Graham Claims McCain ‘Has Never Said That This War Would Be Easy’
Graham Claims McCain ‘Has Never Said That This War Would Be Easy’
Yesterday on Fox News’ Hannity and Colmes, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) claimed that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) never said that the Iraq war would be won easily:
He has never said that this war would be easy. He has been the guy saying for four years that we’re getting it wrong. We need more troops.
Watch it:
Graham’s statement is absolutely false. In the run-up to war, McCain eagerly proclaimed on multiple occasions that the war would be “easy,” giving rosy predictions about the daunting war ahead:
“Because I know that as successful as I believe we will be, and I believe that the success will be fairly easy, we will still lose some American young men or women.”" [CNN, 9/24/02]
“But the point is that, one, we will win this conflict. We will win it easily.” [MSNBC, 1/22/03]
When Alan Colmes countered Graham’s statement with a barrage of similar quotes from McCain, Graham responded: “He said that beating the Saddam Hussein regime militarily was quick and it was lethal,” implying McCain knew the post-invasion would be difficult. But McCain has displayed ignorance about that as well:
“We’re not going to get into house-to-house fighting in Baghdad. We may have to take out buildings, but we’re not going to have a bloodletting of trading American bodies for Iraqi bodies.” [CNN, 9/29/02]
“There’s not a history of clashes that are violent between Sunnis and Shias. So I think they can probably get along.” [MSNBC, 4/23/03]
McCain even reflected on the war last year and said, “it was easy.” “Well, it was easy. It was easy. I said we — a military operation would be easy. It was easy. We were greeted as liberators,” he told Tim Russert on Meet the Press in January 2007.
Not surprisingly, in his major national security address today, McCain reflected: “I am an idealist.”
Transcript:
COLMES: Senator, it is Alan. Welcome back to our show. One of the.
GRAHAM: Hey, Alan. How are you doing?
COLMES: Good to see you, sir. If you go back and look at the — you know John McCain talks about how consistent he has been, how he’s been right and you look back and I’ve gone over his statements today. He said in ‘02 I believe the success will be fairly easy. He then said I believe we can win overwhelming victory in a very short time.
Then he said we understood in the very beginning it would be very, very difficult. He said in ‘06, a few years later. In ‘03, he echoed what Bush said saying that the end was very much in sight. And then in ‘07, he says I knew it was going to be long, hard and tough. He has changed his position of how easy this would be to win over and over and over again.
GRAHAM: I think you left out the part for four years where he was arguing with Secretary Rumsfeld standing up in front of the entire world, including his own party, saying this strategy is not working. I have been to Iraq 11 times. John has been eight. I have been with him from the fall of Baghdad up until the surge. Alan, you can’t have it both ways. You can’t say this is the McCain surge and he has never.
COLMES: How do you go from saying it’s going to be really easy to I’ve never said it was going to be easy.
GRAHAM: He’s never.
COLMES: It’s going to be tough…
(CROSSTALK) COLMES: … to be tough, he changed his position on that.
GRAHAM: My friend, he said that beating the Saddam Hussein regime militarily was quick and it was lethal. He has never said that this war would be easy. He has been the guy saying for four years that we’re getting it wrong. We need more troops.
COLMES: I believe success will be fairly easy.
(CROSSTALK)
GRAHAM: We’re losing, not winning. The only reason we are winning now in Iraq is because John had the courage to stand up when nobody else would and say we need more troops. We don’t have enough troops.
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Add lying openly to Graham’s (colossal) list of deficiencies ………
March 26th, 2008 at 6:25 pmThat is the most incomprehensible gobbledeegook I have ever heard two buffoons spew.
March 26th, 2008 at 6:27 pmNot to mention full of BS…
Republicans and their minions in the media just lie and lie and lie and lie.
March 26th, 2008 at 6:28 pm“He has never said that this war would be GReasy”…yeah, what ever, dude.
Hopefully McWar will be handed a hearty defeat in November. We don’t need an old codger that doesn’t have a grasp of what’s going on in the world, much less remember from day to day what he has said about one subject or another.
Bush/Cheney
March 26th, 2008 at 6:30 pmHague Trials ‘09
No wonder these people want to torture people. They lie so much they can’t keep up with their own lies and so they think everyone is as evil as they are……..they are wrong.
March 26th, 2008 at 6:35 pmI’m gonna start holding back on my judgment of McCain. I always gave Reagan so much flak for his many “I do not recall” statements, and then I felt bad when I later found out that he had Alzheimer’s. With some of McCain’s recent statements I’m seriously beginning to wonder about his mental competence. I don’t want to rail against his recent positions, or many flip-flops, and then find out he is seriously suffering from some type of senility or dementia.
March 26th, 2008 at 6:38 pmSince I can’t watch Hannity & Colmes without needing to replace my television set each time, my opinion of Colmes was largely a product of Al Franken’s book in which he wrote “Hannity and (teeny type colmes)”. On occasion, though, I read about him actually calling someone on their b.s. and doing it with actual quotes like this. Good for Colmes, even if it is a fruitless and thankless task on FXnews.
March 26th, 2008 at 6:38 pmI can’t wait for the ad that has side by side shots of McCain and Alfred E. Neumann. What? Me Wrong?
March 26th, 2008 at 6:38 pmChris L Says:
March 26th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
I’m gonna start holding back on my judgment of McCain. I always gave Reagan so much flak for his many “I do not recall” statements, and then I felt bad when I later found out that he had Alzheimer’s. With some of McCain’s recent statements I’m seriously beginning to wonder about his mental competence. I don’t want to rail against his recent positions, or many flip-flops, and then find out he is seriously suffering from some type of senility or dementia.
I think his real dementia is the belief that he should be president. He’s thrown any ethics he may have possessed out the window in the single-minded pursuit of his goal. The first evidence of this was when he started sucking up to the Religious Right after previously calling Falwell and Co. “agents of intolerance.”
In other words, I don’t think it’s dementia. I think he’s just saying whatever it is he thinks people want to hear right now, so they’ll vote for him. Anything he said in the past just doesn’t count.
March 26th, 2008 at 6:41 pmThese people are trying to take the art of Historical Revisionism to a new level.
March 26th, 2008 at 6:44 pmgood luck with that. Reagan did enough damage to deserve any flak he gets…even now. He was coherent enough to to make life hard for a lot of people and this guy will do the same.
If we’re going to be nice to old folks lets make them our own. Not someone who could care less whether you live or die and is trying to get the power to make that happen.
March 26th, 2008 at 6:44 pmSomeone needs to remind these idiots that in this age of computers and the internet, everything you say and everything you write, lasts forever.
Tough to re-write history when the entire world has copies of what was said and done.
March 26th, 2008 at 6:49 pmGraham Claims McCain ‘Has Never Said That This War Would Be Easy’
___________________________________
TRANSLATION: “McCain has never said that this war would be easy…except for the times he did.”
March 26th, 2008 at 6:49 pmChris L Says:
March 26th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
I’m gonna start holding back on my judgment of McCain. I always gave Reagan so much flak for his many “I do not recall” statements, and then I felt bad when I later found out that he had Alzheimer’s. With some of McCain’s recent statements I’m seriously beginning to wonder about his mental competence.
__________________________
Valid point. Except that the issue here is Lindsey Graham’s statement, not McCain’s. What’s HIS excuse?
March 26th, 2008 at 6:51 pmlm945 Says:
March 26th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Someone needs to remind these idiots that in this age of computers and the internet, everything you say and everything you write, lasts forever.
_____________________________________
And you’d think people like Lindsey Graham (or at the very least, one of his staffers) would hit Google at least once before spouting off.
Oh well — look for an “I misspoke” disclaimer from Graham soon.
March 26th, 2008 at 6:53 pmWait for it… wait for it…it will come…
GRAHAM: I may have misspoke….
March 26th, 2008 at 6:55 pmDoesn’t matter McCain can say he invented ice cream and the so-called media will let him get away with it.
“Free Pass, (burgers and ribs) on the Straight Talk Express”
RIP
March 26th, 2008 at 6:56 pmSGT Stephen R. Sherman
C CO 1-5 IN (STRYKER)
KIA 3 Feb 2005
Mosul, Iraq
NBC Nightly News just did what I believe to be a McCain shill piece. They hyped his speech, only partially debunking the detainee treatment claim by pointing out his vote for harsher methods, and pretty much advertised him as a progressive.
And though I don’t think she’ll be the nominee, they came down REAL hard on Hillary.
If anyone else watched the news, what did you think?
March 26th, 2008 at 7:06 pmThe war is gonna be easy. The next six months are gonna be crucial. Let’s stay the course.
Empty slogans for the empty-headed among us who are quick to believe this claptrap, and quick to forget it too.
That’s why Graham, Cheney, etc can get away with their obvious lies: Their followers have a short attention span problem. Or they just don’t care.
March 26th, 2008 at 7:06 pmLyndsey Graham is hoping for some closet to closet fighting.
-_GSD
March 26th, 2008 at 7:09 pmReading TP, I’m surprised you think she’s in the race.
Try finding a story here that gives the impression John McCain isn’t the sole candidate running for president this year.
And what a valuable service TP is providing to Democrat voters. With constant updates on why you still shouldn’t vote for the man you never were going to, as opposed to ANYTHING relating to the two democrat candidates which would allow you a fully informed choice between them.
Russian opposition parties get more coverage from Putin’s newspapers than Democrat presidential candidates do here at TP.
March 26th, 2008 at 7:23 pmThats the same thing as using a strawman in your arguement. Did you say it would be easy, I didn’t, perhaps Mr, I got love in my closet Graham needs to quit listening to the people in his closet and listen to the the voters.
March 26th, 2008 at 7:26 pmNothing will change…unless most all of the fascist network disappears..hmmmmmmm
March 26th, 2008 at 7:28 pmAccording to the reich-wingers, we have been “winning in Iraq” for 5 years.
March 26th, 2008 at 7:29 pmFor embarrassments sake here’s one more McCain quote from Charlie Rose, 24 September 2002:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lqr2z0JzMp8
(at 31:00)
In all honesty, McCain does raise some concern over how Bush is going to handle postwar Iraq, and critizes Bush for postwar Afghanistan.
March 26th, 2008 at 7:32 pm“Russian opposition parties get more coverage from Putin’s newspapers than Democrat presidential candidates do here at TP.”
Start your own blog.
March 26th, 2008 at 7:32 pmwas lindsey graham having a senior moment himself?? lol these people will do and say anything … and long enough for the repubots to follow suit …
March 26th, 2008 at 7:33 pmAK-47s are turning up more in US
http://news.yahoo.com/ s/ ap/ 20080326/ ap_on_re_us/ ak47s
March 26th, 2008 at 7:39 pmAnd if you confront Graham with what McCain has been saying he will tell you that :” John simply ‘misspoke’”.
‘Misspoke’ now is the word of the month.
March 26th, 2008 at 7:40 pmAs much as anything else, presidential campaigns are won and lost by the media narratives that rightly or wrongly come to define a candidate. In the case of Repubican nominee John McCain, the seemingly unshakable narrative of the political “maverick” could not be further off the mark. At almost every turn, McCain in his eternal quest for the White House has reversed long-held positions, compromised core principles and swallowed his pride in order to curry favor with both the leading lights of the conservative movement and right-wing Republican primary voters. The untold story of campaign 2008 is simply that of John McCain’s transformation from maverick to prostitute.
For the details, see:
March 26th, 2008 at 7:42 pm“From Maverick to Prostitute: The Untold Story of John McCain.”
With today’s media technology, how do these folks think they can get away with the LIES?
March 26th, 2008 at 7:46 pmWhat a strange comment.
March 26th, 2008 at 8:08 pmIf you want to read about Democrats, start your own blog rather than coming to this one operated by a tax exempt liberal political organisation which receives funding for the promotion of progressive politics.
Because that’d be the most sensible way that’d work.
Maybe they rely on the assumption that it won’t matter if people pretend it never happened…
March 26th, 2008 at 8:11 pmhttp://www.memeorandum.com/080325/h0855
How can Sen. McCain or Sen. Graham separate the toppling of Saddam Hussein from the power vaccum aftermath of the Iraq War. Gen. Powell said if we break it, we own it. It was widely known that the aftermath would be the HARD PART.
It is like if Bush solved a Hornet problem by hitting the hive with a big stick. EASY. And then acting surprised wheneveryone gets stung and dives for cover.
March 26th, 2008 at 8:12 pmwe’ll just see what happens when al malaki’s 72 hr deadline for shiite militia to disarm expires in basra and the whole place explodes - and meanwhile al sadr’s ceasefire is fast unravelling in baghdad which means that place will probably erupt too - so will graham and mccain still shout out loud “we’re winning” and “violence is down because of the surge”? - they cannot be allowed to keep misleading the public and ignoring reality - these people are dellusional fools.
March 26th, 2008 at 8:30 pmSounds like a real “bad guy”:
US: Saddam paid for lawmakers’ Iraq trip
Sounds like Saddam was just using good old American style “lobbyist” tactics to persuade the U.S., and since it was Saddam and not some fat corn farmer, they’re ashamed?
March 26th, 2008 at 8:42 pmMcWars Says:
March 26th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
NBC Nightly News just did what I believe to be a McCain shill piece. They hyped his speech, only partially debunking the detainee treatment claim by pointing out his vote for harsher methods, and pretty much advertised him as a progressive.
And though I don’t think she’ll be the nominee, they came down REAL hard on Hillary.
If anyone else watched the news, what did you think?
The day McCain gave his speech on the economy, which didn’t contain much actual substance I saw one of the networks hyping it as some kind of major well thought-out important speech while not really commenting on the actual content.
March 26th, 2008 at 8:58 pmI thought is was an amazingly blatant attempt to cover for McCain and make him look good.
Gregor Samsa Says:
March 26th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
The war is gonna be easy. The next six months are gonna be crucial. Let’s stay the course.
Empty slogans for the empty-headed among us who are quick to believe this claptrap, and quick to forget it too.
That’s why Graham, Cheney, etc can get away with their obvious lies: Their followers have a short attention span problem. Or they just don’t care.
I read a piece on some soldiers in Iraq and one of them said something about how so many Americans have become “self-absorbed retards”.
Not a politically correct thing to say, but I think he aptly described what I’ve been seeing.
Today’s news from Iraq is…. LOOK THERE’S BRITNEY!
War is so boring, at first it was exciting, Shock and Awe was real cool, but after 5 years…HEY, DID YOU SEE AMERICAN IDLE LAST NIGHT?
How did we go from the greatest generation to this?
March 26th, 2008 at 9:27 pmI guess all empires/great nations degenerate.
Success and wealth create a soft life, then bring in outsiders to do the labor, eventually have mercenaries do the fighting, bread and circuses (or big screen tvs) for the masses, then someday you get an Emporer who appoints his horse to an important post or a Shrub who appoints a Brownie or a Gonzalez or …..
Maybe it’s inevitable.
gummitch Says:
March 26th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Here ya go gummitch, HANNITY and Colmes.
March 26th, 2008 at 10:33 pmHmmmm messed that up gummitch.
March 26th, 2008 at 10:33 pmHANNITY & colmes
:-)
March 26th, 2008 at 10:38 pmit’s a good thing!
… there’s more:
Video: The internal Shia conflict in Iraq - 26 Mar 08 AlJazeeraEnglish
Battles across Iraq’s south in crackdown Reuters UK
March 26th, 2008 at 10:39 pmAnyway, this entire campaign is becoming more bizarre every single day. Hillary’s misspeaking about her trip to Bosnia. You know the one about her dodging sniper fire when she actually she casually walked around on the tarmac. The ridiculousness about the continuing hammering of Rev. Wright. McCanttalkwithoutateleprompter saying people are tight with money now because things are er… tighter.
March 26th, 2008 at 10:50 pmThis is why I sometimes belive we need a third party. A real one, not some fringe party that has usually propped up some half-wit or loon. People might give the Libertarian Party a chance if they’d only nominate a real candidate. Green Party? Please. Why not a Blue Party? A Pink Party; women only, just not Hillary (come to think of it, I see some promise there!).
Barack needs to come back from his vacation fighting and tell the people that there are much more important issues than preacher’s sermons, Hillary’s memory loss and McCain’s flippity floppity attitude on Iraq and most everything else he has said.
We need a clear cut plan and vision for the future of this country and our relationship with the rest of the world. And we need it now! I hear better plans from high school students.
Zooey Says:
March 26th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
HANNITY & colmes
Thanks Zooey. I can always count on you!
March 26th, 2008 at 10:51 pmMr. Evil Says:
March 26th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Zooey Says:
March 26th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
HANNITY & colmes
Thanks Zooey. I can always count on you!
Heh. I’m good at that really important stuff. ;)
March 26th, 2008 at 10:56 pmThis war was easy on you Johnny boy but not on the troops. McCain said it was easy, the last five years troops. Easy on you and your families and especially easy on the wounded and maimed and of course the dead!! Easy on them now at least. Everytime I see you McCain I see my grandfather and hear him say ey, what, what ya say, huh. You are gonna need liebo the dweebo around to sort things out for ya.
March 26th, 2008 at 11:09 pmMcCain and all his supporters must recast McCain’s record because McCain’s actual record is terrible. McCain supported this war as a good Republican foot soldier. His recent Congressional career has involved walking in lock step with all the other drones. Voting not for their conscience, not for common sense, not for the good of the American people, but for the good of the Administration. I just pray that the media wakes up and realizes that they’ve concocted a character John McCain which bears very little resemblance to the actual candidate.
March 26th, 2008 at 11:27 pmMcGame is severely confused.
March 26th, 2008 at 11:28 pmHopelessly lost in the myriad of details his 74 year old brain can’t keep straight.
He is not qualified to be president. I wonder who his Darth puppeteer will be?
I don’t think America or the world can afford another idiot Republican in the White House, my friends.
March 26th, 2008 at 11:32 pmAnd what a valuable service TP is providing to Democrat voters. With constant updates on why you still shouldn’t vote for the man you never were going to, as opposed to ANYTHING relating to the two democrat candidates which would allow you a fully informed choice between them.
I agree. More and more I am finding myself spending time at Huffington Post and Daily KOS. At least you get a full picture from both those websites. TP is getting rather tedious with their ignoring the Democratic race. I wonder what they are going to do when Obama is the nominee. Are they still going to ignore him?
March 26th, 2008 at 11:37 pmThis is why I sometimes belive we need a third party. A real one, not some fringe party that has usually propped up some half-wit or loon.
Personally I believe we need to do away with the party system altogether. Just have elections where the popular vote wins. Or come up with something like Instant Run off voting. But in order for that to work we would need to have some kind of public financing in place. I think that the “party” system in this country is taking us down the road to perdition.
March 26th, 2008 at 11:40 pmI don’t mind the idea of a party system, I would like to see more then two parties, and would truly like to see a party that will represent the people, and not the corporate interests.
March 27th, 2008 at 12:33 amIt’s clear from the behavior of “the Clintons”, that the Democratic Party establishment is little different from the Republicans.
March 27th, 2008 at 12:37 am.
Our liberal reality is far too truthy for Sissy Grahm.
.
March 27th, 2008 at 12:40 amHow will McCain keep Bush’s “stay the course” bullshit going? Conscription. It’s the only way to muster the kind of numbers they need (and the generals recommended going in five years ago but were ignored) to perpetuate this clusterf*#%k.
March 27th, 2008 at 12:46 am.
What Nevar meant was:
“Hea everyone, not only am I a troll but blame it on CLENIS for Graham’s inability to speak on rational subjects truthfully.”
LOL,
Now Nevar has to back his claim up.
LOL
Like HOW did “The Clinton’s” have anything to do with Graham’s inability to grasp reality? Was Graham too, ducking those imaginary bullets of Bosnia?
.
March 27th, 2008 at 12:51 amMax-1
March 27th, 2008 at 12:51 am
Nevar is not a troll.
March 27th, 2008 at 12:59 amSorry, Max-1, guess that one slipped past you, I was bouncing off of Krazny’s comment about the two party system.
March 27th, 2008 at 1:02 amI really don’t give a rat’s ass for Graham or the Clintons, much less frothing posters lunging at anything that moves on their screen…
Does the Obama campaign have those McCain comments on tape?
March 27th, 2008 at 1:07 amBut, seeing as how there’s not a lot going on, I could try to be a troll if you want… let’s see, you’re Max-1, how about I be
March 27th, 2008 at 1:08 amMinor 8th?
Lindsey should date Condi.
March 27th, 2008 at 1:11 amThey can make S’mores…
March 27th, 2008 at 1:12 amNevar Says:
March 27th, 2008 at 1:12 am
Are you causing trouble again?! Bad bird!
March 27th, 2008 at 1:15 amTwo beards on one date…
March 27th, 2008 at 1:15 amA pretty good article on why conservatives should vote for Obama, on a conservative blog no less.
http://www.amconmag.com/2008/2008_03_24/article.html
March 27th, 2008 at 1:24 amSuch a sad and desperate little troll…
March 27th, 2008 at 1:24 amWho, me?
March 27th, 2008 at 1:25 amOf course! :)
March 27th, 2008 at 1:28 amProgressive Thinker Says:
I am hoping the guy keeps writing. I can use a good laugh at the rabid right.
March 27th, 2008 at 1:31 amIt’s funny how these weirdo trolls can’t figure out that we don’t talk to each other like the Our Gang kids getting ready to put on a show. :D
March 27th, 2008 at 1:36 am“Progressive Thinker”
One can only progress so far without pausing to look back at where one was… this guy will never find his way back out of the woods.
March 27th, 2008 at 1:38 am**snort**
March 27th, 2008 at 1:43 amExcuse me Lindsey, but you can repeat the same pathetic story line of marshmellow skies and try to restate McCain’s history of what he said.
But McCain wasn’t the only one that ever spoke up.
Even I was speaking out but you wouldn’t listen because you think somehow your opinion being that of a Senator out weighs tht of the American public.
Senator Graham, you have been in D.C. toooo long and your state should make the change ASAP.
It is about Lindsey and McCain. Not America…
March 27th, 2008 at 1:43 amProgressive Thinker Says:
March 27th, 2008 at 1:51 am
Lindsey and McCain are Reichwing War Criminals! They should be put on trail and imprisioned!
Unless the trail leads to Guantanamo…lets just put them on trial. =)
March 27th, 2008 at 7:07 amEASY?
March 27th, 2008 at 9:39 amThe only thing easy was robbing our treasury of billions into the war profiteers pockets. I usually appreciate and respect GOOD business plan that works, not this one. But that’s what it was - a business plan. The Iraq war contracts were arranged long before 9/11, why would an oil company become a troop support company and a nation rebuilder - over night? Follow the money.
4000 Dead
29,451 Wounded
“The only reason we are winning now in Iraq is because John had the courage to stand up when nobody else would and say we need more troops. We don’t have enough troops.”
Yeah, it’s not like someone in the uniformed military named Shinseki said that very same thing months before we blundered in, eh Lindsey? Somehow, I can’t seem to recall McCain supporting that sentiment at the time; he was too busy being a good order-taking Bushbot. What a lying douchebag; and of course he chooses a spew-fest like H&C to push his little fabrications. I’m surprised Colmes had the stones to oppose Graham’s crap as much as he did -
March 27th, 2008 at 10:40 amRather McCain lays out what he argues is the moral imperative for war
despite great costs for a nation. “When nations seek to resolve their
differences by force of arms, a million tragedies ensue…Only a fool or a
fraud sentimentalizes the merciless reality of war,” he states, “However
heady the appeal of a call to arms, however just the cause, we should
still
shed a tear for all that is lost when war claims its wages from us.”
“It must be exciting for you … in some ways romantic, in some ways, you
know, confronting danger. You’re really making history, and thanks,”
Bush
said.
Hahahaha so Bush is a fool.
March 27th, 2008 at 10:43 amHmmmph! Lindsey doesn’t have his American flag lapel pin on. Can’t be much of a patriot.
March 27th, 2008 at 12:05 pm