Iraq Vet: U.S. Can't Afford McCain Victory
Army Ranger Blasts GOP Candidate's Iraq War Stance, Says McCain Would Ignore Other Threats
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Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., speaks to employees during a campaign stop at the Chick-Fil-A headquarters in Atlanta, Ga. on March 7, 2008. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
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Roger Martinez, who served as an Army ranger in Afghanistan and Iraq, noted in the Democrats' weekly radio address that President Bush endorsed McCain this week. Bush said McCain "won't flinch in the face of danger" and McCain strongly supports the U.S. efforts in Iraq. Electing a leader who would continue Bush's policies in Iraq would be a mistake, Martinez said.
"Our country and our armed services cannot afford another leader like President Bush who would keep our overstretched military in Iraq for 100 years while ignoring the other threats our country faces both at home and around the world." McCain has said that U.S. troops could be in Iraq for many years if those troops were no longer being injured or killed.
"I honor and thank John McCain for his years of military service to our country," said Martinez, who is studying at the University of Texas at San Antonio. "But I don't think he offers the right leadership on Iraq or understands how to reinvigorate our economy here at home."
Martinez said U.S. troops are fighting bravely, "but no matter what they do they cannot solve the political problems in Iraq." The next commander in chief needs to promise to make the fight against al Qaeda in Afghanistan a greater priority than the war in Iraq, Martinez said.
McCain has acknowledged that he must convince voters of the wisdom of defense of the Iraq war, and the increase of troops that has improved conditions there.
The Arizona senator has said that both leading Democrats in the presidential race want to abandon Iraq to al Qaeda.
Martinez said McCain also is out of touch with families like his own.
"He says the economy is strong but how can he not see that families like mine are struggling to pay for out-of-control health care costs, home heating bills, gasoline and college tuition," Martinez said.
McCain, who has said economics isn't his strong suit, said Friday tax cuts and job training are needed to lift an economy that is either in recession or is headed toward one. He was responding to a report showing widespread job losses amid the housing and credit crisis.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.



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See all 348 CommentsThe neocons have too many future contracts at stake to let the election go to the democrats.
If they can''t win them, they will steal them.
Remember Florida 00, Ohio 04.
%u201CThe department is cooperating with that investigation and has no further comment,%u201D said spokesman Peter Carr.
Sutton, whose ties to Bush date back to the president%u2019s Texas gubernatorial campaign, has been singled out himself by Republican critics who have called for his resignation. So far, he%u2019s weathered the political storm.
The critics have accused Sutton of leading an overzealous prosecution of Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, each sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for shooting a Mexican drug courier as he was trying to flee back to Mexico.
%u201CThe type of protection from political pressure that Johnny has gotten was the kind of protection that I thought we would get,%u201D said Iglesias, who said he bears Sutton no ill will. %u201CAnd we didn%u2019t get it, I think largely because we didn%u2019t have a personal relationship with the president.%u201D
Iglesias said he asked Sutton how he knew about his firing.
%u201CI saw your name,%u201D he quoted Sutton as saying.
Iglesias said in an interview that Sutton refused to elaborate, %u201Cbut to have one of the most powerful U.S. attorneys tell me my firing was political was confirmation, in my view, that I was fired for the wrong reasons.%u201D
During a congressional investigation of the firings, department e-mails revealed that Sutton was given a heads-up about the firings because he was the chairman of the Attorney General%u2019s Advisory Committee of U.S. Attorneys.
Justice Department officials said they couldn%u2019t comment on Iglesias%u2019 account because of an ongoing probe of the firings by the department%u2019s inspector general and the Office of Professional Responsibility.
(cont)
%u201CI couldn%u2019t believe what I was hearing: a U.S. attorney all but admitting that a colleague was being hung out to dry for reasons that had nothing to do with performance or professionalism,%u201D he wrote in a draft of the book, which McClatchy obtained.
Sutton, who%u2019s the top U.S. attorney in San Antonio, didn%u2019t return phone calls Thursday seeking comment.
As a result of Iglesias%u2019 and several other prosecutors%u2019 accusations that they were fired in December 2006 for improper political reasons, the Justice Department turned over thousands of documents, and Congress forced top officials, including Gonzales, to testify.
No one has determined who decided which prosecutors should be fired and why. Democrats say that must mean the White House was calling the shots, while the administration has said it demonstrates that the firings were blown out of proportion.
(cont)
btw truthspeake2- if you call someone who took years of torture to defend his country an idiot, then i''ll take him any day over our other options!
Published on Friday, March 7, 2008 by McClatchy Newspapersby Marisa Taylor
WASHINGTON - A longtime protege of President Bush told former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias that he was fired for political reasons and that he shouldn%u2019t fight his ouster, Iglesias says in a new book.
%u201CThis is political,%u201D Iglesias recalls Texas U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton telling him shortly after he was ousted. %u201CIf I were you, I%u2019d just go quietly.%u201D
Iglesias, a former U.S. attorney in New Mexico, is one of nine federal prosecutors whose firings triggered a yearlong controversy at the Justice Department and led to the resignations of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and 11 other Justice Department officials.
Iglesias cites the exchange with Sutton in his upcoming book, %u201CIn Justice,%u201D as further evidence that he was forced out because Republicans were displeased with his refusal to prosecute Democrats.
(cont)
And then if he would have stuck to his guns over torture, that would have been good too - but instead he supported the torture bill. That''s unacceptable.
As a Vet of Iraq myself, I will not be able to support McCain either or anyone else that voted for that war that has cost so many lives and so much treasury.
You double speak or you are fired! No two ways about it. Oh! Yes! There are two ways, Bush''s way or the Highway. "Nuff said!
A Bush/McCain ticket is not the leadership our military needs to place their hands in.
This nation needs to see our America not through the eyes of a temper tantrum but with a vision of an honest respect for American''s finest ... our people and all people around the world.
Vote out more Republicans, as we did in the 2006 election, and we CAN get there.
Sorry, but none of those types of issues have ever been used by America to invade a country and start a war before. Afghanistan was letting our enemies know we would not be intimidated. Iraq is an attempt to justify a desire for oil profits with an attack that had nothing to do with the country we invaded.
King George DEFENDED his VETO of the Congressional Bill restricting TORTURE to the methods outlined in the Military Manual.
My BIGGEST LAUGH was his statement calling WATER-BOARDING -"one of the MOST VALUABLE TOOLS in the WAR ON TERROR"!!!!!
Hey George - what about hang, drawing and quartering to go along with your water-boarding!
Apparently taking pliers to the testicles of the kids of alleged terrorists is allowed according to your EX atty general. How about RAPING the daughters to go along with that. the ACADEMY AWARD winning Documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side" PROVES turning the bones in the legs of INNOCENT citizens into PULP was allowed to happen because of YOUR DEFENSE of UNRESTRICTED TORTURE.
Sheesh...now wonder CBS AVOIDED despot W''(astrel)s speech.
That''s pretty funny, considering you Republicans were the ones that refined "attack politics" into a high art form by encouraging the likes of Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter.
Quit your pathetic whining. You''ve made your own bed, and now you''ll just have to sleep in it!
As a retired military veteran who has served in that region I agree 100% with Mr Martinez. Our presence there is making everything much, much worse, not better.
We should never have gone into Iraq in the first place. The best course now is to just get the hell out before things degenerate even more.
George''s NEW Sound Byte:
Feudalism is NOT Dead - we''re WORKING HARD to bring it to America and the rest of the world.
Mr Martinez if correct the republiCONs are not out for a safer world and are not caring for the troops; they are scaming America
war profiteers, and greed driven capitalist conservatives
an election based of fear,
They have become UN-american
Python Charlie Six, Out:
I guess that, when you get right down to it, we''re really no better than the old NVA, or any other brutal, backward little third-world country.
At least as long as the Republican''s continue to get their way.
Posted by dumbshun at 12:26 PM : Mar 08, 2008
By continuing the same failed policies that Bush and the rest of the war mongering neo cons have instituted?
Yeah - sounds like a brilliant plan.
Posted by dumbshun
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How can you end a war with "honor" when that war was TOTALLY dishonest and dishonorable to begin with? That''s like trying to find something honorable in a vicious, pointless hate crime.
There was never, ever anything "honorable" about attacking Iraq.
And you''ll never crush Al Queda either - it''s a philosophy, not a disease like smallpox. As long as we continue to make Muslim people hate us, with our aggressive in-your-face politics, then Al Queda will live on.
If Al Queda were HERE telling YOU what to do, you''d do the very same thing theyr''e doing - and you wouldn''t quit until they were finally gone. What makes you think they''re any different, in that regard?
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Posted by dumbshun at 12:39 PM : Mar 08, 2008
+ report abuse
This is absolute HOG WASH from a follower of the "Party". Someone who isn''t able to admit he was LIED to and that the real enemy, the one who attacked us, is in Afganistan completely rebuilt. They are sad but continuing to follow failed policy and failed leadership isn''t going to win anyone anything. Iraq had NOTHING to do with that attack on us and if we are to survive as a country we HAVE to send a message to those who DID attack us. Sieg Heil Bush!!
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Posted by dumbshun at 12:31 PM : Mar 08, 2008
+ report abuse
McCain was a pilot who never was in actual ground combat. He knows NOTHING of what it''s like to fight a civil war! Any fool can look at the situation we''re in and understand we are losing. Iraq was a big mistake and it''s time we just turned it over to the UN and went on with business. We have NO right to go in there and start telling these folks how to govern themselves. ANYONE who thinks the Shiite and Iran will allow Al Queda to "take over" is drinking way to much Kool Aid. We can''t afford it any longer... Sieg Heil Bush
LOL
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Posted by T-racyMorgan at 12:52 PM : Mar 08, 2008
+ report a
Well yes, if the nazi''s have enough time they can round up someone I''m sure. Happened during vietnam as well. Will that make a difference? Will that suddenly turn the 6 year mess called Iraq into a success? Will that stop Al Queda from recruiting and training? Nope!. When you''ve been whooped as bad as the Neocon''s have it''s time for a new plan and new ideas. Sieg Heil Bush
The man was tortured for years - how stable could ANYBODY really be after that?
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Posted by j-whitman at 12:51 PM : Mar 08, 2008
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After seeing him on the plane the other night I must agree. We have had all we can stand of a brain dead bully, who''s idea of statesmanship is pounding his chest and yelling bring em on!!
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Posted by lmcq1 at 12:47 PM : Mar 08, 2008
+ report abuse
It''s called NEWS you simple minded MORON! They are trying to MAKE HISTORY... they are having a race for the nomination that we have NOT seen in decades! You poor simple minded Nazi''s see anything that doesn''t set with the "Party" as biased. LOOK at the numbers of people going to the polls in this primary. You think THAT isn''t news??? Now if you freaks don''t wake up the eagle is going to sail without you yet again!! Sieg Heil Bush!
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Posted by IT_Oldtimer at 12:56 PM : Mar 08, 2008
+ report abuse
Yes and I have all the admiriation for him in the world. I just do not want someone who is VERY questionable mentally, as you state, with his finger on the button. Give him a medal if you like just not the job of Commander in Chief thank you!! Sieg Heil Bush.
"I''m a little busy right now; I hardly have time to sleep. But I will certainly work toward releasing [my tax returns], and we will get that done and in the public domain."
--Hillary Clinton, MSNBC debate, Cleveland, Ohio, Feb. 26, 2008.
The Clinton camp has been trying to make hay on the income tax returns issue for weeks. During a campaign stop in Ithaca on July 7, the first lady said she found Lazio''s failure to make public his returns "frankly disturbing."
--Associated Press report, Aug. 3, 2000.
He''s trying to figure out how our troops can hold on to what ground they take & still proceed against Al Queda --
-- He & SECDEF Gates know many have to redeploy to meet other military commitments in this War on Terror.
Tracy Morgan should also be given a full psychiatric exam.
He''s changed his persona from an angry black gangster to a Republican operative in a manner of weeks.
Schizoprenia possibly?
Next thing you know he''ll change his name to Sybil.
Hillary has said, somewhere between 20,000 to 80,000 troops have to be kept in Iraq for years to come, Obama knows that also
In the 1st Gulf War which was over in less than 20 days, it took around 3 years before all our troops & equipment was out. ------ This clusterf_ck has been going on 5 years.
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