McCain Slams Obama: We Should Have Stayed In Iraq

[DonViejo]

Source: TPM

By CAITLIN MACNEAL Published AUGUST 10, 2014, 10:00 AM EDT

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), known for his aggressive foreign policy views, slammed President Obama's approach to the Islamic state militants in Iraq.

On CNN's "State of the Union," McCain blamed the deteriorating situation in Iraq on America's failure to leave forces behind in Iraq.

The senator said Obama's targeted strikes in Iraq aren't enough.

“That’s not a strategy. That’s not a policy," McCain said. “That is simply a very narrow and focused approach to a problem, which is metastasizing as we speak.”

-snip-

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/mccain-obama-stay-iraq

[Cha]

1. No, IF it's Sunday it must be McCain.. we should have never gone into Iraq in the first fucking

place.

[mnhtnbb]

4. LOL, see my response--#2-- typing at the same time!

[Cha]

8. I just saw that! You in North Carolina and me on Kauai!

[mnhtnbb]

11. .

[Cha]

13. :)

Aloha, mnhtnbb

[mnhtnbb]

2. Newsflash, Senator McCain: We NEVER should have been in Iraq.

[cstanleytech]

69. Agreed.

That aside though it is now our governments responsibility to try and repair what it broke as best it can but I just wish part of that repair included some of those who made the decision to invade in the first place being brought before a court to be judged.

[Botany]

3. Fuck you John McCain

[Cha]

16. Yeah, the guy palin' around with terrorists .. so, who does the US M$M call on to slam Obama?.. why

ol johnny ISIS pal McCain.

[Frustratedlady]

17. Do you know when these photos were taken?

I've had something running around in the back of my head for a long time and these photos brought them to the frontal area of my brain...for better or worse. Just curious.

[Botany]

21. May 2013 in Syria

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/30/john-mccain-syria_n_3359166.html

BTW some of these "sweet guys" used to kidnap Muslims on their Hajj to Mecca
and send their victims' families and friends their fingers along with ransome demands.

[Frustratedlady]

24. Thank you. That just solidifies my creepy thoughts even more. Tinfoil hat time.

Did I ever say I don't trust these guys? The Neocons, Cheney, McCain and Graham, for starters.

Now, to keep my other thoughts to myself.

[Botany]

27. It might be that McCain is just dumb and bitter from getting beat by Obama in 2008

Remember John McCain finished 2nd from the bottom of his class @ the Naval Academy
and if wasn't for the fact that his dad was an admiral he would have been washed out as
a pilot after crashing 3 planes.

[Frustratedlady]

33. But, he also has a mean streak and these last 5+ years have been payback time

for his loss to Obama.

Yes, I read a pretty open story about his capture, use of others for his rise to success, etc. His background fits pretty closely to W's, except W went AWOL. Neither can be classified as intelligent, but both seem vindictive. It doesn't show right now with W, because he's maintaining a pretty low profile.

I used to feel sorry for him, but that ended several years ago.

[Botany]

38. McCain is a nasty person

I used to have respect for him but those days are long gone ..... he was one of the
last people to be against an MLK Holiday, his trying to conduct US Foreign policy after
his 2008 loss, his anti gay rights crap, and just his petty and nasty nature are who he
really is ..... http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/make-believe-maverick-20081016

Ron and Nancy Reagan did not like him at all for how he treated his first wife who stood by him
as he was a POW.

[arcane1]

50. I don't trust them either.

And I'm keeping my other thoughts to myself too

[jakeXT]

44. He is consistent.. KLA in the 90's to Svoboda and ISIS now

During the late 1990s, the Senator supported and reportedly helped arm an organization that, while eventually tolerated by the U.S. foreign policy establishment, was accused of terrorist activities and -- among it's more fringe critics -- allegedly having ties to al Qaeda.


...

And yet, John McCain, the current Republican standard-bearer, was, it seems, an outspoken supporter of the KLA. Back in May 1999, when it appeared as if NATO air raids would prove ineffective in stopping the violence, and calls were being made to send in ground troops, McCain suggested that the U.S. simply fund the KLA instead.

"It wouldn't bother me if you arm the KLA [Kosovo Liberation Army] forces," he said.

Moreover, this past February, former Rep. Joe DioGuardi, a prominent Albanian lobbyist, was quoted as saying that McCain even help get arms for KLA forces.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/31/mccain-was-strong-support_n_139732.html

http://www.channel4.com/news/ukraine-mccain-far-right-svoboda-anti-semitic-protests

[NYtoBush-Drop Dead]

63. Ditto that

lets start at kickstarter campaign to send McInsane and his Linda Graham and every other chicken hawk to Iraq on a one way ticket,

[SummerSnow]

64. Pals around with terrorist. he looks very happy with them

[SnakeEyes]

65. Why is Idris called out?

FSA is the moderate opposition in the region.

[olddad56]

71. I agree, fuck that fucking fucker.

[butterfly77]

72. This should be posted all over..

and the so called media should bring this up with these pics in every interview he does,asshole!

[Botany]

73. Liberal media

Remember ISIS is funded by our good friends from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar
but this fact and McCain's "cuddle time" w/terrorists will not get hardly any pub.

[Chasstev365]

5. We should have stayed in Vietnam too!

Because that worked out so well, eh grumpy old man? Sorest Loser in Electoral History!

[mnhtnbb]

9. Yeah, and McCain could have stayed there for the rest of his life.

[TwilightGardener]

6. To what end would we stay in Iraq? For what goal? Because we're still

in Afghanistan, 13 years later, and how's THAT lookin'? I really hate him.

[candelista]

29. The oil in Iraq is worth $14 trillion. That's the "end"--the oil.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves_in_Iraq

[TwilightGardener]

32. Yeah, making it safe for world markets and Big Oil profits.

McCain and the Neocon Cabal know a few thousand troops in Iraq couldn't have that much of an effect--they knew that the troops there would simply be a tripwire for any conflict that arose, and we'd be back in a big ground operation.

[candelista]

35. "The U.S. Airstrikes in Northern Iraq Are All About Oil" -- NR

Last night, President Barack Obama announced that he was authorizing American airtstrikes in Iraq. He described his intervention as a “humanitarian effort to help save thousands of Iraqi civilians who are trapped on a mountain” and as an effort “to protect our American personnel.” One word that he didn’t mention is “oil,” but it lies near the center of American motives for intervention.

The United States is conducting airdrops to aid the Yazidis who have fled the advance of Islamic State militants, but it is conducting airstrikes around Erbil, which is to the east. There are American consular personnel in Erbil, but they could be evacuated if necessary. What Obama left unsaid was that Erbil, a city of 1.5 million, is the capital of the Kurdish regional government and the administrative center of its oil industry, which accounts for about a quarter of Iraq’s oil. The Kurds claim that if they were to become an independent state, they would have the ninth-largest oil reserves in the world. And oil wells are near Erbil.

If the Islamic State were to take over Erbil, they would endanger Iraq’s oil production and, by extension, global access to oil. Prices would surge at a time when Europe, which buys oil from Iraq, has still not escaped the global recession. Oil prices have already risen in response to the Islamic State’s threat to Erbil, and on Thursday, American oil companies Chevron and Exxon Mobile began evacuating their personnel from Kurdistan. But oil traders are predicting that American intervention could halt the rise. “In essence we find U.S. air strikes more bearish than bullish for oil as the act finally draws a line for IS and reinforces both the stability in south Iraq and in Kurdistan,” Oliver Jakob, a Swiss oil analyst, told Reuters.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119035/us-attack-islamic-militants-all-about-iraqs-oil

[DhhD]

43. Agree completely. Old Oil contracts ended in the Spring. Kurdish signed oil contracts with several

oil companies. Then sent a tanker of oil to the Texas Coast. The Shiite government of Baghdad reported the theft of Iraqi's oil.

In my opinion, ISIS is going to kill or let die, many in Iraq for becoming westernized. Either Obama came in in short support, or Iran will. It is my opinion that Obama hopes to give just enough help until a new bipartisan government leader is elected and the parliament becomes bipartisan. With the intrusion of a new Caliphate jihad, Iraq will finally in the end, fall back into Sunni control, reestablishing the balance of power in the Middle East, but not before the genocide cleansing caused by westernized modernization. This may take years. Bush Administration only saw oil and fortune to be made but instead destabilize the power balance of the Middle East as the Neo-Cons War-hawks had planned to do all along. Senator McCain is going down with the ship as he still has both feet in the Middle East.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/01/us-usa-iraq-kurdishoil-idUSKBN0G155E20140801

[roamer65]

46. Iran will not let IS conquer all of the former Iraq.

They will invade and will eliminate the IS, just like the Vietnamese eliminated Pol Pot's regime in 1979.
The Shi'ite crescent is closer than we think.

[Cosmocat]

54. That is what is amazing about these idiots

they took Saddam out and somehow didn't have their shit together enough to actually plunder the country's key resource ...

Didn't even have the competence to plant fake WMD ...

[candelista]

62. They are so dumb that they don't deserve to be a ruling class.

[ColesCountyDem]

7. How could we stay without a 'status of forces' agreement, Sen. Asshat? n/t

[TwilightGardener]

12. Even if we got troop immunity, what are a few thousand troops going to do

to keep Iraq's government functioning and keep the various factions getting along? So we're there to permanently glue a fractured country together? At what cost?

[DCBob]

14. That plus we simply cant afford it.

America would go fully completely bankrupt if we continued pouring money into that hellhole to support what Sen McWar wants.

[George II]

10. He's an idiot with a VERY short memory....

...he forgets that bush set the wheels in motion to remove our troops from Iraq. He forgets that the government of Iraq WANTED us to withdraw our troops by 2011, and refused to renew an agreement to allow our troops to stay.

If Obama was somehow able to work out a way for the government of Iraq to allow our troops to stay, he and his cronies would have lambasted him for that.

He's just a bitter old man that still resents the fact that Obama thrashed his butt in the 2008 election.

The man is an idiot, plain and simple. He should just STFU and disappear into retirement.

[Cha]

18. Or he knows and is just doing his usual knee jerk reaction to blaming everything

in the world, past present and future, on Obama.

[potone]

15. Why is this man still invited to speak on these Sunday talk shows?

Whenever a Democrat loses an election, he or she disappears from the airwaves. Not so the Republicans, losing doesn't mean that they don't get to pontificate and carp at the people who beat them. If we wanted his policies, we would have elected him. What credibility does he have left on foreign policy?

[Cha]

20. A good question for the suits at US corporatemediawhore Inc. Why do they

Last edited Sun Aug 10, 2014, 11:46 AM - Edit history (1)

try and stuff john McCain down everyone's throat every Sunday of every week of every month of every year? Ad nauseam.

[Fred Sanders]

28. It is truly sickening...I hope they have overplayed their propaganda paws this time.

[Cosmocat]

55. This shit is why I have come to realize it is pretty much hopeless

20 years ago ... In the 90s, it was bad, but the corporate media attempted to put on the APPEARANCE of being neutral. We have regressed so far now they don't even try to put the façade on.

[kentauros]

75. Name-recognition.

McCain has become a "brand" that people recognize. It doesn't matter if they trust him, only that they know who he is and are more likely to remain watching than with someone without that level of recognition.

He belongs on TLC, considering how meaningless that particular brand name has become...

[bigdarryl]

19. McCain is a stupid idiot

This idiot has never seen a war he didn't like.I didn't see the Sunday show with him on it but I can bet the moderator didn't challenge him they probably let him blather on.I'm I right?

[Fred Sanders]

22. The corporate media needs to convince us they did not help lie us into a stupid war.....they have

many politicians and pundits to assist them. Many predicted just yesterday that media would erase all mention today, while Obama bashing, of the Bush negotiated withdrawal agreement with Iraq that Iraq insisted Obama honor and their Parliament voted America out...fucking media is a con game folks, view it as hilarious entertainment.

So many take it seriously, though, big problem.

Fresky GOP fascist party would arm baby Jesus if they could, guns are the solution to all mankinds ailes....

[onecaliberal]

23. Invading Iraq was

An illegal war of aggression on a sovereign nation who was no threat to America.

We had no business going there to begin with. Maybe someone should tell McCrazy we had to leave when we did because Bush agreed we would.

[candelista]

25. This is entirely predictable.

Of course Walnuts is going to say this. He's the "bad cop."

[Proud Liberal Dem]

26. This was so utterly predictable (and expect LOTS more of it in the coming days)

My question(s) for McCain, et. al about all of this:

1. Would Iraq be in such a big mess now if we hadn't invaded/occupied Iraq 2003-2011? Was getting rid of a bloody yet isolated/contained stable and secular dictatorship (which had no WMDs) worth all of the money and American (and Iraqi) lives spent in getting rid of Saddam and his psychotic sons?

2. Is he, et. al suggesting that we should have ignored Iraq's refusal to negotiate a new SOFA and their request that we remove all of our troops in defiance of their democratically elected government that we spent lots of money and lives to set up and defend? I thought that they were all about promoting freedom and democracy (I know that they're not but they say they are, so, hey let's hold them to that).

I bet that they can't answer any of these questions honestly

[wordpix]

30. of course McCrazy leaves out the part where al Maliki asked us to leave

not to mention, we never should have been there in the first place.

Why don't he and his pals who backed the BushCheneyHallburton Iraq War pay for humanitarian efforts now? They made their billions$ - let them pay back

[Proud Liberal Dem]

34. I guess

that McCain, et. al "knows best" what Iraq needs. Screw freedom and democracy!

[Zambero]

36. Yes John, just start wars and never end them

Exit strategies are for sissies. Think "indefinite". Once we initiate another war for whatever reason, and destabilization ensues, just dig in for the long term. Ah yes, boots on the ground all over the Middle East and elsewhere in the world. And forget the long-term consequences in human and economic terms. Now THAT'S real policy, real strategy. Wow, if we had only elected you and Sarah a few years back, I'm sure things would be a LOT different!

[randys1]

37. John simply cant tolerate "that one"

beat his ass in the election.

McCain is a pampered, spoiled child.

He should shut the fuck up and consider himself lucky he managed to be as fortunate bilking us out of a living all these years.

The worst possible people are in the republican party in general, and the ones who get elected are disgusting

[Dawson Leery]

53. McCain is unworthy of the Presidency.

[liberal N proud]

39. McCain's answer to everything is war

War sells more bombs, selling more bombs make money for the military industrial complex, money for the military industrial complex makes more money for John McCain.

[Blue Idaho]

40. I'd love to see him sell this crap

At the local Teabagger town hall. The liberatarian isolationists would tar and feather the old war monger in two shakes of a lambs tail.

[joanbarnes]

41. Why is this demented, washed-up has-been on the TV machine every weekend?

[MurrayDelph]

42. Because he's available

and easy to get.

There's a reason he's been called "The Senior Senator from the Green Room."

If it's Sunday, John McCain is bitching about that uppity n-word who beat him on one or more channels.

[BumRushDaShow]

45. "The Senior Senator from the Green Room."

Bwah!

[Orsino]

77. Because his paymasters want him there. n/t

[roamer65]

47. The 2003 invasion of Iraq will go down in the history books...

...as a criminal act far, far, FAR larger than Vietnam or the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

[Cosmocat]

56. No it won't

Not that it wasn't but, what have they been able to do with "history" about Reagan, a tax and spender who cut and ran from Beurit and sold arms to drug cartels ... Greatest president ever ... Iraq and Bush were THAT bad, they can't make him out to be good, but they just will wash it all away, like it never happened, and blame Barrack Obama, like they blamed Clinton for allowing 9-11.

[Vinca]

48. A man willing to put Palin a heartbeat away from the presidency has no standing.

Go home, John, and take Miss Lindsey with you.

[LloydS of New London]

49. Status of FUCKING Forces Agreement!!!!!

Signed by GEORGE FUCKING BUSH!!! What wonderfully selective amnesia these Republicans have!

[LiberalLovinLug]

58. Not only Republicans, who have zero credibility...BUT THE FUCKING MSM AS WELL!

Why do they not just hammer McCain, Graham, and the other Sunday talk show idiots on this point over and over?!

Oh yeah, then they'd have to rehash the whole war crimes issue and that they pulled out because Iraq no longer would allow these crimes to go on without prosecution by their courts.

[freebrew]

51. Hey! McCain...

I thought we were only gonna be there a few years. You and * promised. It would be a cakewalk.

We would be welcomed with flowers and shit.


ESAD, asshole.

[KansDem]

52. "Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), known for his aggressive foreign policy views"

Provided someone else's kids do the viewing.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

57. What do you mean "We?" white man?

[Third Doctor]

59. A long time ago I respected

this man but I can't stand him now. Thousands of people killed, injured and made homeless over a lie and that's not enough? So the recent POTUS should have reneged on a process GWB started and placed our people in continued danger and our tax money wasted too? It's okay to have our troops in a place where they are truly not wanted? Plus the Iraqi government is a close ally to Iran now.

[Brigid]

60. Go home and take a nap, Gramps.

You need one.

[SnakeEyes]

66. Disrespectful comment toward older people

not necessary.

[blkmusclmachine]

61. Mr. "Bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran" sez whut?!?!

[cosmicone]

67. The man with one foot in the grave

and another on a banana peel uses one of his two interchangeable moving parts.

[SoapBox]

68. Ditto to any Fuck You McCain posts.

...total War Hawk that wants to kill, kill, kill.

[Liberal_from_va34]

70. Please be quiet, John.

Hawks like yourself are the reason why Iraq is in the mess it's in now. So please just go away.

[PoutrageFatigue]

74. Wasn't the date set by Dubya?

Or was that Afghaninam I'm thinking of?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

76. Why don't you fly over there grampy and show everyone how it's done grampy?

If you can do so without crashing your plane.