McCain Adviser: Obama Would Rather Lose War Than Election

In an early morning memo, John McCain's senior foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann claims Barack Obama's position on Iraq is designed only to keep his "left-wing base":

When it wasn't popular, John McCain said he would rather win a war that we were losing than win an election. Politics came second; country came first.

Barack Obama has determined that he would rather lose a war that we are winning than lose an election by alienating his base. This is the reason Obama did not have to wait until his trip to declare his strategy. Iraq is fundamentally a political decision for Barack Obama, not a national security decision.

He has calculated that to maintain his left-wing base, he cannot adopt a strategy that is based upon conditions on the ground. For the best political position, Barack Obama has decided that his only politically acceptable position is a timetable out of touch with what is really happening in Iraq.

Yesterday, Scheunemann compared Obama to Bush in his inflexibility. Today, it's Donald Rumsfeld:

The American people deserve a commander-in-chief who puts their country first ahead of party, politics and self-interest. Time after time, that is what John McCain has done and what Barack Obama has failed to do. We cannot afford to replace a Rumsfeld strategy that refused for too long to acknowledge failure in Iraq with an Obama strategy that refuses to acknowledge success in Iraq.

Scheunemann should know: as part of his work helping the U.S. get into the war in Iraq, he was briefly Rumsfeld's 'consultant' on Iraq at the Pentagon.

Comments

[karela]

06:14 PM on 07/17/2008

McCain is pretty darn desperate when he has to start hauling out republicans to castigate. Obama's plan for Iraq hasn't changed since before we attacked Iraq. In 2002 he said that it would make us less safe because it would distract us from Afghanistan where the 9/11 terrorists actually are and because it would create such ill will against America that Al Qaeda could use it as a recruiting tool. Obama has been right all along and McCain has been wrong. Only a week ago McCain was saying that Obama was naive for wanting to send at least two brigades to Afghanistan because he, McCain, said they had to stay in Iraq. This week, after terrible fighting and more deaths in Afghanistan, McCain says Obama's wrong because we have to send three brigades----but McCain didn't say it until after the Bush administration said it. Guess what John? Maybe two brigades would have done the job if they'd gone when Obama called for them. Yes, the surge did decrease violence, but that was only one of the eighteen benchmarks that were set at before the surge as indicators of success. We're a long way from meeting those benchmarks and from meeting the major goal of Iraq handling and paying for the job themselves. McCain has been wrong every time and Obama has been right. Both judgment and a capacity for vision and foresight are essential in a president. McCain hasn't demonstrated that he has them. Obama has.

[Sixtwo]

05:12 PM on 07/17/2008

McCain's position on the Iraq war is designed to keep the oil men and certain other entrepreneurs in this country rich--some folks get rich/richer from wars. The American people were told that the Iraq war had been won years ago--mission accomplshed! Today, years later, McCain is boasting about "winning" the war!!!!! Consider the waste, fraud and abuse that has been uncovered and reported during the Iraq war alone..and the impact the economy here at home.

[OlderBudWeiser]

04:55 PM on 07/17/2008

Does this McCane adviser hire out to parties as a mind reader? The new Karnak of the Johnny Carson era?

[bigdaddyvike]

04:01 PM on 07/17/2008

Lose? If you don't lose, you win. What have we won? $5 a gallon gas? 1 million dead Iraqis? $10 trillion in the hole? No 4th amendment? Shunned by the world?

[Dailyfare]

03:32 PM on 07/17/2008

Which war are we talking about? Afghanistan? Iraq? Terror? Are these interchangeable terms? Is there a plan? Can we get some focus, please?

Afghanistan is where bin Laden supposedly was. But our attention was diverted by non-existent WMDs (I still can't believe people fell for that BS; it made no sense WHATSOEVER. What I find scary is that so many people did fall for it, and they're still out there and they vote. Ugh.)

Iraq is not a war. It's an INVASION. And, like it or not, we're stuck with it - no matter what Senator Obama says (hey, I like the guy, but that situation is at least 10-15 years from being remotely stable)

Terror. Frankly, I'm more terrified of what this country's become. Seriously. Who are we? How is it that a country that supposedly values freedom elects - not once, but TWICE - a group like Bushco?

Very. Freakin'. Scary.

[Moxo]

03:13 PM on 07/17/2008

More from the Bi-Polar Weird-Talk Express!

[liberalghost]

02:31 PM on 07/17/2008

And McCain is willing to bleed this nation dry so he stand, one foot on Iraq and one foot on America, his arm thrust into the air, and declare "We WON!"

[lucky54]

02:23 PM on 07/17/2008

McClon already lost both - election and war.

[edwarvir]

01:58 PM on 07/17/2008

Who started this war?????

[Nonamnesiac]

01:36 PM on 07/17/2008

McCain would rather waste resources on a useless war than usher in a period of peace and properity. All he thinks about is fighting wars, whether they are in our interests or not and regardless of whether they are worth the costs or not.
His bottom of his class at war college standing shows every time he opens his mouth.
Using the concept of honor in league with stupidity means we fight wars whether they're necessary or not because the stupid one defines honor to mean we must continue on whether the fight is in our interests or not.
Every life and limb lost and dime spent on Iraq is against the interests of the United States, and McCain's positions proves he is not capable of being commander-in-chief.

[Piatt]

01:35 PM on 07/17/2008

This is post rational.

[schicklett3]

01:25 PM on 07/17/2008

John McCain and his co-horts are out and out liars.
I listened to John McCain's speech today, the one in Kansas. Trust me, I caught him in so many lies it's shameful. Out and out lies!!!!!
So, is the American voters going to elect this liar as president - not to mention his ignorance and dementia.

VOTE SMART - OBAMA '08!

[Canaris]

01:11 PM on 07/17/2008

Boy, good thing Admiral Hewitt, General Patton, and President Roosevelt visited North Africa before they concieved the plans for Operation Torch in 1942. Oh, wait, none of them did.

Well then, it's a good thing Winston Churchill and FDR, not to mention General Eisenhower, visited Normandy before launching Operation Overlord in 1944. Oh, wait, they didn't.

Well then, it's a good thing Dubya visited Afghanistan and Iraq before formulating our strategies in those two wars. Oh, wait, he didn't.

This is a ridiculous line of attack from the McCain campaign, and he, being a former military man, should realize it. Straight talk my arse.

[tel8034]

01:01 PM on 07/17/2008

McCain keeps talking about winning the war in Iraq, but has never defined what a WIN means.

It's obvious that Iraq is another Vietnam which was a war with no end in sight, and a war which the US clearly was not winning and so troops were finally withdrawn.

Will someone in the MSM please ask McCain to explain what WINNING will mean and how will we know that the war was WON.............. We need to be able to see it , feel it, touch it and smell it .......... Just saying it does not cut it for us.

[Vernondelray]

03:48 PM on 07/17/2008

Good luck, I've ben trying to get a definition of victory out of every neocon I've talked to for over 5 years now, and haven't gotten one answer yet. I have heard lost of stuttering though...

[leftoflennon]

12:49 PM on 07/17/2008

McSame is off the reservation!