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John McCain’s Greatest Hits: Wrong on Iraq
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The media villager and Beltway bloviators continue to turn to Sen. John McCain for his "wisdom" (sic) on Iraq. Just about everything this man has ever said about Iraq has consistently been wrong.
Spare me any nonsense about how "the surge" worked. First of all, John McCain would have you judge Iraq from the middle of the movie. This Neocon warmonger wants you to forget the beginning of the movie. McCain was a patron of Ahmed Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress, the group that fabricated pre-war intelligence, for years before we went to war in Iraq. He wants you to forget that all the fabricated evidence of "weapons of mass destruction" turned out to be entirely false. The Neocons' casus belli for war with Iraq was a lie. It was an unnecessary war of choice, a war of aggression against a country that posed no imminent threat to the United States (illegal under international treaties and protocols) based upon a tapestry of Neocon lies. That original sin should condemn John McCain.
The thousands of American casualties and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi casualties (and millions of displaced refugees) suffered as a result of this unnecessary and illegal war of aggression is a bloody stain upon the hands of its Neocon architects, including John McCain.
"The surge" has failed to achieve its main goal. Stephen Walt, a professor of international relations at Harvard, writes The "Surge" in Iraq Failed: Get Used to It. | Stephen M. Walt:
The surge had two main goals. The first goal was to bring the level of violence down by increasing U.S. force levels in key areas, forging a tactical alliance with cooperative Sunni groups, and shifting to a counterinsurgency strategy that emphasized population protection. This aspect of the surge succeeded, though it is still hard to know how much of the progress was due to increased force levels and improved tactics and how much was due to other developments, such as the prior "ethnic cleansing" that had separated the contending groups.
The second and equally important goal was to promote political reconciliation among the competing factions in Iraq. This goal was not achieved, and the consequences of that failure are increasingly apparent. What lies ahead is a long-delayed test of strength between the various contending groups, until a new formula for allocating political power emerges. That formula has been missing since before the United States invaded — that is, Washington never had a plausible plan for reconstructing a workable Iraqi state once it dismantled Saddam's regime — and it will be up to the Iraqi people to work it out amongst themselves. It won’t be pretty.
With this in mind, Jon Perr has compiled a "greatest hits" if you will of John McCain's wrong judgment about Iraq. PERRspectives: President McCain Speaks on Iraq:
But as the record shows, it is John McCain and not Barack Obama who needs to say "I was wrong. I made a mistake." At almost every turn in the run-up to the invasion and the ensuing American occupation, McCain's judgment was almost always wrong, often disastrously so. From his predictions of a short war, claims U.S. troops would be greeted as liberators and that the U.S. would find weapons of mass destruction to his announcements of mission accomplished, his ongoing confusion over Sunni and Shiite, friend and foe in Iraq and so much more, the would-be President John McCain gets failing marks.
Here, then, is a look back at John McCain's reign of error on Iraq:
On the Run-Up to War
"Next up, Baghdad!"
John McCain, aboard the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, January 2, 2002."I am very certain that this military engagement will not be very difficult."
John McCain, September 12, 2002."Look, we're going to send young men and women in harm's way and that's always a great danger, but I cannot believe that there is an Iraqi soldier who is going to be willing to die for Saddam Hussein, particularly since he will know that our objective is to remove Saddam Hussein from power."
John McCain, September 15, 2002."But the fact is, I think we could go in with much smaller numbers than we had to do in the past. But any military man worth his salt is going to have to prepare for any contingency, but I don't believe it's going to be nearly the size and scope that it was in 1991."
John McCain, September 15, 2002."He's a patriot who has the best interests of his country at heart."
John McCain, on Ahmed Chalabi, 2003.On Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction
"I think we're doing fine [in Afghanistan]…I think we'll do fine. The second phase – if I could just make one, very quickly – the second phase is Iraq. There is some indication, and I don't have the conclusions, but some of this anthrax may – and I emphasize may – have come from Iraq."
John McCain, on the fall 2001 anthrax attacks in the U.S., October 18, 2001."Proponents of containment claim that Iraq is in a "box." But it is a box with no lid, no bottom, and whose sides are falling out. Within this box are definitive footprints of germ, chemical and nuclear programs."
John McCain, February 13, 2003."I remain confident that we will find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq."
John McCain, June 11, 2003.On Being Greeted as Liberators
"Absolutely. Absolutely."
John McCain, asked by Chris Matthews, "you believe that the people of Iraq or at least a large number of them will treat us as liberators?" March 12, 2003."Not only that, they'll be relieved that he's not in the neighborhood because he has invaded his neighbors on several occasions."
John McCain, asked by Chris Matthews, "And you think the Arab world will come to a grudging recognition that what we did was necessary?" March 12, 2003."There's no doubt in my mind that we will prevail and there's no doubt in my mind, once these people are gone, that we will be welcomed as liberators."
John McCain, March 24, 2003.On a Rapid Victory and Mission Accomplished
"I think the victory will be rapid, within about three weeks."
John McCain, January 28, 2003."It's clear that the end is very much in sight…It won't be long. It, it'll be a fairly short period of time."
John McCain, April 9, 2003."We won a massive victory in a few weeks, and we did so with very limited loss of American and allied lives."
John McCain, May 22, 2003.
