McCain Criticized For Generalizing Enemy In Iraq As "Al Qaeda"

As he campaigns with the weight of a deeply unpopular war on his shoulders, Senator John McCain of Arizona frequently uses the shorthand "Al Qaeda" to describe the enemy in Iraq in pressing to stay the course in the war there.

"Al Qaeda is on the run, but they're not defeated" is his standard line on how things are going in Iraq. When chiding the Democrats for wanting to withdraw troops, he has been known to warn that "Al Qaeda will then have won." In an attack this winter on Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, the Democratic front-runner, Mr. McCain went further, warning that if American forces withdrew, Al Qaeda would be "taking a country."

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[MikeDu]

McCain isn't 'stupid', he's just your run-of-the-mill Bush administration stooge. Every 'misstatement' he's made to date had been repeated (or leaked to Judith Miller) at some point in the past by Cheney himself. When has a Republican ever let the facts get in the way of a good argument?

[avicenna]

Despite the common conception that McCain is simply a poor learner (like his party leader predecessor - making it look like it is a prerequisite for the gig of Republican leader), it appears that on his recent trip to the mid-east - he was exposed to some of that infamous "failure of American intelligence" when he was briefed with the notion that "al quaeda" is Iraqi for "generic bad dudes".

[KimMPH]

Heaven help us all if he is nominated President!

[TN]

Thank you senator for the great works of the republican congress for the last 12 years of their rule for which you were a senior member. Thanks for seeing to it our bridges were strong, our dams and levee's were compitant to withstand storms. Thank you for standing up and making sure our products were safe, our ports were safe, our justice department was the peoples. Thank you for investigating no-bid contracts in the pentagon and the dept. of defense, thanks for making sure there was no waste fraud and abuse of the peoples money in Iraq. Thank you for demanding that the 9 billion in cash missing in Iraq was investigated. Thank you for putting counters on the oil production machines and following thru to catch the people steeling the oil in Iraq. Thank you for getting the whole world behind us in this war, so we wouldn't have to bear the brunt of the cost in human life and treasure alone. You have done such a great job as a senator, you truely deserve to manage our country. NOT!!!!!!!!!!!

[robeson]

Damn it John, we're not using 'al-Qaeda in' anymore. Jesus, wake up.

[kellygrrrl]

we're gonna need more Centrum Silver -- buckets full!

[Puller58]

This is a very old tack. Right after 9/11, I happened to hear a right wing talk radio show. A caller said that the US could invade anywhere in the world by claiming Bin Laden was there. And this was just a caller! It doesn't take much imagination to figure that like communism, Bin Ladenism could be used to encourage the public to support questionable policies. Of course, Islamofacism is the peferred term among neocons. McCain just can't pronounce that word without drooling on himself.

[TN]

Before the 06 election I heard the right wing talk radio moron in TN saying, Muhamad Ottah, (the one who flew one of the planes into the wtc) was in Iraq before he attacked us, therefore Suddam was helping Al-Queida. Well Muhamad was in the US learning at a flight school how to fly that plane, does that mean that Bush was helping them? Who are these idiots that can't think past what is fed to them, I wanted to go through the radio.

[MajorKong]

"Al Qaeda" = Pretty much anybody we happen to point a gun at over there.

[jalapeno]

Mc Cain has PTSD.

[KimMPH]

That is my assumption as well!

[VivaZapata]

well what's he gonna say? we're fighting people who are trying to rid their country of occupiers who are preparing to stay a long time (the absurd embassy and the "make it a hundred" years comment by mccain)?

[ROBOT8]

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, THE TRUTH IS THE GREATEST ENEMY OF THE STATE." -- Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda, 1933-1945

[eddiejoe]

Most intelligence reports I've read estimate the number of Al Qaeda in Iraq members to be between 850 to 1000.....wow....a whole high school! Even Frederick Kagan admits that most of them are jihadist Iraqis with outside leadership. They are NOT the same people that attacked us 9/11. Let's have some straight talk from the guy that finished 5th from the bottom in his Annapolis class. Four more years of moron Bush indeed!

[aintnogod]

My homemade bumper sticker reads: 4 MORE YEARS/ VOTE McCAIN

[dadw5boys]

4 MORE WARS / VOTE Mc CAIN

[lobo1939]

Facts on the ground do not count for McBomb and the Repug party. They depend on Faux news and the Rush-Drudge report for their information and opinion. So what they know is not what is actually happening. And what is actually happening they never believe or understand.

[forpeace]

*

John McCain is Dr. Strangelove

pssssssst....Do Something!

http://bravenewfilms.org/blog/27350-john-mccain-is-dr-strangelove

*

[zigzag1]

McCrazy hid Cindy's tax return in Vicki Isemans purse and we all know where she is. Right?

[ChristiB]

How's the SURGE going McCain??????????

Notice how that is not mentioned any more?

Why is it the media always "reports" everything - and then doesn't follow up with any of it?

[mbu]

"How's the SURGE going McCain??????????"


Given that Maliki has just taken the Mahdi's stronghold in Basra, I'd say pretty well, thank you.

[GrandpaMcCain]

Well, I agree, but on the other hand, the media almost doesn't have to follow up with this story. McCain's tired, old, Rove-approved "the enemy is on the run" rhetoric is disproved on a daily basis as violence escalates there. Junior just HAD to have his little vendetta war so he could be his very own "commander-in-chief" and be a "war president." Sickening.

[dadw5boys]

THE ENEMY IS ON THE RUN????

SO THAT WHAT YOU CALL ALL THE BUSH PEOPLE RESIGNING OFFICE BEFORE BUSH LEAVES.

WILL HE ISSUE A BLANKET PARDON TO ALL OF THEM?????

[GrandpaMcCain]

I wish more Repugnantcan tr0lls were on here today so I could throw it in their faces about how their "It's Raining McCain" that they were "jamming to" (yes, one actually said that) and passing around was actually a production of HuffPo's joke sister site.

[mbu]

God d*** it, you mean they weren't really McCain supporters? That's it, I'm voting for Obama.

I have to say, you really got us with that one. We were all jamming to it and having so much fun, in our own, twisted, right wing sort of way, and you just had to ruin it.

Anyway, I have to go back to my Repugnantcan lair where I torture small helpless animals, and democrats.

Say hi to Bill Ayers for me.

[ljsfolly]

Mac is showing more signs of dementia. The republicans must have some secret weapon they plan to unleash because Mac is embarrassing their name and reputation.

[dnegri]

Dementia - one of his three possible responses to the persistent sunni-shia confusion. Either dementia or incompetent knowledge or deliberately lying.

Take you pick....and this one won't die out either....

[GrandpaMcCain]

~snicker~ Uh, "War Hero" John McLame WAS their secret weapon.

[nyboomer]

Wait till one of Mccain's naval fitness, or lack thereof, reports shows up on the net. It should be a hoot.

[GrandpaMcCain]

Who needs it? Just look at that sagging, flabby, flaccid lie-bag.

[BlackmaninAmerica]

McCain won't get away with everything. 527s will take care of painting him. The GOP knows they have a problem if Obama is the Dem nom, that is why they so desperately want Clinton to win the nom. All of Faux Noise talking points smell of fear that Clinton won't be win the nom.

[nirak]

How did McCain ever make it to be a Senator.
Geezus, one dummy in the last 7 years is enough

[dnegri]

Wife's money and playing up the "war hero". He's been doing it for decades.

[GrandpaMcCain]

By saying "my friends." A lot.

[BlackmaninAmerica]

Wow. I wonder how Fixed News will spin this one. Oh wait, they don't report McSame's flubs and gaffs. Wallace was the only one to mention it in a Power Panel debate and all of the commentators shrugged it off as a SENIOR MOMENT! A SENIOR MOMENT! We don't need a President who is constantly having senior moments. Maybe if McSame did this once, it would be okay, but this is now time number six. Come on America, wake up.

[Americanium]

So the GOP will be nominating a Panamanian for President in the form of John Sydney McCain!!

Wow! Can you Imagine if that was Obama??

The outrage would have been enough to generate electricity to run my laptop.

I hear no one addressing the fact that John McCain was born in Panama but then again he is a Republican. He can do no wrong.

[Americanium]

Where is Colo Solo?

Are you telling me that If an American has a child in Iraq he/she can become President??

That is not what the Constitution says!!

[TabysGrandma]

If the child is born to Military Personal serving overseas on US soil they are born American Citizens. My daughters bith certificate was issued by the US State Dept. and it says US Citizen Born Aboard. She was born in a military hospital in Germany. She was issued a US passport when she was born.

[GrandpaMcCain]

Dude. It's American property. This has no traction.

[GrandpaMcCain]

He was born at Colo Solo, which is an American military facility in Panama. That's not going to garner much attention.

[kae]

Senator John McCain of Arizona frequently uses the shorthand "Al Qaeda" to describe the enemy in Iraq

HA! I love it - now it's not propaganda it's SHORTHAND!

[dnegri]

This is the one straight-forward question that we should be drumming at McCain:

Did he really believe as he claimed for several months (until that golden moment with Lieberman on March 18) that Iran was training Al-Qaeda members and sending them back into Iraq to kill Americans? If he answers "yes", then he's demonstrated an amazing lack of understanding of the dynamics of Iraq.

If he answers "no"....then what's his excuse? The only reasonable conclusion is that he was LYING to the American public to SCARE them.

There's no plausible third answer for McCain. Both are damning...one of his competence, one of his integrity.

Push it push it push it until he answers.....(and, "I just had a senior moment" - as his campaign claimed on March 19 - while once again repeating the AQ-Iran connection(!) - doesn't cut it.
Because, JUST LIKE HILARY AND BOSNIA - this is something he repeated over almost a two month period of time.

PUSH IT PUSH IT PUSH IT