What are we to make of this?
Sen. John McCain, departing from his typically sunny assessment of the situation in Iraq, expressed surprise about Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s decision to try to take control of the southern city of Basra from Shiite militias.
“Malaki decided to take on this operation without consulting the Americans,” McCain told reporters traveling with him in Meridian, Miss. “I’m surprised he’d take it on himself to go down and take charge of a military offensive. I had not anticipated that he would do it.”
This wasn’t the plan, McCain said. “We have a battle going on in Mosul, which all of us agreed would take three or four more months to get Mosul under control. The generally accepted strategy was bring Mosul under control and then address the problem that all of us acknowledged existed in the southern part of the country.”
Is he serious?
Well Boo I’ll vote for yeah he’s serious, as seriously clueless as Bush. It’s just damn scary how ignorant or senile or both that he truly is. Someone tell me again why it is that the media/reporters like this guy? He sounds dumber than the proverbial post every time he opens his mouth and apparently he has always been this way.
Can we have an AA type group for stupid people..Hi, I’m John McCain and I’m a stupid.
It’s all too simple. He makes them very comfortable with their own ignorance. To reporters it’s, “If the kewl kidd is stupid, then we must be okay”.
Validation folks, it’s all about validation.
Hey Mike, that’s a good a reason as any and probably correct. I think the media seems to abhor any politician who is actually smart and can think and reason-which seems to possibly explain why they went after Gore/Dean/Clinton/Kerry so viciously and no doubt Obama is next.
No different than it was with GWB.
this feels exactly like a bad rerun of the 2000 elections. Anyone clued in looks on helplessly as the class clown wins the hearts and “minds” of the elite (the rich and the press) and the masses just follow meekly after.
I’m beginning to think it really is going to take a depression before people come to their senses.
We is not learning here in the U. S. of KKK.
The elite and ultra wealthy seem to think that their money and influences will keep their picture-perfect world intact, while the rest of us live in abject poverty and degradation, tolerating their country club lifstyle. The success of Banana Republics all over the world, set up by Imperial US and Britain over the last century gives them reason to think it will happen here too. Do you really think Americans will give up their middle class lifestyles so the rich and famous can drive around in Hummers and play golf while we pick rags out of the garbage?
not only is he serious, but dangerous.
And clueless on the economy too.
Bush’s ex Sec. of the Treasury
Paul O’Neil: Market Leader … McCain not ready
Boo,
He has surrounded himself with the PNAC crowd and he is speaking their language.
The Iraqi government was never to operate independently from the US. I’ll never forget the quote from a late US congressman that was reported in Haaretz. We were going to install a dictator.
.
What was left of al-Maliki’s authority and, by extension, the credibility of the United States? Last week, President Bush praised the Iraqi leader’s “bold decision” to go after illegal groups in Basra, show his leadership and demonstrate the progress gained by Iraqi security forces.
The New York Times reported today, though, that the negotiations with al-Sadr were seen as a serious blow to al-Maliki, who had vowed that he would see the Basra campaign through to a military victory.
This offensive builds on the security gains of the surge, and demonstrates to the Iraqi people that their government is committed to protecting them. There’s a strong commitment by the central government of Iraq to say that no one is above the law. This operation is going to take some time to complete, and the enemy will try to fill the TV screens with violence. But the ultimate result will be this: Terrorists and extremists in Iraq will know they have no place in a free and democratic society.”
… But Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel challenged Bush’s optimistic view of the war in Iraq, particularly in light of recent fighting between Iraqi government troops and Shiite militias in the south that is spreading into Baghdad.
Three days of fighting in the southern region have left more than 100 Iraqis dead and prompted thousands to demonstrate in Shiite neighborhoods of the capital against the crackdown launched by al-Maliki.
“The Shia militias have controlled southern Iraq the last three years,” Hagel said on CNN’s “The Situation Room.”
“We have just deferred that. There are no Americans down there and we act like, well, everything is fine,” he said. “Well, everything is not fine … what we’re seeing as a consequence of our actions in Baghdad are going to further play out more violence.”
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."You mean the senile old foole doesn’t remember he was just in Iraq when Cheney was there telling Maliki to attack al Sadr’s forces before the heat of the summer and cut down on their power before elections in October?
Ya mean the foole doesn’t remember Maliki telling him he was going to Basra to lead the glorious Iraqi army against the extremists, Oh Right “Lierman” had to remind him as they left Iraq so the senile old foole could not even remember he went to Iraq about now.
No wonder the senile old foole sings bomb bomb Bomb Iran, he is starting his trip down the alzheimer’s memory lane (at least here he is the true legacy of ronnie raygun) and he thinks Iraq is just Arabic for Vietnam.
McSame is very smart. He is playing to his war mongering base, the celebrity press corps.
… “appears” clueless … ?
What is there about this that McCain doesn’t get?
“Its not about the War-stupid-its about the Peace.”