John McCain revealed today that he has no plan -- none -- to get us out of the mess the president has created. Senator McCain said that it is important for presidential candidates to "define their objectives and what they plan to achieve not with vague language but with clarity." But especially when it comes to Iraq and Afghanistan, the picture he painted today of where he hopes to be by 2013 is totally divorced from reality and there is zero clarity about how he would get there. It's beyond being vague: John McCain is totally silent about how he would realize his rosy vision for 2013.
It's like saying by 2013, every American will be a millionaire and there will be peace on earth. Wishing will not make it so. The last things Americans need now are empty promises. They need, and our security demands, a concrete plan of action that brings the war in Iraq to an end without leaving chaos behind.
In his speech, Senator McCain says that by 2013, "the Iraq war has been won." How? What's the strategy?
He says "Iraq [will be] a functioning democracy." It certainly isn't now -- what's his place from getting us from here to there?
He says "civil war has been prevented, militias disbanded, the Iraqi security force is professional and competent." But not a word on his strategy to actually prevent civil war, disband the militia or train the security forces.
He says "the government of Iraq is capable of imposing its authority in every province of Iraq." Right now, it can't even impose its authority through all of Baghdad and there is little trust within the government, of the government by the people and no capacity by the government to deliver basic security or services. So how do we get from here to there? Senator McCain is silent.
At the same time, Senator McCain says that in 2013: "the threat from a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan has been greatly reduced... U.S. and NATO forces remain there to help finish the job and continuing operations against the remnants of al Qaeda."
Exactly how will we have any chance of winning in Afghanistan and defeating al Qaeda if we keep 140,000 troops in Iraq for another three or four years? Senator McCain doesn't say because he can't.
The fact is, when I visited Afghanistan in February, General McNeil, who commands the international force, told me that with two extra combat brigades -- about 10,000 soldiers -- he could turn around the security situation in the south, where the Taliban is on the move. But he can't get them because of Iraq.
Even when we do pull troops out of Iraq, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Mullen, says he would want to send them home for a year to rest and retrain before sending them to Afghanistan. The longer we stay in Iraq, the more we put off the day when we fully join the fight against the real al Qaeda threat and finally defeat those who attacked America seven years ago.
Today's speech is further proof that when it comes to Iraq, there is no daylight between John McCain and George W. Bush. They are joined at the hip. When it comes to Iraq, there will be no change with a McCain administration and so there is a real and profound choice for Americans in November.
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Joe Biden - you are the best!
I am so glad that you were all over the media this past week.
The Bidenites at Democratic Underground couldn't be happier.
If only we weren't stuck with the leftovers.
Hate to break it to you, but mcsame thinks we'
re doing just fine following the bush plan and intends to keep doing it. He doesn't need a plan.
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Instead of an Iraq war funding bill that CREATES problems, why can"t we pass one that SOLVES problems?
Problems with the current Iraq war funding bill:
1.Weakens the economy by funding the war with deficit spending.
2. Discourages diligent cost/benefit analysis of the war by deferring its fiscal impact via deficit spending.
3. Enables continuation of the same failed policy in Iraq.
4. Denies the people a chance to debate this issue again in September.
A PROBLEM SOLVER war funding bill would:
1. Help mend the economy by ending deficit funding of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
2. Encourage smarter cost/benefit analysis by eliminating deficit funding for the wars.
3. Dial down Iraq war funding to half of the requested amount to send a clear signal that we are not going to occupy Iraq indefinitely. Iraq is welcome to backfill the shortfall if they really want us to maintain the occupation.
4. Fund only current fiscal year operations so that the people aren"t denied their chance to participate in the FY2009 war funding debate in September.
5. Include a self-funded version of the 21st Century GI Bill. They"ve earned it!!
6. Consider adding a 65 MPH top speed limit on interstate highways to reduce fuel demand, fuel prices, and fuel expenditures. Some airlines are already flying slower as a tactic to combat rising fuel costs.
http://www.congress.org Please share this with your representatives. The Senate will vote on war funding this week.
My three friends, Melvin, Marvin, and Lorena, are all disciples of McCain. I love them, but I can't get on that bus.
I asked them each individually what McCain's plan is to get us out of Iraq by 2013 ("victory"?). Mel and Marv, in similar manner, stammered and implied what a dumb question. I persisted, and each said the "plan" was to kill as many Al Qaeda as possible. Nice. Sophisticated.
I am not sure McC knows enough about war--from the ground--rather than dropping bombs on cities.
Lorena, bless her heart, said the plan was to "stay the course"--keep on doing what we are doing. She appears to love the surge. I asked her, well, what about the political progress that the surge was supposed to enable. I got a blank stare.
Does anyone know what McCain's plan is? Sounds like Nixon's plan to end the VN war, which turned out be no plan once he won.
Every day and in every way, McCain shows that just wanting to be president isn't enough. We've all been down that road.
The problems this country faces may not be fixable at all. I hope that they are, for the sake of my children and their children. McCain is so far past being able to come up with remedies that it's almost sad. But the country doesn't have time for tears; it needs leadership. John should be sitting by the pool enjoying retirement. His cluelessness may end up costing this country too much to undo.
The problem with MCCain is his imaginary solutions don't even go from his mouth to God's ears less alone to the American public. Bush has been a tyke on a tricycle while McCain's mobility is on a "Hover round". Spinning his thoughts and fantasy solutions vehicle evntually rides the wave of centifical force, spinning outwards with "No one...no child left behind.". Insanity has no boundaries. Just ask any psychothera[pist , psychologist, or even your next door neighbor who is claiming part of your property for their own, that is until real estate taxes come due. People of power find ways using, actually declaring ownership until the bills come due. Is it too late for real change? Somehow I doubt it without REVOLUTION. Maidson wrote much of the constitutiion.... a history lesson portraying Madison while clarifying the stars and stripes of symbolism over substance of a nation. Were we ever really a nation to begin with? The constitution was never written actually protecting the rights of We the People for there's no such thing as We the People. The USA (in title only) is all already bankrupt.
Thank you Joe Biden for stepping up to the plate when the balls are thrown. Too bad management of your team doesn't believe in supplying you with a bat as the batter.
Sen. Biden, the war has turned. The surge has worked and political progress is now happening, according to Nancy Pelosi, who is in Iraq right now.
She welcomed Iraq's progress in passing a budget as well as oil legislation, and a bill paving the way for the provincial elections in the fall that are expected to more equitably redistribute power among local officials.
"We're assured the elections will happen here, they will be transparent, they will be inclusive and they will take Iraq closer to the reconciliation we all want it to have," said Pelosi.
And you know, Sen. Biden, that violence in Iraq has decreased significantly. More importantly, you know that the Iraqi military and police are now doing most of the fighting.
The war is winding down. The Iraqi people have been liberated and will now be able to live freely, something that most of them have never experienced. Our military, led by General Petraeus, stopped the civil war before it spiraled out of control and restored peace to the nation of Iraq. Now, it's up to the people and their elected government to create the nation they want to have.
Sen. Biden, you can criticize the invasion. (even though you authorized it) You can criticize the Bush Administration for Rumsfeld's execution of the occupation. There's no doubt we were there entirely too long because the mission was cloudy once we had captured Saddam Hussein.
Why can't you simply acknowledge the progress, Senator? Why?
Senator Biden has just been honoured with the Most Impressive Democrat of the Week (MIDOTW) award!
http://www.chrisweigant.com/index.php/2008/05/16/friday-talking-points-32-democrats-throw-bush-a-few-elbows/#comment-2293
Check it out! And, stay for some very intelligent discussion infused with humour and some great give and take debate on the most important issues of our time.
Hi Liz!
Thanks for posting that link.
I passed it on to other Biden supporters.
Hi Jillian! It's so nice to see you here again. I still miss the Biden blog - maybe it will start up again on Joe's senate website...hint, hint...
Anyway, I'm sure you will find Chris Weigant's site a fun place for political discussion, too. Chris is one of those rare birds in journalism who really care about making it their job to inform the people and - like Senator Biden, himself - tell us what we need to know and not what we may want to hear. He was also one of the very rare journalists who paid attention to Senator Biden and his campaign and continues to put the spotlight on the issues that are really important and to encourage debate...all with a very healthy dose of humor.
Great to hear from you again - don't be such a stranger!
Elizabeth
Remember Michael Glennon, Senator Biden? He remembers you, and the work you used to do to reassert the Constitutional role of Congress in authorizing and ending war [as opposed to intimating that we must wait for a president to change things]:
"The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held hearings on the National Commitments Resolution and it issued a report, which is a classic, that made some suggestions about how to avoid another Vietnam, most of which were ignored in the case of Iraq.
[snip]
Now you have asked me an important question, and I appreciate it, and it is to elaborate my conclusion that the war in Iraq is unauthorized currently. My answer is that none of the sources of authority cited by the administration provides authority to fight the war in Iraq today. Not after December 31st, but today."
http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/110/41756.pdf
Also see today's Harvard forum - on-line soon:
http://www.jewishalliance.org/home.htm
Every federal legislator owes it to our troops to watch the stunning testimony given by IVAW veterans to the House Progressive Caucus yesterday:
http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/index.php?main_page=product_video_info&products_id=205390-1
It is imperative that CONGRESS move to end our cutthroat, violence-instigating occupation of Iraq - to unilaterally change the policy, order the redeployment, and fund accordingly, and to enforce those decisions in court as need be, NOW. Will your Foreign Relations committee heed our Winter Soldiers, or even take their testimony?
Biden has run for president several times and never made the cut with democrats. He has a mouth on him I'll grant you but it's easy to sit on the sidelines and be a talking head for the DNC.
He is part of the establishment that everyone is so disenamored with. He is a Washington insider. An old school politician.
So much for democratic change. Looks suspiciously like business as usual.
Right on, Shirt. He's also remembered as the Committee Chairman overseeing the procedural "lynching" at Clarence Thomas' nomination for the Supreme Court. No man should have undergone what Justice Thomas suffered at the willful hands of the disgraceful Biden. That Senator Biden has never advanced beyond registering his Presidential candidacy (and bored debate audiences with his constant use of the word "I") shows he's known as a little man from a little State. The State deserves better.
Clarence Thomas? You mean the one of the pubic hair upon the Coke can?
THAT Clarence Thomas?
Oh, rriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
Uh huh, Anita's coke can. Wonder how she got to testify......perhaps a very biased committee leadership from Baden.
THE PROFOUND ONE
Biden calls Obama 'A real and profound choice in November?" The New Republic reports that the "profound one" said in 2004 "That a failed Iraq state would be a disaster." Does the "profound one" then believe he can withdraw our forces from Iraq in 16 months and turn it into a success story? Into a reconciled unified stable pro-Western democracy By what magic will he accomplish this wonder. Will he call down the new Iraq from the heavens? Or will it spring into being by hugging Sunni and Shia leaders until they become peace loving human beings? Is that how the "profound one" will do it with Biden at his side? And within the miraculously short space of 16 months? Surely nothing is too difficult for the "profound one."
as long as we have troops in the country in large numbers the iraqi government will never feel the need to start taking care of their own shit. also, our presence is in part responsible for the increase in violence. our foreign policy is the reason there is so much anti-american sentiment in the middle east. if we make the effort to show the iraqis we have no designs to take over their country and rule their lives, it just might give them the motivation they need to get their shit together.
The Iraqi gov't is dominated by Shiite extremists and will not reconcile with Sunnis. Our presence in Iraq is the only thing preventing the country from descending into a full blown sectarian war.
I get it. You don't like Obama or Biden. No biggie.
Enthrall us with your acumen. What would you do if you were the next President?
Redeploy our troops within the region and use them as leverage in dealing with Iran. If negotiations fail to stop the mullahs from building the bomb and funding terrorism then do to them what we did to Saddam.
Isn't Biden the guy who proposed a three state segregation of Iraq? Gee, that was a really visionary policy pronouncement. It reminds me of the win and abandon idea of redeployment, which by the way was no more than a veiled copy of the Rumsfeld strategy. Of course the fools who advanced this nonsense were too dumb to realize that they were supporting Rumsfeld. With one sentence President Bush shot a verbal arrow through the heart of the shortsighted, visionless, weak, lazy, defeatist, appeaseing, antidemocratic, antihumanitarian, and racist foreign policy of the Democtatic Party. I'll be adding Biden to my Jimmy Carter list of persons to not pay attention to. If Senator Obama agrees with President Bush I'll be taking him off that list.
PS Although The Bush White House has had on of the weakest communication operations in the history of the Presidency it is nice to see them wake up from time to time.
Hastings,
I'm not surprised that you and so many others have completely misunderstood what Senator Biden is proposing because the Bush administration and our friends in the media have misrepresented it and inaccurately reported on it to the point where it is unrecognizable. I would urge you to do some research, using sources you trust, to find out more about the Biden strategy for promoting and facilitating a sustainable political settlement in Iraq based on federalism, as outlined in Iraq's constitution. You may soon see it in an entirely different light.
Can't see the forest for the trees? John Biden didn't have to say it, because the Iraqis divided the country between Sunni, Shia, & Kurd on their own. Once Sunni neighborhoods in Baghdad are under Shia control. What Biden proposed/predicted was what the Iraqis declarecd for themselves.
I'd take Biden's brain before McCain, Cheney, Rumsfeld, & Bush (well he doesn't have one) anyday.
Senator Biden, You are a voice of sanity and your expertise and knowledge of the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan is a breath of fresh air. I look forward to 2009 when you will be listened to and we will return to a foreign policy based on reason and rational thinking. My thanks to you for your spirited defense of Senator Obama yesterday, and you were correct to call BS because that is what these past eight years have been about.
Great Post Senator. The problem is that this country votes on sound bites not details. I actually think if he said every American will be millionaire by 2013 and there will be world peace he'll get elected for sure. :-)
This isn't without precedence. Remember Nixon's "secret plan" to get out of VietNam during his re-election campaign.
BTW.
"The longer we stay in Iraq, the more we put off the day when we fully join the fight against the real al Qaeda threat and finally defeat those who attacked America seven years ago."
Then why don't we attack Saudi Arabia? Weren't most of the alleged conspirators Saudi? Although distanced by his family, Bin Laden still operates on his personal wealth as a Saudi.
This is, of course, a stupid idea. But no where near as stupid as invading and occupying Iraq.
And for the future, why should we continue to put more troops in Afghanistan, while every single other member of the NATO forces is pulling out? Does anybody remember that the same Afghanistan virtually destroyed the USSR's military? They don't give up. We have already proven that they will just pick up where they left off, as soon as we turn our back.
Washington has the most circuitous plans, and a trillion dollars in Pentagon budget and additional funding, to do what?
Catch and/or kill Osama Bin Laden. Game over. Justice served.
And you can't do it. Ten times the military number and intelligence community of the rest of the world, and you can't find one freakin' guy?
Instead, you involve Us in hapless military action, after hapless military action.
You just enjoy figuring out new rationalizations to keep the military busy.
Now that's stupid.
With all of the "Natural" disasters occuring not only in our Country, but all over the world, doesn't it make more sense for peace to provide food, medical, and support..rather than a military show of strength? Just imagine what one week's worth of the cost to maintain our manmade disaster in Iraq would accomplish if applied to humanitarian efforts. There is nothing more impressive to people in need than American uniforms accompanying huge aid boxes with USA printed all over them. I know, I live in lala land!!! Isn't it time to at least try to bring back the "support" side of American and finally replace the fear, anger, arrogance, and world dominance mentallity of the last 7 years?
It is always amusing to see a Washington insider posturing as a new age politician. Biden is part of the establishment that Obama is railing against.
If Biden was a Washington insider and part of the establishment as you imply, then he would have been the presumptive Democratic nominee before the get go...if you know what I mean, and I'm not sure that you do.
Joe Biden is my senator and I have supported him and voted for him since I moved to Delaware 25 years ago. He was the only one of the candidates with a real, workable plan for a stable and (hopefully) peaceful Iraq. He and Les Gelb came up with a plan for a Federal government in Iraq with 3 mostly independent regions and a central government managing the oil resources and redevelopment projects. It seems to me to be the best hope for a political solution. Joe Biden for Secretary of State!
Biden for VP!!
OBAMA TO STAY IN IRAQ 100 YEARS
Biden calls Obama 'A real and profound choice in November?" The New Republic reports that the "profound one" said in 2004 "That a failed Iraq state would be a disaster." Then does the "profound one" believe he can withdraw our forces from Iraq in 16 months and turn it into a success story? By what magic will he conjure up this new Iraq? By meeting with its leaders and hugging them into becoming peace loving human beings? Is that how the "profound one" will do it with Biden at his side? Or will Obama stay in Iraq as long as it takes to avoid a catastrophe and make a success out of it? 50 years, 100 years. That isn't a long time compared to 14 centuries of sectarian conflict.
Failed state. That IS Iraq, thanks to the mismanagement of the war by Bush/Cheney.
McCain says troops will be home by 2013, why is his deadline more credible than Obama's?
It's not as though the Iraqi's are blind and unable to see WHEN THERE ARE LESS AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN IRAQ and notice as the American presence diminishes.
The Iraqis will not need anyone to tell them America is with drawing it will be obvious.
If you really believe that America will need to stay to avoid a catastrophe why stop at 50 years, 100 years make it another 14 centuries.
Just make sure to send YOUR sons and daughters and their children and their grandchildren"s grandchildren to fight and die in a war that McCain says "is all about oil"
Let's have McCain as president with his erudite foreign policies "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" and "I'm going to sit the Sunnis and Shiites down and tell them to quit the bullsh*% along with a vast array of other questionable statements that McCain has made over the years; which lend credence to the fact that although McCain comes from a family with military history and, McCain's service in the military is to be lauded, McCain's has not articulated an economic policy, national security policy nor foreign policy that that is substantive.
McCain offers America irrelevant sound bites that mirror the Bush/Cheney failed policies, on these matters McCain is simply wrongheaded and his policies are not what America needs.
Which is why you engage the entire region to help mold & stabilize their part of the world. Why would an arab country take direction from the christian West on how they should govern? It's arrogance that makes you think that we can govern their people better than they can.
So, you think after America contributes the minute time of at least 100 more years (not to mention the number of lives lost)...we will solve the 14 centuries of conflict? Religious conflict cannot be solved, least of all by outsiders with totally conflicting beliefs. History has proven that fact. It must be solved from within..nothing we do will produce a Victory for us...they have to accomplish their own victory..whatever that means.
You need to learn to do research and read once in a while. The Biden plan had bipartisan support. Obama will use that a
Posted May 15, 2008 | 04:19 PM (EST)