Iraq Debate Prompts Senate Cloakroom Clash

Presidential Hopeful Defends Bush As White House Lobbies GOP Senators

(The Politico)  By The Politico's John Bresnahan

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Top campaign aides weren't the only victims of the John McCain offensive on Tuesday. 

Fresh off a trip to Iraq, a visibly tired McCain lit into the "liberal left" for advocating retreat in Iraq and then went behind closed doors to brawl with a fellow GOP senator over the war. 

In what one senator called "the most serious fight that I have seen in my time in the Senate," McCain clashed with Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, over the Arizona senator's assertion that the most dangerous threat facing U.S. troops in Iraq was Al Qaeda members. 

Voinovich, who recently urged President Bush to change his war policy now, shot back that Al Qaeda "wouldn't be in Iraq" if American forces weren't there, according to people who witnessed the exchange. 

All of this was taking place as McCain was ousting the leadership of his presidential campaign team, including longtime adviser John Weaver. But one change McCain is clearly not ready to make is adjusting his staunch support of sustaining high troop levels in Iraq. 

McCain made that point abundantly clear on the Senate floor Tuesday, when he defended Bush's decision to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Iraq as a part of a "surge" in American forces. 

With Democrats pushing several proposals to set a firm withdrawal date for pulling U.S. forces out of Iraq, McCain warned that such a move would plunge Iraq into further violence and potentially spark a wider regional conflict that would drag in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. It would also "embolden radical Islamists" to carry out terrorist attacks in Europe and the United States. 

McCain said he saw "progress" in Iraq as part of the new counterinsurgency strategy of Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander there, and added that any effort to set a withdrawal date would undermine that campaign. "Where we can be sure is, should the United States Senate seek an end to the [Petraeus] strategy as it is just beginning, we will fail for certain," McCain declared.

"This fight is about Iraq, but it is not about Iraq alone," McCain added. "It's greater than that and, more importantly, about whether America still has the political courage to fight for victory or whether we will settle for defeat and all the terrible things that accompany it." But when Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., questioned the wisdom of the Bush surge and noted that the majority of Americans had turned against the war, McCain was having none of it.

McCain, a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, said the "liberal left" forced America to pull out of Southeast Asia due to rising casualties. McCain said that decision ultimately led to the fall of South Vietnam and the deaths of millions of Cambodians under the Pol Pot regime.

"I've seen this movie before from the liberal left in America, who share no responsibility for what happened in Cambodia when we said no while that mission was still in its early stages," McCain said of the secret U.S. invasion of Cambodia in 1970. Congress later blocked President Richard Nixon from further conducting military actions against Cambodia.

The McCain offensive was one of the few bright spots for a Bush White House on the defensive and, according to many Republicans, running short on time. 

Bush and senior White House officials moved on several fronts to counter eroding support for his Iraq war policy among Republicans on Capitol Hill. 

The president dispatched several top aides to meet with a group of Senate Republicans to reassure them that Bush is not caving in to demands to set a withdrawal date for pulling U.S. forces out of Iraq. Bush planned to meet on Wednesday with McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., two of his staunchest supporters on Iraq, to reiterate that message.

Vice President Cheney, in a highly unusual move for him, appealed to the Republican senators to wait until September, when Petraeus is expected to brief lawmakers on the status of the "surge" in American forces sent to Iraq, before deciding whether to back withdrawal or redeployment, according to GOP sources. 

"His point was that it wouldn't be fair to our troops who are fighting in 130-degree temperatures every day if we didn't wait until September to see if the surge is working," said one source who heard Cheney's remarks.

The public and private campaign by Bush and senior administration officials comes as Democrats in the House and Senate are pushing for a new series of votes on Iraq, including several proposals to set a firm withdrawal date of April 2008 for pulling out most, if not all, U.S. forces. 

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., unveiled a measure on Tuesday that would mandate a "limited presence" for U.S. forces in Iraq by April 30, 2008, with Americans no longer involved in daily combat. At least two GOP senators — Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Gordon Smith of Oregon — are expected to support the initiative, although it's unclear whether other Republicans will also back it.

Republican leaders are expected to filibuster the Reed-Levin proposal, as well as an amendment by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., that would establish new troop readiness levels, arguing that they are designed to undercut the surge and should not be adopted before the Petraeus report.

Sens. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., and Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., are pushing their own bipartisan proposal to implement the Iraq Study Group recommendations. Those recommendations included a call for a firm U.S. withdrawal date from Iraq. 

Graham criticized the Salazar-Alexander proposal as the "most dangerous" of the Iraq-related amendments being considered by the Senate, but Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has privately expressed interest in the measure.      

McConnell aides have not said the senator will vote for the amendment. But Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, is co-sponsoring it, which some GOP insiders have suggested means McConnell may support it.

[starleo146]

huskerarmy All branches are the greatest, one helps the other and none is greater than the other I am a widow of a Retired Air Force member but I do respect our military so much, as you do as well I know. When these troops come home we should be there applauding them for a great job. There is a guy suing the military he is fighting his 5th trip back to Iraq. They had a 12 month tour in Vietnam didn't they why do these guys have to go back so many times. That must be a tremendous strain on these guys don't you think?

[randalds]

Posted by huskerarmy at 10:44 AM : Jul 12, 2007
Posted by ozilot at 08:41 AM : Jul 12, 2007

Gentlemen, gentlemen! Let me say that, from the bottom of my heart, those of us in the Air Force were always proud and thankful to have you gentlemen in the Army, Navy and Marines around to take care of our light work. Thank you!

[lars008-2009]

NOW CAN WE KILL THEM???
If they can kill us, we can kill them

Qaeda warns of attacks 'worse than 9/11'
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070530102648.wuwa6k96&show_article=1

Hizbullah Deputy Sec-Gen Sheikh Naim Qassem: We Have Jurisprudent Permission to Carry Out 'Martyrdom' Operations, Fire Missiles on Israeli Civilians From Ayatollah Khomeini
http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD154907

Switching Sides: Inside The Enemy Camp

But then in 2000, well before his arrest, something happened which would make Abas question everything he believed in: a fatwa, a religious edict, was issued by Osama bin Laden.

"It should be understood that killing Americans and Jews anywhere found are the highest act of worship and the highest form of good deeds in the eyes of Allah," Simon quotes bin Laden.

Abas and his fellow commanders were ordered to read the fatwa to their men and make sure they carried it out. The others obeyed, but Abas refused. It was his moment of truth. He firmly believed that jihad was to be fought only on the battlefield in defense of Islam; he had always been taught that the killing of civilians had nothing to do with holy war and that it was forbidden.

The fatwa justified killing non-Muslim civilians everywhere.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/04/60minutes/main2761108.shtml?source=RSSattr=60Minutes_2761108
American Al Qaeda Member Threatens Attack
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/29/terror/main2865282.shtml

[termlimitnow]

The most dangerous foe our military faces anywhere in the world is our own Congress!

[ne_patriot7]

Sounds like McCain took another "stroll in the market place".... just like home...

Forget it Johnny boy.... any chance you had is long gone now... you have become a shrub sprout, and the Schrub is the most hated man in the world right now..

[huskerarmy]

But come on....A SAILOR?
Posted by RandalDS
The Air Force huh!! Wichita, Kansas I bet!!
Posted by IOWEIGN
Sorry fellas, the Army is the backbone of the U.S. military: "Let's Go, Fifteenth Field Artillery, Battle Tested, Battle Ready, Going Strong..." 7th Battlion, The "fighting 15th," Firebase 6, Ben Het, Viet Nam, 1970-1971

[liberalme]

Who cares what McCain says? He's not going anywhere. His bid for election is over with, no one listens to him and this man has become the Republican joke, or I should say--is a member in good standing on the Republican joke team.

[adventurepa]

How out of touch is John McCain with the rest of America?

John McCain "the most dangerous threat facing U.S. troops in Iraq was Al Qaeda members."
"send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Iraq as a part of a "surge" in American forces."

Actually Jonny boy, the biggest threat to America is the Bush administration.
It's polices, stealing of the treasury, and use of presidential privledge to hid illegal crimes.
We want out of Iraq. Not more troops involved, no bid contracts to Bush's and cheney's friends and power play politics.

That's why you have no chance of winning in 2008 no matter who you fire. Your out of touch with America.

[pepperp1]

I honestly thought Senator Voinovich didn%u2019t have a pulse he certainly has voted with the Shrub other than when he did not before he did, standing up to an attack form McCain in the closet, WOW, who would have believed it. McCain proves he can not be President his my way or the highway, delusional beliefs we are winning, the name calling of the left are chickens, attack critics or your policy and he is generally wrong could make him a good VP candidate for the Repug ticket all the right qualifications.. He maybe should retire he is obviously past his time and could go why he has some respect left.
Remember it is the left or better said everyone but the right who were correct on Iraq all along, it was the left who were correct about Bush incompetence all along, and it was the left who were correct on global warming all along, and it was the left who wiped out the deficit and created a surplus, and it is the left who will again have to pull your repug assess out of these messes because you are cowards parallelized by your own inadequacies and traumatized by Bill Clintons blow jobs form and cry babies whah, whah Sandy Berger pants, WHAH Rosie is fat, WHAH Bills ***, WHAH Hillary legs, WHAH *** attacking the sacrament of marriage, WHAH.

[jjp735i]

No matter what we do in Iraq, the country is now gone. We could stay the course and watch as they kill each other and our own, divide the country in to three parts with three governments with three armys that will wage war and kill each other or we can leave and let them kill each other. Lets leave and save our people. Because no matter what we do now, they will continue to kill each other. Bush failed so badly on this and McCain seems to be trying to show the country he can be a war President at a time when the people don't want another war President.