John McCain Criticizes John McCain For Wanting To ‘Muddle Through’ In Afghanistan
John McCain Criticizes John McCain For Wanting To ‘Muddle Through’ In Afghanistan
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed calling for further escalation in Afghanistan, Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Joe Liebermen (I-CT) specifically reject a previous contention made by McCain himself. The senators claim that under-resourcing the Afghanistan effort “is a recipe for quagmire and collapse of political support for the war at home”:
Mr. Obama was right when he said last year that “You don’t muddle through the central front on terror . . . You don’t muddle through stamping out the Taliban.”
Asked about Afghanistan back in Nov. 2003, McCain stressed that Iraq was the more important effort, but that he thought that we would be able to “muddle through”:
MCCAIN: I am concerned about it, but I’m not as concerned as I am about Iraq today — obviously, or I’d be talking about Afghanistan — but I believe that if Karzai can make the progress that he is making, that in the long term we may muddle through in Afghanistan.
Watch it:
None of the three hawkish senators, all of whom shilled relentlessly for the invasion of Iraq, have ever owned up to the now widely-accepted fact that the diversion of troops and resources and attention away from Afghanistan toward Iraq was the critical factor in the resurrection of the Taliban insurgency. Read more at the Wonk Room.
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Hey.
It’s hot in AZ.
Flip-flops are a can’t-live-without item.
It’s not “the maverick’s” fault.
September 14th, 2009 at 2:02 pmWAR: IOKIYAR
September 14th, 2009 at 2:06 pmThe SDP in Germany has the right idea: withdrawal in 2013. Afghanistan is ungovernable. We’ve displaced one of the most barbaric regimes of the past century and replaced it with the equivalent of Pakistan. Not terribly democratic, horrendously corrupt, and hanging on by a thread.
Afghanistan is known as the Graveyard of Empires for a reason. Ultimately, the road to “victory” is a humanitarian effort, not a miliatry one. Whatever funds we’re using for military operations must be transferred to humanitarian ones. Stop bombing roads; start rebuilding them. The Taliban will inevitably control parts of the country; they won’t be able to control the hearts of the populace writ large.
September 14th, 2009 at 2:06 pmGrampy McSame says – My friends back in the day we would muddle through lots of things, I muddled through my flight training and ended up crashing in alot of muddles, why we used to loved muddle wrestling, get the women all muddled up and have em wrestle why we drink and shout, I would say, “Muddle Me Baby”, there are lots of ways to muddle, why we muddle our news reporting, we muddle our base, they are the easiest to muddle, you can say something like, “You Lie” and just like that the Muddle heads in the Republican Party are all on board the great propaganda Muddle-starship, our base couldn’t think their way out of a muddle…uh oh, I think I muddled my diapers again.
You betcha Grampy, muddle thru the lies that Bush and Cheney told to get us in that clusterfcuk.
September 14th, 2009 at 2:08 pm“Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Joe Liebermen (I-CT)”
Wow, a Ménage à trois of stupid and clueless.
September 14th, 2009 at 2:08 pmWow, the stuff going on in the Republican party makes the Twilight Zone look like a reality show.
September 14th, 2009 at 2:09 pmSome Hawks! They basically screwed everything over because of Bush’s relentless push to go to Iraq. All of our energies and resources were squandered because Georgie Boy had to show up his old man (and of course the oil!). All of these politicains are responsible for the deaths of thousands of Iraqis and our servicemen just to please Bush and his Cabal. Damn, I need a drink.
September 14th, 2009 at 2:09 pmo/t
Rick Lazio’s running for Gov in NY; Rudy’s switching to the Senate race. … Excellent. Paterson could conceivably beat Lazio and the sheer amount of money and support from the party that Gillibrand has in her corner should force Mr. Noun-Verb-9/11 into submission once and for all.
September 14th, 2009 at 2:10 pmAnother day, another descent into the twilight zone for the republican party
September 14th, 2009 at 2:10 pmHi ho, old chappies, let’s go muddle through in errrAfghanistan, eh? Bloody good show, eh? Well, bloody, anyhoo…
The last batch that tried the muddle through strategy in Afghanistan, the Brits, got their arses and their hats handed to them more than once.
Alqaeda has to have it’s hash permanently settled before we leave the region, unless they manage to relocate elsewhere, which they’ve done more than once. I’d expect to hear more about them using the ratlines to Somalia, which isn’t that difficult from Pakistan; if you can get to Yemen, Sudan, or Kenya out of Karachi, you’re well placed to get over the “border” into Somalia.
The Taliban is another problem, and rightfully, they should be left fot the Afghan people to deal with, but that does mean working to support whatever passes for a legitimate government and doing due diligence to prep that government for the day when we walk away from it.
September 14th, 2009 at 2:12 pmI have so missed his McMaverickeyness since we kicked his and Caribou Barbies A$$…………
September 14th, 2009 at 2:12 pmShorter Mc: Bomb Bomb Bomb umm err eh lets see um the stans!
September 14th, 2009 at 2:14 pmP.D. I`ll have a double shot of Jack on the rocks, Please!!!!
September 14th, 2009 at 2:15 pm“John McCain Criticizes John McCain For Wanting To ‘Muddle Through’ In Afghanistan”
Grandpappy McSame’s prune juice has been spiked again…
None of the three hawkish senators, all of whom shilled relentlessly for the invasion of Iraq, have ever owned up to the now widely-accepted fact that the diversion of troops and resources and attention away from Afghanistan toward Iraq was the critical factor in the resurrection of the Taliban insurgency
It’s called takening personal responsiblity of your errors. The three amigo clowns: Grandpappy, Lady Graham, and Joe Lickerman will never owned up to the fact and admit that oil and profits were the real reason Iraq was invaded and never posed a threat to this country and invading Afghanistan was simply a diversion.
September 14th, 2009 at 2:15 pmCould you imagine if McCain and Palin would have won?? I get the hee-bee jee-bees just thinking about it! Gramps and Caribou Barbie! Dear Lord.
September 14th, 2009 at 2:16 pmchris@13, I don’t even think that much booze will dull my heartache over this travesty in Iraq.
September 14th, 2009 at 2:18 pmchristopher wiwi says:
I have so missed his McMaverickeyness since we kicked his and Caribou Barbies A$$…………
Well, he’s been busy watching Matlock and deciding what flavor of pudding cup he wants.
September 14th, 2009 at 2:19 pmCouldn’t those 3 just get a room?
Did LIEberman have to whisper in McGrampa’s ear again to get the facts straight?
Lindsay thought our President was a little uppity in his speech to Congress, but Joe the Hypocritter’s outburst was just fine.
These 3 encompass a lot of what’s wrong at the Federal level…
It’s all about THEM; little about U.S.
September 14th, 2009 at 2:22 pmThe Three Stooges at it again. McCain still can’t remember what he had for breakfast and Lady Graham is still correcting his mistakes. Now Liberman is doing his best to get Israel the money the US has been giving them for 8 years.
Yes #15 it is scary to think if Gramps/Caribou had won but now look who’s up for the job. Little Ricky and Rush Limbaugh oh my what will happen. Little Ricky has borrowed Harry Potter’s magic wand and see WMD’s and works closely with Lord Voltermort. Ricky lost the election but thinks all Americans will vote for him because he’s so stupid but needs the money.
September 14th, 2009 at 2:22 pmP.D. says
Could you imagine if McCain and Palin would have won?? I get the hee-bee jee-bees just thinking about it! Gramps and Caribou Barbie! Dear Lord
———————————————————–
I can see it now free health care for all, if your white and right because G-D says so and Jesus only healed white semites….
SNARK
September 14th, 2009 at 2:25 pmIt becomes clear, if it wan’t crystal clear already, that these so-called “hawks” are going to cheerlead whatever conflict America is engaged in. They are more interested in representing the companies who are raking in lucrative contracts than they are the American people.
September 14th, 2009 at 2:30 pmJohn McCain Criticizes John McCain For Wanting To ‘Muddle Through’ In Afghanistan
Understandable, of course.
John McCain isn’t sure WHO John McCain is anymore.
John doesn’t know how many houses he owns.
John doesn’t know what kind of car he drives.
John can’t remember how many planes John crashed.
Shorter John: ‘Did I really run for President?’
September 14th, 2009 at 2:33 pmPoor Grampy McNumbNuts. It’s so hard to be consistent and mavericky at the same time.
September 14th, 2009 at 2:41 pmZim@22, It always made me laugh how McCain would start his speeches, “My Friends… No offense, but my friends KNOW how many homes they own, and what cars they drive. In fact, McCains friends are just like him. Rich, old, white dudes with plenty of money and no empathy for serfs like me.
September 14th, 2009 at 2:41 pmP.D. says
September 14th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Could you imagine if McCain and Palin would have won??
_____________________________________________________________
It’s very simple. If McCain and Palin had won last November, we would have redoubled our efforts in Iraq (with no different results), we would have bombed Iran, and we would be “muddling through” in Afghanistan.
The economy would be even more in shambles, because the only thing the administration would have done is to give a whopping tax cut to the wealthy, who then socked away more of their money in offshore accounts to protect it from the bad economy here. Unemployment would have reached Great Depression levels by now.
President McCain would have vetoed everything the Democratic Congress sent his way, unless it was something he specifically demanded and got — like tax cuts.
And Fox News and all the wingnut pundits would blame all the bad conditions on the “Democrat Congress”.
September 14th, 2009 at 2:49 pmI just love how these politicians stick their feet in thier mouths. Grampy McSame is as computer-literate as GWB; thankfully we have YouTube and others to keep these guys “honest.” Yeah, I know that’s a stretch, but I’m using the word “honest” in a “figurative” sense, not the literal one.
September 14th, 2009 at 2:53 pmHey, if the 2009 McCain is going to be as different from the 2008 McCain as the 2008 McCain was from the 2000 McCain, then this could be a pretty good thing.
September 14th, 2009 at 2:55 pmwell, if they are FOR it, that’s a damn good reason to be AGAINST it…
they are just cheerleading for “obama’s vietnam”…
NEVER take them or any (R) serious about what they say…
September 14th, 2009 at 2:58 pmit would be just as easy to figure they mean the opposite…
Awww, now, fellas, you just can’t expect a senile old man like McLoony to remember important policy shit like that!!
Hell, poor old fart prolly can’t even remember what he had for lunch.
September 14th, 2009 at 3:16 pmWell jumping into a divided country, taking it over and telling the factions to play nice worked SOOOOOO GOOOODDD
in Vietnam !
But what did the hawks say when Bush got us into Afghanistan ?
What knowledge of the region’s history and culture did we look at before going there ?
And didn’t we go there to get Osama Ben Laden ? Where is he now ?
September 14th, 2009 at 3:17 pmMapleStreet says:
But what did the hawks say when Bush got us into Afghanistan ?
Bin Laden got us into Afghanistan.
September 14th, 2009 at 3:32 pmI second christopher wiwi’s comment. I didn’t think I’d be more worried or embarrassed while Bush/Cheney held the reins, but McCain/Palin. Oy vey!
September 14th, 2009 at 3:47 pm31.El Bruce,
Bin Laden apparently masterminded an attack on us. Bush jumped us into Afghanistan as a countermeasure.
But funny thing, after he got us in the war, still no Bin Laden.
September 14th, 2009 at 4:56 pmI look forward to hearing John McCain’s response to these attacks from John McCain.
.
MapleStreet says:
Bin Laden apparently masterminded an attack on us. Bush jumped us into Afghanistan as a countermeasure.
But funny thing, after he got us in the war, still no Bin Laden.
There might have been if we’d actually been concentrating on Afghanistan instead of using it as a springboard to invade Iraq.
The thing that a lot of people seem to be forgetting lately is that Afghanistan was, and is, a just war. At the time the U.N. cleared us to respond there. Hardly any country on Earth had a problem with us invading them in response to 9/11 and the Taliban’s subsequent refusal to deport Al Qaeda.
September 14th, 2009 at 5:41 pmIMO, popular culture idolizes the prebellum WWII, Germany, period; philosopher Ernst Bloch had lamented a philosophic ‘blindness’ to that earlier short, German national democratic effort, dangerously teetering on the precipice of civil war, which sadly flipped over to Hitler’s personal control. Bloch noted that subsequent aesthetics became reduced to critiques, of critiques, of ‘Expressionism’; yet, those (stark) images of the expressionistic movement, symbolizing raw political or social change, in paintings and literature, have become popularly anachronistic, but to some important and wonderful degree, the works remain self-explanatory!!
September 15th, 2009 at 12:58 amLater on that day, John Mccain saw himself in a mirror and shouted to himself ‘How DARE you say those things…it’s not RIGHT!!’
September 15th, 2009 at 2:00 amAfghanistan has been a graveyard for many empires. I wonder if Obama understands this? If he does, what does he believe will make it “different” this time?
September 15th, 2009 at 7:52 pmThank you for your sharing.!
September 16th, 2009 at 11:46 pm