Obama would swap Iraq war loss for election win: McCain camp

[sabra]

Source: AFP

<snip>

Obama stoked the latest row with an opinion piece in the New York Times, in which he pledged to redeploy two combat brigades, or up to 10,000 troops to Afghanistan, and reaffirmed a 16-month troop withdrawal deadline in Iraq.

In response, McCain's foreign policy aide Randy Scheunemann contrasted what he billed as the Arizona senator's principled support for last year's US troop surge with Obama's opposition to the plan and vow to bring troops home.

"Senator Obama continues his search for a political position to protect his flank in an election," Scheunemann told reporters on a conference call.

"Senator McCain said he would rather lose an election than lose a war and see the nation lose a war.

"Senator Obama seems to think losing a war will help him win an election."

Read more: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g9EzgTMFNMWe4tjhsYoURcx55aSg

[jaxx]

1. Well it looks like McC will lose.

And the country will be better for it.

[bemildred]

2. It ain't Obama that lost their stupid war. nt

[StClone]

4. What is winning?

Billions more spent? Oil contracts for Big Oil? Bases in the Middle East? This war was lost when the goal posts had to be moved as the reasons for the invasion were fiction. A war based in a lie and lost is typical Bush-league work.

[Alcibiades]

3. We won the war already

Mission accomplished, Saddam hanged, all of that.

This is an occupation. A military advisor who does not know the difference should not be taken seriously.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

5. While McCain will just "lose it"

What exactly are we going to "lose" by withdrawing our troops from Iraq, particularly since McCain and nearly everybody else in Congress (Democrats included) keep publicly "wetting" themselves over High Lord General David Patraeus and the supposed "success" of his and Bush's manly "surge"? More importantly, what have we not ALREADY "lost" because of the invasion/occupation of Iraq? What do WE THE PEOPLE stand to "win" exactly by indefinitely keeping our troops stuck in Iraq? WTF is the media not asking these seemingly obvious questions? Why isn't Obama asking them?

[Straight Shooter]

6. You can neither win nor lose a FUBAR occupation.

The U.S. is free to leave and then do what it's always done ... lie through its teeth and tell the world we've won, whether it's true or not. The U.S. is the master of revisionist history.

[Frisbee]

7. and...

McCain would spend 10's of thousands of American lives, millions of Iraqi lives and trillions of dollars over the next 100 years in a losing battle. So what's his point?

[MrSlayer]

8. It's a flawed argument. Iraq has been lost since it began.

It's not as if there can be anything but a loss there.

[fascisthunter]

9. McCain Shouldn't Lie Like that... See That's What Got Us in Iraq in the first place

PS - the war was won and has been over for years. It's an occupation now, waiting for oil deals to go through.... and he's directly responsible for this whole mess, the sick bastard.

[OneBlueSky]

10. and what, pray tell, would a "loss" in Iraq look like? . . .

for that matter, what would a win look like? . . .

seems to me Iraq was lost before the first bomb was dropped, before the first "shock and awe" was inflicted, before the first antiquity was looted, before the first depleted uranium weapon contaminated the countryside, before the first "collateral damage" wiped out an Iraqi family . . .

so tell us, Sen. McCain . . . what's a win in Iraq? . . . inquiring minds want to know . . .

[aquart]

11. IOW, Americans will vote for a guy who will end the Iraq mess?

Damn. What a shame for McCain.

[scarface2004]

12. stop calling it a war!!!!

we invaded them, we are occupying them!!

[hedgehog]

13. That statement makes no sense on the face of it. What John McCain

is doing is calling the American people wimps who want to back down and lose a war. According to him, that's why we're choosing Obama rather than McCain. McCain is promising to take us to Victory in Iraq(whatever that means!)

[Jefferson23]

14. Well, you will get your wish old man.

"Senator McCain said he would rather lose an election than lose a war and see the nation lose a war."

He never defines winning, too hard I guess.

[bamacrat]

15. Yet McSame would swap eternal war for money and corporate kickbacks.

What a fucking chode.

[JerseygirlCT]

16. What's this about losing a war?

Does he seriously see a scenario in which we "win" this thing? In which it could be called a win with so many dead and maimed?

It's lost. It was lost the moment we invaded. There's no win scenario here.

[KittyWampus]

17. McCain would swap a terrorist attack on the US for election win- he said so

[Skittles]

18. that sounds downright childish n/t