Monday, May 14, 2007

McCain on MTP

Click to watch Senator McCain's latest on MTP - entertaining and aggravating. Since the Senator is a veteran I would naturally be inclined to support him, but I just can't do it. He scares me. He's not thinking rationally about the Iraq mess. It's become an honor thing for him - a good sense for a warrior to possess, but not the strategos. Sorry Senator, can't endorse you.

Choice transcript quotes:
MR. RUSSERT: But the duly elected people's bodies, the U.S. Congress and the Iraqi parliament, say they want a troop withdrawal. That's more than a poll. Isn't that the voice of the people?

SEN. McCAIN: Well, the--as far as the Iraqi parliament is concerned, the Iraqi government obviously doesn't feel that way, their--the representatives in their government. Second of all, there is some, a certain amount of domestic political calculations involved there in what the Iraqi, quote, "parliament" said. The Iraqi parliament has their ability to, to voice their views, and I respect them. And I, as I say, I--I'll repeat again, I understand how democracies work. I saw it in Vietnam. I saw it in Vietnam. And I saw it in Vietnam, the predictions, that everything would be a worker's paradise in, in Vietnam if we left. And thousands were executed and millions went to re-education camps. So I, I believe that, that the consequences of failure, and particularly sitting on the large reserves of oil they have, particularly considering the influence of al-Qaeda is concerned, you will see enormous destabilization in the region, and that's my duty. That's my obligation. It's not my privilege. And political calculations should not enter into any information or position that I take on, on a, on an issue of national security.
Notice he mocks the Iraqi parliament by calling them the, "'quote,' parliament." As if to imply they have no real power. That they're a sham, a puppet parliament. Does the Senator want to be the puppet master? Dictatorial ambitions? Naww, couldn't be...

And "dammit Walter, not everything is about Vietnam, man."


McCain, self-described, "student of history," on American and Iraqi History:
It took us about 100 and some years before we had a bloody civil war to decide the future of our country. This is a fledgling democracy. I'm not, I'm not making excuses for it, but they have not been in this business before. And yet that does not change the fact that, in my view, unless they act, it could jeopardize what is already in jeopardy.


It's news to him:
MR. RUSSERT: Jim Miklaszewski, our Pentagon correspondent, reports that he's being told by senior military officials that, come April, we do not have the troops to continue to send to Iraq in the rotation that we've been--that's been ongoing. We simply don't have them.

SEN. McCAIN: Come next April.

MR. RUSSERT: That's correct.

No comments:

Post a Comment