Disgraced

Senator John McCain appeared on Meet The Press this morning and made many incredible statements. The most egregious statement was made in a segment discussing Iraq and why Bush - despite his many declarations that he listens to his generals on the ground, is disregarding his generals – pushing ahead and sending additional troops into the Iraqi civil war. McCain was queried about what he thinks about Bush not listening to the generals and the removal of Gen. Casey: (emphasis added)

MR. RUSSERT: Senator, we heard President Bush, throughout the last four years of the war, saying “Whatever the commanders tell me about troop levels, that’s what I’ll do.” This is what General George Casey, the U.S. commander in Iraq said on January 2: “The longer we in the U.S. forces continue to bear the main burden of Iraq’s security, it lengthens the time that the government of Iraq has to make the hard decisions about reconciliation and dealing with the militias. And the other thing is that they can continue to blame us for all of Iraq’s problems, which are at base their problems.” President Bush disagreed with General Casey, so he’s removed. Why didn’t the president listen to his generals when they advised no more troops?

SEN. McCAIN: Because it was clearly a failed policy. From the beginning, many of us knew that it was a failed strategy. It was based on the mistaken belief that the Iraqi army and police would be able to take over the responsibilities far more quickly than they were able to. And after the bombing of the Shia mosque, the, the crisis accelerated, and we saw and are seeing a steady deterioration of the situation. And if we continue it as we are, within months we would see a total breakdown in Iraq. We cannot afford it, in my view, as I said. Baghdad is a city of six million people—two million Sunnis, four million Shia. We would see a bloodletting in Baghdad of—that would make Srebrenica look like a Sunday school picnic. We can’t expect Americans to sit outside Baghdad or outside the borders and watch such a thing go on. It was a failed policy; it was pursued too long. We now have a new strategy headed by one of the finest military people we have, and I believe we can succeed. But I believe that there’s no doubt, in retrospect and at the time, that the policy that was pursued wasn’t going to work.

So all the talk about “as they stand up we will stand down” was a lie. From his own lips, McCain states he knowingly supported sending young Americans to their death on a mission that he knew would not work. He knowingly sent Americans to their deaths - for a failed policy he knew would not work, he supported an administration implementing a failed strategy that he knew would result in death for young Americans.

June 29, 2005
"Our strategy can be summed up this way -- as the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down," Bush said.......

Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told "Larry King Live" that he was satisfied Bush made his case. "I think the president laid out tonight an excellent scenario of what the realities are and what we face.......

Dec 4, 2005
MR. RUSSERT: The difficulty is our only exit strategy appears to be, as the president said, when the Iraqis stand up, Americans stand down.

SEN. McCAIN: Yes.

MR. RUSSERT: Iraqis are not standing up as quickly as we need them to do. Jim Fallows wrote a long piece in the Atlantic Monthly........ Let me read it for you and our viewers a little bit. "In short, if American troops disappeared tomorrow, Iraq would have essentially no independent security force.....The moment when Iraqis can lift much of the burden from American troops is not yet in sight. ...Measured against what it would take to leave Iraqis fully in charge of their own security, the United States and the Iraqi government are losing ground. Absent a dramatic change.......America's options will grow worse, not better, as time goes on."

SEN. McCAIN: Well, I have great respect for Jim Fallows. I have a different view of the progress that's being made. I do agree that there are difficulties,......... But I do believe that the training is improved. The Iraqi military is performing pretty well...... but I think that our commanders, General Abizaid and others who have been on this program, would attest to the fact that we are making progress......

Now McCain wants to send more troops. Originally advocating an additional 100,000 soldiers, then calling for 40,000 more, he now feels comfortable with 15,000 - 30,000. As stated so well by Glenn Greenwald:

Advocating this war because one believed -- mistakenly -- that it would produce certain positive results imposes a certain level of culpability for what has happened. But continuing to advocate this war while knowing -- as McCain and so many like him do -- that (a) it is achieving nothing positive and (b) there are no viable and realistic options for achieving anything positive, places one in a different moral universe entirely.

Seems like 'straight talk' is just normal political BS after all.
Posted on The Human Stain