McCain calls for Obama to retract ‘air-raiding’ comment, despite making identical comments in 2000.
McCain calls for Obama to retract ‘air-raiding’ comment, despite making identical comments in 2000.
In August 2007, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) remarked that the war in Afghanistan “requires us to have enough troops so that we’re not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians.” Last night on Hannity and Colmes, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) called on Obama to “retract that statement,” saying, “that’s so insulting to the men and women who are serving in the military.” Watch it:
But McCain made virtually identical remarks about the U.S. military’s conduct in Kosovo during his 2000 presidential bid:
MCCAIN: In the most obscene chapter in recent American history is the conduct of the Kosovo conflict when the president of the United States refused to prepare for ground operations, refused to have air power used effectively because he wanted them flying — he had them flying at 15,000 feet where they killed innocent civilians because they were dropping bombs from such — in high altitude.
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McCain’s feigned outrage at Obama’s remarks rings hollow? Everything McCain says rings hollow, except maybe when he’s talking about going to war with other countries.
October 9th, 2008 at 9:46 amAw, go easy on McPain… it’s Thursday, this is just his regularly scheduled weekly flip-flop dump, along w/ Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Heh… Johnny allus takes the weekend off. No flippin’ or floppin’ fer him on Saturday ‘n Sunday…
October 9th, 2008 at 9:51 amMCCAIN: In the most obscene chapter in recent American history is the conduct of the Kosovo conflict when the president of the United States refused to prepare for ground operations,
Even that part of the statement is wrong. President Clinton didn’t use ground troops because the Republicans in Congress wouldn’t permit it. They tied the hands of the Commander in Chief back then and dictated to him how to conduct the effort to stop the ongoing genocide.
October 9th, 2008 at 9:51 am“My fellow prisoners…”
The man’s definitely lost it. Scary
October 9th, 2008 at 9:51 amI saw just a statement a few minutes ago that sums it all up in just three words: Congratulations, President Obama!
October 9th, 2008 at 9:57 amFunny how McPalin retreats to the sanctuary of Fox “News” more and more as the election slips away from them. Ranting to the same couple million nitwits who were going to vote for you anyway because your name is on the Republican sample ballot does nothing to win over independent voters.
Then again, forget I said anything. Carry on. You’re doing a great job John/Sarah.
October 9th, 2008 at 9:57 amSo Sean did not follow that up with the facts?? I AM SHOCKED !!
I am surprised Sean could even ask any questions with John McCoward’s twig and berries stuffed deep into his esophageal tube.
At least Sean should have asked McCoward why he was not MAN ENOUGH to confront the terrorist when he was STANDING NEXT TO HIM FOR 1.5 hours?? he is a typical GOP COWARD let your home wrecker wife and the bimbo from alaska do the smearing, while he cowers in the corner afraid of the sracy black man.
These people make me SICK !!
October 9th, 2008 at 9:58 amYep, Faux news is surely going to solidify the independant vote.. DUH !! What are these paste eaters (thanks Colbert) thinking??
October 9th, 2008 at 9:59 amWell, Obama’s “just” was incorrect and unnecessary. He exaggerated a bit and McCain attempts everything now…
October 9th, 2008 at 9:59 amMcCain current strategy, “My fellow Americans, lend me your jeers!”
October 9th, 2008 at 10:00 amMcCain has slipped into a world of make believe.
October 9th, 2008 at 10:03 am“My Friends” “My Friends” “My Friends” “My Friends” “My Friends” “My Friends” “My Friends” “My Friends” “My Friends” “My Friends”
Time for John McCoward to pick a new verbal crutch . YA THINK !!!
October 9th, 2008 at 10:03 amThe biggest mistake y’all persist in making is that voters care what their candidates say.
McC(umst)ain’s people only care that Bombin’ Johnnie’s a white guy who’ll preserve white privilege which they (wrongly) believe would be threatened by Obama’s elevation to the Presidency.
Of course, and ironically, Obama, in office, would be the one Dim candidate who could not/would not dare to actually raise issues of social justice or fairness or privilege, because–as a “black” person–he’d IMMEDIATELY be accused of ’special pleading for HIS people.’
Nothing is too outrageous for a country which does NOT see “white” privilege, or corporations, as ’special interest groups.’
October 9th, 2008 at 10:04 amVery telling, isn’t it?
October 9th, 2008 at 10:04 amEvery single attack that McCain has tried has backfired, usually because McCain is found to be guilty of the very thing he is trying to accuse Obama of.
I think they really thought the media would continue their right-wing ways of reporting what McCain says as fact and not investigating.
Usually, that’s a safe bet, but not this year.
October 9th, 2008 at 10:05 amThere’s really only one sort of response to this sort of thing. It goes something like this:
October 9th, 2008 at 10:07 am“Senator McCain is clearly functioning in some alternate reality wherein it’s possible for a person to retract statements he has not made. My statement in context is nearly identical to statements he made in 2000 regarding our forces in Kosovo.
Is the Senator now repudiating his previous statement? or is he stating his support for the indiscriminate deaths of civilians?”
Obama to “retract that statement,” saying, “that’s so insulting to the men and women who are serving in the military.” Watch it:
We’re not insulting the men and women in uniform, you flaky bastard, not that we’re obligated to explain anything to you.
The insult, however, is the orders of higher-ups given to the young men and women to kill these innocent civilians. Most rank-and-file of the military are not at ease with killing innocent civilians, and they must not be made to feel reckless with their skills. They want their services to yield the greatest gain to national security while protecting innocents in their respective countries and cultures.
October 9th, 2008 at 10:08 amYou keeping frantically searching for pennies under the cushions, McBush.
Your surge is not working. B itch.
October 9th, 2008 at 10:13 amObama is right. Their have been many civilian deaths lately there due to the fact we don’t have enough troops on the ground to cover the territory. McCain is just cherry picking dialog and trying to twist it in his favor. Why do republicans hate the truth?
October 9th, 2008 at 10:13 amLast night on Hannity and Colmes, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) called on Obama to “retract that statement,” saying, “that’s so insulting to the men and women who are serving in the military.”
———————–
No, it’s not insulting to the men and women who are serving in the military, it’s insulting to the people who sent them there and told them to do it.
The Republicans can’t really handle the truth, can they. Our military just killed 30-50 civilians in Afghanistan last month. They tried to lie about it, but in the end they had to fess up.
Besides that, I do believe that McCain himself is responsible for the deaths of many Vietnamese civilians.
October 9th, 2008 at 10:15 amthe Lone Voice of Reason Says:
“My fellow prisoners…”
The man’s definitely lost it. Scary
Actually, for once I think he is telling the truth. We have been prisoners of the Bush Crime Family for 8 years. I am so looking forward to being let out of that prison.
October 9th, 2008 at 10:16 am“that’s so insulting to the men and women who are serving in the military.”
This message is approved by the guy who voted against the Webb-Warner GI bill.
October 9th, 2008 at 10:20 amHmmmm… let’s parse some words shall we…
MCCAIN: In the most obscene chapter in recent American history is the conduct of the Kosovo conflict when the president of the United States
and we’ll just change that to:
MCCAIN: the most obscene chapter in recent American history is the conduct of the president of the United States
There, I’ve just completed a Republican Scare-fomercial
October 9th, 2008 at 10:28 amI actually succeeded in getting on-air with Little Seanie yesterday in an attempt to do a “fact-check” on this aspect of his daily rant. Instead of having a conversation, of course, he just shouted me down, changed the subject and brow-beat me. He is an a$$hole plain and simple.
I am a Vietnam vet. I rucked through the swamps there — I didn’t drop bombs, crash my plane, “break” under interrogation and aid my captors. I know what it is like to kill civilians at eye-level when tactical support, air-cover and field intelligence ops breaks down. I know what it is like to be abandoned by my government. Afghanistan has become Vietnam. McNumbNuts himself has said “we will have to muddle through in Afghanistan” when he was asked if the Iraq war would detract from our efforts there.
Obama got Afghanistan right. Obama got Iraq right. McNumbNuts is wrong, wrong, wrong. This election must be decided on judgement, steadiness and decision-making. There is no contest based upon these requirements.
October 9th, 2008 at 10:28 amToday’s vocabulary word is, Integrity.
Integrity is consistency of actions, values, methods, measures and principles. Depth and breadth of a value system may also be significant factors due to their congruence with a wider range of observations. People are said to have integrity to the extent that they behave according to the values, beliefs and principles they claim to hold. One’s value system may evolve over time while retaining integrity if inconsistencies are accounted for and resolved.
Hypocrisy results when one part of a value system is demonstrably at odds with another and the person or group of people holding those values fails to account for the discrepancy. Hypocrisy is considered to be the opposite of integrity.
It is glaringly apparent at this point of the meltdown that integrity is not something Mcmanchurian has ever been familiar with.
October 9th, 2008 at 10:31 amtechsong Says:Why do republicans hate the truth?
Because the truth will set us free, my fellow prisoners.
October 9th, 2008 at 10:37 amWell, if anyone knows about dropping bombs on civilian targets, it would be McStain!
PEACE
October 9th, 2008 at 10:38 amHan job is really going to be milking that one for the next four weeks, if you know what I’m sayin’.
October 9th, 2008 at 10:43 amI don’t know about anyone else, but I for one a really tired of all of the BS coming out of their mouths. I’m tired of shouting at my TV and my Computer monitor. I’m tired of trying to speak with irrational people that won’t vote for someone just because that someone happens to have a different color skin than they do. I’m tired of people spouting lies they hear on Fox Noise who simply refuse to do any fact checking before they spout the lies they hear.
I’m one tired person my friends.
October 9th, 2008 at 10:44 amDidn’t John McCain drop bombs from an airplane high in the sky?
Or did he crash before he managed it….?
October 9th, 2008 at 10:45 ammccain insults the troops.
They give him a D on his voting record in the senate regarding veterans issues.
The troops are contributingg to Obama 6 to 1 over mccain.
The only ones that are insulted by Obama’s statement are the people who decided to go to Iraq instead of dealing with Afganistan, bush, rummy, the generals, etc. not the troops.
October 9th, 2008 at 10:46 amAs a jetfighter pilot,McCain knows that in any air raid ,there is no guarantee that you a pilot on a mission is going to have 100% accurate hit,even when working under the best intellignece help possible..there will be misses.
October 9th, 2008 at 10:49 amWe did have misses in the Iraqi war and the Afghani war,and we apologized to both countries.
The point Obama is making is that we did not secure the gound with large forces and we started to rely heavily on air power due to lack of strong ground forces..and yes you are going to hit civilians killed and cause some anger.
It happened also in the Kosovo war,under Clinton’s adminsitration when we hit the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade and we apologized later to angry China.
As a trained pilot, McCain should know that misses is part of air power daily operations and raids,and he also said that himself.
This has nothing to do with insulting soldiers…it is just simply the nature of airforce raids operations.
You are not going to have all targets hit without a miss.
The Air Force will do its best to reduce and eliminate this from happening..but in this business , there are no guarantees that we will have 100% success.
During the Kosovo war.
McCain was a big voice in criticising Clinton for his relying solely on airpower in Kosovo war.
He called for sending troops to have a successful mission.
Of course,he is now using any tool to win this elections,and going to Fox’s Hannity show is no surprise,with his electability numbers are going nosediving.
Senator Obama,
Please run a commercial with 3 video segments:
October 9th, 2008 at 10:58 am1. McCain talking about how it is treasonous to criticise the bombers
2. McCain’s 2000 statement criticising the Bombers
3. Senator Obama saying “I’m Obama, and I most certainly do not endorse McCain’s message.”
There is no straight talk on the express and no shred of honesty left in the McCain-Palin campaign. Mendacity! Only mendacity! All mendacity! McCain’s record at Annapolis and in the Navy, neither place in which he would have made it through if his dad hadn’t been one of the top bosses, is the real insult to America’s fighting men and women of honor!
October 9th, 2008 at 10:59 amAs Lone Vice pointed out, I think McCain tried that yesterday. I believe he’s dial-grouping a change from “My friends” to “My fellow prisoners”.
October 9th, 2008 at 11:01 am25, tom, congrats for your effort with Insannity. It’s not surprising he shouted you down; he does that with any liberal.
He plays a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ game a lot, putting up a strawman & demanding a y or n answer.
I’ve always wanted to do the same to him, but can’t waste valuable seconds / minutes of my life with such a dipshit.
October 9th, 2008 at 11:03 amI think it is time Hannity got Gibbed again. Maybe asking him whether he agrees with John McCain’s sentiments on the bombing of civilians in Kosovo. Then asking him why it is OK now in Afghanistan and Iraq?
October 9th, 2008 at 11:09 amI’ve always wanted to do the same to him, but can’t waste valuable seconds / minutes of my life with such a dipshit.
In retrospect, I realize that I wasted my time but really did feel good! It certainly confirmed my beliefs about that skid-mark.
Like many things in life, however, it is something that I will only do once! I did follow-up with an very civil email to him outlining my argument, my own personal experience and my thoughts about his clever but deceitful debate style.
One thing I will not even do once is to watch his “info-mercial” with Unstable/Unable that apparently aired last night on FoxSnooze. What a travesty!
October 9th, 2008 at 11:10 amMcCain knows perfectly well that Obama never said “all we’re doing is..”.
And McCain as a former navy pilot knows exactly what Obama meant. Air-raids are dangerously unreliable and inaccurate and often kills innocent civilians even when targeting militants or terrorists. And thats why Obama argues for more ground troops which I think McCain agrees 100%
McCain knows thats what Obama meant. And McCain most likely even agrees with Obama. And despite that he pretends to be suddenly outraged by these statements made back in 2007.
disgusting and dishonorable
October 9th, 2008 at 11:31 amIt’s the conservative mindset.
If a strategy isn’t working, thne you must not be doing enough of it. They simply cannot grasp the possibility that the strategy itself might be wrong.
So, McCain, keep lying and smearing and being your negative angry self. We like what it’s doing for Obama.
October 9th, 2008 at 11:46 am“that’s so insulting to the men and women who are serving in the military.”
Coming from a shameless shill for Dick Cheney’s illegal war in Iraq that cost this nation over 4,100 brave lives. John McCain is pathetic in his kitchen-sink attempts to win the presidency at all costs, facts be damned. Country first my a$$! I have no more respect for that one’s past service, in fact I will go so far as to say that the nation would have been better served if Navy pilot John Sidney McCain did not survive one of his many plane crash fiascos. People have been dying for McCain’s selfish mistakes since at least the Forestall incident straight through to the Iraq war. How many innocent people would still be alive today if it weren’t for McCain’s poor judgement and desire for respect and power? This nation can not afford to find out how many more would be lost under a McCain presidency.
October 9th, 2008 at 11:53 amI swear to God, I hate that slimy, ugly, evil old hypocrite.
And yes, I am *very* bloody angry today…
October 9th, 2008 at 12:06 pmMcwars has lost his mind soul and integrity, all to win this election.He is a lost soul who had his veep choice picked for him.Johnny Mcwars is all wrong for this country and is all right for the REICH to continue bushco style economics,deregulation and no oversight is exactly what we don`t want.
October 9th, 2008 at 12:20 pmAmazing!
John has no honor, no memory and speaks like a hypocrite
TO
Sean. Who has no honor, no memory and IS a hypocrite.
John has his millionaire wife, 11+ houses, a fat government pension and a sleazy running mate.
Sean has millions of rabid adoring hate-filled fans, FOX paying him 20+ million a year and is a sleaze.
October 9th, 2008 at 12:52 pmBecause the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan are not being covered by the corporate media, it’s way too easy for McCain to get away with statements like this. Karzai, NATO, the British commander, and some of our high-ranking military people in Afghanistan KNOW that the killing of civilians is way out of hand, appears to be policy, and is not very bright from a military point of view.
Wouldn’t know it from watching television, though.
October 9th, 2008 at 6:58 pm