Right Wing Bloggers: McCain Was Wrong to Say He Was Wrong!
Right Wing Bloggers: McCain Was Wrong to Say He Was Wrong!
Yesterday, John McCain asserted, erroneously, that Iranian operatives were “taking al-Qaeda into Iran, training them and sending them back.” McCain walked the statement back after being corrected by traveling companion Joe Lieberman. (As Think Progress noted yesterday, this wasn’t a mere “gaffe,” as McCain had made the same claim several times before.)
Responding to Think Progress’s post, Red State blogger Jeff Emanuel offers “the truth“:
Here is the truth al Qaeda has been receiving funding, training, and equipment from Iran during the last year-plus of the Iraq War.
Interestingly, Emanuel offers no evidence for this “truth,” (apart from the assertion that those who disagree have “a desire to remain ignorant”) because, of course, there isn’t any.
Weekly Standard blogger Thomas Joscelyn does a little better. Taking up an argument that, to repeat, even John McCain has now abandoned, Joscelyn insists that “McCain was right the first time. He shouldn’t have taken his statement back.”
National Review columnist Michael Ledeen agrees, lamenting that McCain “got spooked when he said it, and ran away” from his claim.
Joscelyn’s evidence is wafer-thin. Several of his sources link to a single New York Sun item claiming that the Quds Force, a division of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, “is working with individuals affiliated with Al Qaeda in Iraq.” Joscelyn also suggests that the fact that “Iran has been targeting al Qaeda’s enemies–not al Qaeda itself–inside Iraq” is proof of an Al Qaeda-Iran alliance, when it’s nothing of the sort. Iran supported attacks against Awakenings groups because the Sunni militias threatened Iran’s Shia allies; Al Qaeda attacked Awakenings groups because they threatened al Qaeda. This is not an alliance, this is “Six Degrees of Osama Bin Laden.”
To the extent that Bush administration officials, like Crocker and Petraeus, have discussed Iranian training of Iraqi extremists, they have focused on Iranian support of Shias. While it is incorrect to simply assume that AQ being Sunni and Iran being Shia would preclude any sort of proxy relationship at all, (there is some evidence of Iran’s past connections with operatives loosely associated with al Qaeda; There is also evidence that al-Qaeda has threatened to attack Iran) Joscelyn doesn’t come close to demonstrating his claim that “John McCain was right” about Iran training al-Qaeda fighters and sending them back into Iraq, for the simple reason that it’s untrue, as even McCain now admits.
UPDATE: The Weekly Standard’s Michael Goldfarb offers more evidence of the Al Qaeda-Iran relationship…oh, wait, nevermind. It’s the same New York Sun article again.
UPDATE II: Andrew Sullivan writes, “I assumed [McCain] was more cognizant of the complex realities of Iraq than our current president. And it’s staggering to me that it hasn’t even occurred to McCain that exploiting some of the divisions between Shiite and Sunni Islam might actually be a tactic worth considering in our increasingly complex battle over there. Was this more Bush-Rove dumbing-don for the American public? Or is he really that ignorant?“
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Right wingers do have some principles, however…
1. Never admit you’re wrong.
2. Lies are OK if you’re doing it for the Party.
3. Party over Country.
4. War is good.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:02 pmAs is common knowledge, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party was allied with the United Soviet Socialist Republic. Sure, they had a few million casualties in spats, some sort of World Conflict, but Socialism = Socialism and they used tanks.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:19 pmThe sad fact is that probably 90% of our population don’t know the difference between Shia and Sunni, how they came to split into two fractions, and why they hate each other. Nah, let’s make that 98%. And I think I am still being generous there.
To the average person, AQ, AQI, Sunni, Shia, it doesn’t matter, they are icky brown Muslims. And no matter how we parse it, if someone doesn’t know the difference they will see McCain’s words are true. Clueless as they are.
The reality is that if we don’t bomb Iran before November, and if McCain gets in, you can rest assured it won’t be but a matter of weeks before we do so.
Icky brown people are icky brown people whether we bomb them there or hate them here.
March 19th, 2008 at 4:08 pmThese idiots are not only oblivious to facts, they ignore the conventions of fiction. The alien and the predator don’t team up, it’s Alien Vs. Predator. Before that was Freddie Vs. Jason, Godzilla Vs. Mothra (and others), even Dracula Vs. Frankenstein!
So if they’re going to write fiction, they really should stick to standard fictional constructs: Coming this summer - Osama Vs. Ahmadinejad.
Please note this post is an attempt to ridicule the neo-cons, not to make light of the serious problems in Iraq and Iran.
March 19th, 2008 at 7:51 pmAs is common knowledge, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party was allied with the United Soviet Socialist Republic. Sure, they had a few million casualties in spats, some sort of World Conflict, but Socialism = Socialism and they used tanks.
That’s what started The War on Tanks (1939-1945).
March 19th, 2008 at 10:57 pmWe (progs) need to cool down and assess the trajectory of the bullshit. These fools are aiming us towards a future of constant conflict, just like our BBF’s, Israel. What is the next 9/11 ? Though I don’t know where, I would bet you dollars to dinars that the culprit will be……………. not UBM, but IIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
March 20th, 2008 at 3:57 amWait, I initially thought McCain was wrong too. But didn’t the 9/11 commission find some relationship between Iran and al Qaeda? One of your links points this out.
March 20th, 2008 at 6:19 amOh, by the way, the Weekly Standard also cites the Clinton admin’s indictment of bin Laden, which claims ties to Iran. Were they wrong?
March 20th, 2008 at 6:21 amthirdparty Says:
March 20th, 2008 at 6:19 am
Wait, I initially thought McCain was wrong too. But didn’t the 9/11 commission find some relationship between Iran and al Qaeda? One of your links points this out.
Iranian visa policies allowed Saudis to transit without a visa stamp. That’s a far cry from an official “relationship” between Iran and al-Qa’ida.
The hijackers held meetings in Madrid and Hamburg, too - does that mean Spain and Germany were 9/11 co-conspirators?
March 20th, 2008 at 8:01 amThese REICH WINGERS are corrupt they don`t even know who`s lying or who`s telling the truth anymore. The REICH has spun this WAR (occupation) into a FAIRY TALE of Illusion. This is nothing but a blatant attempt at covering up Mcmavericks incompetentcy and blundering in Iraq not to mention here on the campaign trail.
March 20th, 2008 at 9:33 amThat would be fair if it were correct, but it’s not. The Iranian “relationship” was hardly innocuous:
What do you make of this? Also, the Clinton administration’s indictment of bin Laden asserted a link with Iran, no?
March 21st, 2008 at 12:23 amSorry, did you just suggest the Hamburg cell didn’t hold a meeting in Hamburg ?
March 30th, 2008 at 5:56 am