McCain Gets Facts Wrong On Iraq Again

Facts can be funny things.

Over the past several weeks, Sen. John McCain has been occasionally tripping over them in his advocacy for continuing America's presence in Iraq. Most memorably, he repeated - three times - the assertion that Iran was arming al-Qaeda despite the fact that there is no known connection between country and the group, and that the two are clearly of different religions.

On Sunday, McCain made another Iraq-based claim that is highly debatable if not simply false.

As Think Progress was first to point out, appearing on Fox News Sunday, the Arizona Republican stated that the recent flair up of violence in Basra was ended after Shiite cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr declared a ceasefire. This, he said, was proof that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government was gaining the upper hand, both militarily and politically.

"It was al-Sadr that declared the ceasefire, not Maliki," said McCain. "With respect, I don't think Sadr would have declared the ceasefire if he thought he was winning. Most times in history, military engagements, the winning side doesn't declare the ceasefire. The second point is, overall, the Iraqi military performed pretty well. ... The military is functioning very effectively."

It is a convenient interpretation for a candidate who later went on to tout the political successes of the American troop surge. But it seems to contradict almost all news accounts from last week. Indeed, it was the Iranian government and members of Maliki's government who brokered the ceasefire, not Sadr. McClatchy newspapers wrote in its lead paragraph:

"Iraqi lawmakers traveled to the Iranian holy city of Qom over the weekend to win the support of the commander of Iran's Qods brigades in persuading Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr to order his followers to stop military operations."

Moreover, in the process of fighting Sadr, at least 1,000 of Maliki's troops deserted the battle. McCain tried to put a good face on this too, by reminding viewers that, slightly more than a year ago that number would have been much higher. But that too ignores the testimony of many Iraq experts who suggest that far from showing the strength of Maliki's forces, the recent battle in Basra did little but make Sadr stronger. As Jonathan Steele wrote in The Guardian:

"Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki...has emerged with his authority severely weakened. ... Meanwhile, Moqtada al-Sadr, the target of the assault, comes out of the crisis strengthened. His militiamen gave no ground and, by declaring a ceasefire that has successfully held since Sunday, Sadr has demonstrated his authority and the discipline of his men."

Keep reading here and here for HuffPost's earlier coverage of McCain's Iraq gaffes.

Comments

[toby25]

All 3 of these candidates have made errors while talking about Iraq...all of them. As a matter of fact they have all 3 made countless errors while campaigning. You can't only point the finger at John McCain. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have had to back pedal and explain several things themselves....and they are as bad at it as McCain. By the way I am a democrat who dislikes BOTH of our choices. Neither of them are worth a damn and are very flawed in their own ways.

[noamjunior]

McCain wishes for the good old days when the north was the bad guys and the south were the good guys.
NO SILLY - I mean VIETNAM

[uvymopkq]

Strange that most of the news media changed the story to favor Sadr and the Mahdi Army after they reported his defeat?

[calirighty]

I love how people keep saying McCain is wrong. Why is it that the leader of Hamas in Iraq is saying THE EXACT SAME THING? Where is Huffington Post to report this news? As usual, nowhere to be found. People that keep claiming that Al Qaeda is NOT in Iraq don't know hat they are talking about. They are there. They have BEEN there. There is a money trail from Iran to Al Qaeda in Iraq. Iranian weapons have been found NUMEROUS times. But I guess this all just a coincidence. I guess everyone is liar. It's amazing that Huffington Post is the ONLY news source that tells the truth and all others are not "credible sources".

http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD189008

[dawlishgal]

Somebody should get McCain a fine-tip permanent black marker. Then he could write stuff that he ought to know and remember in the palm of both hands, and the back of both arms, and on some crib notes in his back pockets, and his side pockets, and his front pockets and his shirt pocket and his jacket pockets.................oh never mind.

[Meah]

It is NO ACCIDENT that McCain keeps mistaking Shia for Al Qaeda. He wants to attack Iran. I believe that McCain has orchestrated his mistakes with Lieberman, so that people become confused, and start believeing that Shiites indeed are the enemy, the Sunni Al Queda. Since his "bomb, bomb,bomb, bomb bomb Iran" song, it is conceivable that his neocon penchants are indeed deadly, and were we to elect this guy, the middle east will continue with the Bush agenda;.

[biosolution]

Yeah, let"s bomb Iran Mr. McCain

Iran ships approximately 4,000,000 million barrels of oil per day. Daily total world consumption is about 85,000,000 million barrels per day. The daily surplus or deficit (elasticity in the market) of world consumption is about 2,000,000 million barrels a day, or approximately 2% percent.

When we bomb Iran, some percentage of oil shipments will be halted either for political reasons or from the destruction of their producing and delivery systems. When that happens, and there is no elasticity in the market, oil prices will spike out of control. Industrialized nations will be pitted against each other scrambling for the limited supply.

Iraq"s supply is about 2% percent. Its precarious production has already caused a dramatic spike in the price of oil; but, of course the oil companies and the politicians will tell you otherwise.
There"s no way to tell what the price of oil would be with a 5% percent or even 2% percent in global supply loss, but $200-$300 dollars/barrel is easily conceivable. At those levels, the economic shock to the world"s industrial nations would be catastrophic.

Nations will have to fight for oil, because oil is to their economies, as air is to you. If you can"t breathe, you choke and then you die.

"Bomb, Bomb, Bomb..Iran", see and hear it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-zoPgv_nYg. We need more of this kind of thinking and behavior, like we need another George Bush.

[ApolloniaCreed]

Well, I'm glad someone is reporting his repeated mistakes on what is supposed to be his main strength. I was listening to CNN Politics Daily Pod-cast and they cut off the quote when he "misspoke" when questioning the Generals yesterday, calling al-Qaida "an obscure sect of the Shias", before trying to correct himself... How many time can he make this mistake without it being looped and played over and over in the press... the way they did the Wright story and the way they did the Bosnia/Sniper fire story... it seems less of a reach than either of those stories! It should be fair game; at least his gaffes are directly related to his politics.

[Binea]

Clean-Cut Kid

Everybody wants to know why he couldn't adjust
Adjust to what, a dream that bust?

He was a clean-cut kid
But they made a killer out of him,
That's what they did

They said what's up is down, they said what isn't is
They put ideas in his head he thought were his

He was a clean-cut kid
But they made a killer out of him,
That's what they did

He was on the baseball team, he was in the marching band
When he was ten years old he had a watermelon stand

He was a clean-cut kid
But they made a killer out of him,
That's what they did

He went to church on Sunday, he was a Boy Scout
For his friends he would turn his pockets inside out

He was a clean-cut kid
But they made a killer out of him,
That's what they did

They said, "Listen boy, you're just a pup"
They sent him to a napalm health spa to shape up

They gave him dope to smoke, drinks and pills,
A jeep to drive, blood to spill

They said "Congratulations, you got what it takes"
They sent him back into the rat race without any brakes

He was a clean-cut kid
But they made a killer out of him,
That's what they did

Part 1 -Bob Dylan

[cmaff05]

I thought McSame was an expert in foreign policy. I guess not. When is the MSM going to call out McSame on his repeated mistakes? It's looking like the MSM is intent on doing whatever is possible for the 3rd straight election to put a Republican back in office. The Straight Talk Express gimmick needs to end.

[tililek]

What will be used as an army? Or is he planning on using a nuclear bomb.
He may be a hero, but he didn't pay attention when the topic of strategy was discussed, did he?

[research]

End Americas' Goddamn War Crimes Now!

[uvymopkq]

Get a job.

[intuition]

Obviously, he's not as sharp as his mother.

[widollar]

John "Wayne:" McCain is a pathetic excuse for a presidential canidate. I sure would not want to be a Republican and have this old fool speaking for my party. He constantly gets the facts twisted, and his words come out ass backwards! He really does not have any deep understanding of economics, and our country and the rest of the planet has huge financial problems. The thought of having this old fool in the oval office is not much improvement over the current moron who sits in the oval office searching for the light switch.

[LightningJoe]

Um... Maliki went through available channels to try to "pressure" Sadr to declare a cease-fire, but it was Sadr who actually did it.

Only Sadr COULD have done it, because re-instituting the cease-fire depended on the Medhi Army to stop pulling their triggers, and Malaki has no, zero, ppft, influence over the Medhi Army, as they are SADR'S militia.

If McCain really did say that, it shows absolute ignorance about realities on the ground in Iraq. For McCain to think that Malaki could have stopped his opponent's attacks by just telling them to stop, is to absolutely mistake who is in control of whom. McCain should try the same thing with AQI, and the various insurgents: just tell them to stop. Why didn't we think of that before?

The (responsible) media covered Sadr's cease-fire fairly accurately. Are McCain's news sources worse than ours? If so, run. Run now, and don't stop running.

---
TV: stop lying. Just stop.

[copesthetics]

is this age, or intention?

[ignorantwillyharper]

This is senile, pure and simple.
They say he has to be taken everywhere by aids, as he can't even find his office in the senate, got on the wrong bus while stopping for lunch on the campaign trail
.
Family were at first horrified when they return to their motor home and found him setting on the couch in the middle of the motor home, asking where everyone was. SAD, really SAD!

[victoriajubilee]

that was a good one.