sen. Obama is putting politics over the national interest, do you think your friend and Republican colleague, Chuck Hagel, whose policy proposals and words on Iraq have been almost indistinguishable, is doing the same?"
Any kind of study on the functionality of individuals, society, and governments has to deal with the area of compassion. As we have learned over the past 70+ years of the New Deal, compassion is essential for governments, society, and individuals to function. Without it, people will have no stake even if Dennis Kucinich were running for office. Without it, people would be killing and being killed, and society would not function as people would be quarreling over little things. Without it, people cannot be happy in this life. Nietzsche himself said that people have to operate based on consequences, and the consequences in this case are clear enough.
We all know by now that the news anchors of the big three networks, Brian Williams, Charles Gibson and Katie Couric have joined Senator Obama's tour of the Middle East and Europe and the bitching and moaning this has caused in the McCain camp about media bias. Forget that McCain is cancelling press events right, left and center and has benefitted from the lack of press he's getting after making atrocious blunders about middle east geography, the timing of the Anbar Awakening and the troop surge in 2007 and calling Senator Obama a traitor who wants to lose the war if it helps his political campaign. Forget that news people like to go where the news is and that Senator Obama's trip is real news while Senator McCain is giving speeches to half empty gymnasiums in Podunk, Pennsylvania and backwoods New Hampshire. Forget that while McCain is making joke luggage tags that Senator Obama is talking with Head's of State and inspiring our troops (that was a badass jump shot btw)
and improving America's brand across the globe. What McCain is completely and conveniently not talking about is his very own Jeff Gannon on the trip, Katie Couric.
As you're all well aware, John McCain enjoys repeating over and over and over that:
-he will never surrender in Iraq
-we must achieve victory in Iraq
-Barack Obama advocates defeat in Iraq (Joe LIEberman frequently repeats this statement as well)
-Barack Obama cares more about winning an election than the wellbeing of the American people.
Of course John McCain has never sufficiently defined what victory in Iraq would look like, and even if he has done that to some extent, he certainly has not offered any course we can chart to achieve that victory. It is fairly obvious that McCain wants to stay the course of the last 5-6 years, hoping things will fix themselves.
Yesterday I said to myself, "If they say one more time that the surge is working, I’m gonna’ gag up a lung." Then they went and said it again and again and again. I'm now on a respirator.
VoteVets has a new ad featuring Brandon Woods, an Iraq War veteran from New York.
In the ad, Brandon says, "What did we fight for in Iraq? I have some idea. I fought in Operation Iraqi Freedom. And "freedom" means when the Iraqi people and their Prime Minister ask us to make a plan to leave, we do. But, Senator McCain would occupy Iraq indefinitely, against their wishes. That's not what freedom means. That's not what we fought for. Senator, I thought you would know better."
Senator McCain once said that if the Iraqis asked us to leave, we would have to leave. Those of us who served agree with that. Senator McCain now either has to back off his refusal to set a plan to leave Iraq, as Prime Minister Maliki requested a number of times in the past week, or tell the American and Iraqi people why he would overrule Iraq's government and turn our troops into an indefinite occupying force. Those are his only two options. Our new ad makes that clear.
The American people, the Iraqi people, the Iraqi government all think it's time for us to leave. So what does "winning" mean now, Mr. McCain? Stubbornly staying put when you're the only one who wants us to stay?
In the end, it's a question of leadership. Will you lead or be led. Do you have real accountability, or do you shift it to others.
The test of leadership, viewed through these questions, leaves doubt about Pres. Bush and Sen. McCain's fitness to lead. Specifically, their insistance that Gen. Petraeus' judgment be followed without question or debate, does not strike me as leadership. A true leader asks the right questions of his subordinates, and as the leader, makes a decision for which he or she is held accountable. Just the opposite is happening in Iraq.
