WASHINGTON, Oct. 25, 2009
McCain: Iraq Bombs Needn't Slow Withdrawal
Also Says Obama Should Not Wait Until After Afghan Runoff to Move Forward on U.S. Troop Strategy
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Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on "Face The Nation," Oct. 25, 2009. (AP Photo/Karin Cooper, CBS News)
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Play CBS Video Video McCain: "Delays" Hurting Afghanistan Regarding Afghanistan, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told Bob Schieffer on "Face The Nation" that "every day we delay will be a delay in this strategy in succeeding."
Appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday, the Arizona Republican said the attacks - the worst in Iraq in months - are indicative that improving the situation there is a slow process and a "terrible tragedy."
He blamed extremists trying to ignite sectarian violence, but said that while such attacks continue, "they are not sustainable.
"The majority of the people are opposed to them. And the Iraqi military will be able to handle this transition. But it's not going to be without tragedies such as we've seen just today," he added.
On Afghanistan,
No, McCain said. "We are not operating in a vacuum now.
"The sooner the decision is made, the sooner we get people over there and are able to implement the strategy that will succeed."
He admitted that the government of President Hamid Karzai - should he win re-election in the runoff - has to be more accountable in eliminating corruption. But McCain argued that a troop increase should not wait until the political situation there is resolved.
"I think [President Obama] will make the right decision. I want to support that decision," McCain said. "I also just want to briefly add, there's a lot of other areas, now that we are moving forward, when we move forward, for the proper security environment. There's governance. There's some problems within our own civilian side as to how we are going to be partners in implementing this strategy. And a lot of other issues that need to be addressed as well. But without security, none of the other aspects of a winning strategy can succeed."
Schieffer asked if Senator McCain could support a possible move to a hybrid strategy in Afghanistan, incorporating some elements of the counterterrorism strategy Vice President Joe Biden supports and General Stanley McChrystal's counterinsurgency strategy.
"It may be a matter of semantics," McCain said. "I don't know how you make them hybrid. There are elements of counterterrorism in counterinsurgency, but fundamentally, counterinsurgency will require the implementation of the strategy that General McChrystal has recommended, in my view.
"And the counterterrorism strategy - killing people and then returning to base - has been proven to be a very disastrous strategy in Iraq and in other places."
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- Thank you from the party of NO.
NO answers, NO solutions, NO NOTHING.
Keep John you had your time and you through it away now go sit in the cornor. - Reply to this comment
- McCain disqualified himself from being taken seriously when he became a Bush chear leader and when he picked Palin as his running mate.
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- McCain is a ghost. All he does is moan and whine. Even children stopped listening to him.
He lost ALL credibility as a smart or wise person when he accepted Sarah Palin as a running mate. He was once an iconic senator until he committed poltical and credibility suicide by his association with Palin . Now he is nothing more than embarrassing collateral damage in Sarah's blitzkrieg to a higher political office.
- McCain is a ghost. All he does is moan and whine. Even children stopped listening to him.
- Hey McCain. If I wanted your opinion about what the President should or should not do, I would have voted for you instead of Obama.
Take a seat! - Reply to this comment
- The more I listen to McCain, the more I wonder WHAT kind of medications HE IS ON?!
Until this interview, and especially over the past seven years, he has adamantly supported MORE troops into Iraq and/or Afghanistan!!
Now, all of a sudden, HE'S talking about WITHDRAWING troops?! It appears he KNOWS we're in 'wind down' mode, and wants to be on the 'winning team' when it happens...and doesn't want to miss the 'bandwagon'!
What a guy! How many U.S. troops have needlessly been KIA and wounded, while this opportunist 'beat the drums of war' in the Senate this past
seven years? NOW, he's acknowledging reality?!
His actions just show how he and the GOP have been and ARE totally irresponsible in handling the business of the nation! - Reply to this comment
- Now that Senator McCain is not in "campaign" mode he can take the right position on Iraq. It's too bad that the Senator can't "stick" to his Presidential concession speech and work with President Obama in a "bi-partisan" effort on our "domestic" issues that are very much still facing many Americans.
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- "The sooner the decision is made, the sooner we get people over there and are able to implement the strategy that will succeed."
Why do you wait until Obama is president, before you call for a "troop surge" and a new and improved strategy?
Where the hell were you for the last 8 years?!?! - Reply to this comment
- stuart-johns2 ........You ask,Why we ever went to Iraq this is your answer: We went to settle a grudge match that started with Saddam Hussein trying to kill the first President Bush. It wasn't about weapons of mass destruction.Alot of americans have died fighting a war that was chumped up to get us in it with no way out of it.
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- Two big things diqualify McCain from participating in a serious discussion on this or any other topic.
He supported Bush and his disasterous policies and he nominated Palin as his running mate.
McCain's judgement is terrible. - Reply to this comment
- Neocons have no credibility in military strategy, foreign policy, or anything really.
They spent 8 years digging us into the hole that Obama is trying to get us out of. - Reply to this comment
- After 8 years of starting wars and occupations without a real mission, real planning, or even an exit strategy, it's nice to have a real leader who thinks carefully before comitting our troops and our tax dollars.
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- This Alzheimer's Patient needs to fade into obscurity as badly as Cheney needs to fade. Yesterday's Tired Old White Man Ideas.
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- I'm standing with our President on this one. The surge may have worked in Iraq, but the truth is the Bush Administration gave up on Afganistan. The terrain.the Taliban and the fact that the Al Quadea have moved on to Pakistan makes this an entirely different ball game. In addition how long are we suppose to babysit Iraq? Either these people want peace and are willing to whatever it takes to maintain it or we need to get out. Come on, the price for them to acheive peace has been too high. We have buried thousands of soldiers. Lets stop thinking of them as numbers and realize we are dealing with people, people with families, children that will go without fathers or mothers, for peace for a people who refuse to be responsible for their own safety.
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- i don't care what you think McCain, I don't trust you.
"Senator John McCain (R-AZ) is the top recipient of campaign contributions from large Internet service providers like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast over the past two years, according to a new report from the Sunlight Foundation and the Center for Responsive Politics. McCain has taken in a total of $894,379 (much of that money going to support his failed 2008 bid for the presidency), more than twice the amount taken by the next-largest beneficiary," - Reply to this comment
- "McCain's bill, the Internet Freedom Act, seeks to do the opposite of what its name implies by ensuring that broadband and wireless providers can discriminate and throttle certain traffic while giving preferential treatment to other traffic. Basically, those in power or those who pay more will have better access. Apparently we have different definitions of ?freedom'."
Do you think I care what McCrook thinks?
He got paid by the providers to take the net away from us and he did what they paid him for.
Shut up McCain, go count your bribe money. - Reply to this comment
- Can't figure out why McCain lost the election? One word Palin
If McCain was elected we would have been in World War III.
Bring our people home, let the contractors stay over there. They are Halburton people, employed by Richard Chaney and company...let them fight the war they started..Oh, I forgot, Chaney took 5 bye's on being drafted...he said it wasn't in his game plan to be "drafted" Wimp that he is, it's no wonder his head isn't screwed on right. Any takers out there that want us to stay and fight? then you suit up, send yourself, your wife, your kids over there, start walking those mean streets and shoot anyone who looks at you crosseyed.. Also, don't forget to take all those Congress men and women who voted to invade these countries. Also don't forget to say a prayer for all the innocent women,children and old people who have nothing to do with this illegal war...What fools we are to permit Bush and Chaney to start this World War III. - Reply to this comment
- I think the McCain plan is the best, like he said we should
"stay in Iraq for 100 years".
Just because McCain got more bribe money from the Telcom giants than any other member of Congress to take the Internet away from us and give it to big corporations by introducing legislation to give control of it to big corporations is no reason we cannot trust him. I think big corporations should be able to censor the net like in Iraq, don't you?
I still can't figure out how someone as great as McCain lost the election.
A real mystery. - Reply to this comment
- I agree with McCain. We should waste no time withdrawing from Iraq AND Afghanistan.
Bring the forces home. Iraqi's will do whatever they will do and Afghanistan does not want democracy over there.
Why we ever went to Iraq (a just reason) still eludes me to this day and Afghanistan, well Cheney blew that mission from day one.
So why...WHY...do we continue to waste both the lives of our soldiers and increase our national debt for these people??? - Reply to this comment
