Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - John McCain, leading presidential candidate in recent polls, gives MAJOR SPEECH

host · 03-28-2008, 11:25 PM

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<span class="post_info"> Filed Under: <a href="#"><a href="http://thinkprogress.org?tag=Iraq" rel="tag" title="View all posts tagged Iraq">Iraq</a>, <a href="http://thinkprogress.org?tag=Iran" rel="tag" title="View all posts tagged Iran">Iran</a><br /></a></span>
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By Ali on Mar 18th, 2008 at 12:58 pm </div>
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<h3 class="title"><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/18/mccain-iran-al-qaeda/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to 'McCain Conflates Shiite Iran And Sunni Al Qaeda, Needs To Be Corrected By Lieberman'">McCain Conflates Shiite Iran And Sunni Al Qaeda, Needs To Be Corrected By Lieberman</a><span class="storyexpander"><a class="storyexpander" id="exlink1-19090">»</a></span></h3>

<p><img src='http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/li3.jpg' alt='li3.jpg' / class="imgright"/> Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has spent a majority of his presidential campaign trying to convince voters that he is the most qualified to tackle foreign policy issues:</p>
<blockquote><p>I would believe that my knowledge and experience and background clearly indicates that if the phone rang in the White House and I was the one to answer it, <strong>I would be the one to best address a national security crisis</strong>. [<a href="http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2008/03/john_mccain_weighs_in_on_the_r.html">3/3/08</a>]</p>
<p><strong>I have the most experience</strong> of any presidential candidate when it comes to foreign policy and advancing our national and economic security priorities around the globe. [<a href="http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/News/NewsReleases/890db0f0-f126-47dc-a412-25c2fece86cf.htm">1/29/08</a>]</p>
<p>On matters of war and peace, <strong>I offer Americans my experience, my personal familiarity with the tragedy of war</strong>, [and] deep involvement in all of the national security issues of the last two decades… [<a href="http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2007/11/mccain_no_other_candidate_has.html">11/18/07</a>]</p></blockquote>
<p>Of course, McCain’s supposed prescient understanding of foreign policy has been <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/15/lieerman-mccain-foreign-policy/">proven faulty over and over</a>. Today, as the Washington Post’s Cameron Barr and Michael Shear report, <a href="http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/03/18/a_mccain_gaffe_in_jordan.html">McCain further undermined his claim</a> to be the best qualified on matters of foreign policy, when he repeated a mistaken claim that Iran was training al Qaeda fighters:</p>
<blockquote><p>Speaking to reporters in Amman, the Jordanian capital, McCain said he and two Senate colleagues traveling with him continue to be <strong>concerned about Iranian operatives “taking al-Qaeda into Iran, training them and sending them back.”</strong></p>
<p>Pressed to elaborate, McCain said it was “common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran, that’s well known. And it’s unfortunate.” <strong>A few moments later, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, standing just behind McCain, stepped forward and whispered in the presidential candidate’s ear. McCain then said: “I’m sorry, the Iranians are training extremists, not al-Qaeda.”</strong></p></blockquote>
<p>He <a href="http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/talkradio/transcripts/Transcript.aspx?ContentGuid=ae522a49-6c82-4791-a76e-44ebb718bf32">made the same assertion</a> on right-wing Hugh Hewitt’s radio show last night. Listen <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/18/mccain-iran-al-qaeda/">here:</a></p>

<p>The “common knowledge” McCain cites is simply false. Far from working together, Iran and al Qaeda represent opposing sides in the Iraq civil war. <a href="http://www.cfr.org/publication/14811/">Al Qaeda is a Sunni Muslim</a> extremist group, while <a href="http://www.cfr.org/publication/10903/shiite_muslims_in_the_middle_east.html">Iran is ruled by Shiites</a>, where they make up 90 percent of the population. </p>
<p>McCain, the so-called foreign policy expert, is confusing <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/02/world/middleeast/02cnd-iran.html?ex=1190001600&en=1a54f8c31de40c43&ei=5070">reports that Iran was aiding Shiite insurgents</a> in Iraq — one of the groups that virulently opposes al Qaeda. Even some aspects of those reports have been <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/14/washington/14intel.html">disputed</a>. </p>
<p>Considering he had to correct McCain himself, does Lieberman still insist that McCain is “<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/15/lieerman-mccain-foreign-policy/">almost always right</a> on the big issues in foreign policy”?</p>
<p>(HT: <a href="http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/03/doesnt_understand_economics_ei.php">Matthew Yglesias</a>)</p>
<p><a href="http://digg.com/politics/McCain_Conflates_Shiite_Iran_And_Sunni_Al_Qaeda">Digg It!</a></p>

<div class="post_update"><span>Update</span>The AP reported on McCain's "concern" over Iranian influence in Iraq, but <a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200803180005" >edited out the al Qaeda reference</a>: "McCain also voiced concern that Tehran is bringing militants over the border into Iran for training before sending them back to fight U.S. troops in Iraq."</div>
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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/29212.html
Visit by Iran's president shows depth of Iraq's divisions
By Leila Fadel | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Sunday, March 2, 2008

BAGHDAD — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday became the first Iranian head of state to visit Iraq in three decades and immediately became the focus of demonstrations that underscored Iraq's sectarian split.

In Fallujah, Sunni Muslim protesters demonstrated against his visit, calling him the killer of Iraqi children. Iraq's Sunni vice president showed up late for a reception for Ahmadinejad hosted by Iraq's Kurdish president.

Meanwhile, Iraq's Shiite ruling elite, many of whom had been taken refuge during Saddam Hussein's time in Shiite Iran, listened to Ahmadinejad without need of translation into Arabic, clearly comfortable hearing his Farsi.

American officials stayed far away from the visiting Iranian delegation. At a joint press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, Ahmadinejad claimed that "Iraqis don't like Americans." Maliki didn't challenge the assertion.

Ahmadinejad's trip was a visible sign of what have been growing economic and cultural ties between the two countries since American-led forces toppled Saddam. Iranian economic investment is growing, especially in southern Iraq, millions of Iranians visit Iraq's holy cities of Najaf and Karbala on religious pilgrimages, and Iraqi officials frequently travel to Tehran and other Iranian cities. Iraq's most influential political party, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, was founded in Iran.

The visit also was the first by any regional leader since the end of Saddam's rule and while President Bush and British prime ministers also have visited, Ahmadinejad was the first leader to receive the full trappings of a state visit.

He was met at Baghdad International Airport by Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and Maliki's national security advisor, Mowaffak al Rubaie. He was whisked from the airport in a black BMW to President Jalal Talabani's compound, where a marching band welcomed him with the Iranian and Iraqi national anthems and a series of other marches, including an American one, Colonel Boogie.

Iraqi officials lined up to welcome the visiting president, but the Sunni vice-president, Tarik al Hashemi, was noticeably absent. He appeared about 50 minutes after Ahmadinejad arrived. There was no explanation for his delayed arrival.

No U.S. soldiers were in sight near Talabani's home and security was provided by Kurdish soldiers known as the peshmerga.

At an afternoon press conference with Maliki, Ahmadinejad dismissed longstanding U.S. accusations that Iran trains, funds and arms Shiite militias in hopes of destabilizing Iraq.

"You can tell Mr. Bush that accusing others will increase the problems for America in the region and will not solve the problem," he said. "The Americans have to accept the facts of the region. Iraqi people do not like Americans."

When asked if Iran and Iraq trusted one another, Ahmadinejad took another swipe at the Americans.

"If you look to the two peoples, Iranian and Iraqi, we can see they have a joint history, culture and geography," he said. "If they don't trust each other in spite of all these characteristics in common can they trust countries which are 12,000 kilometers away from Iraq and Iran?"

Maliki welcomed Ahmadinejad and called his visit "the first visit of its kind." He said the visit would "deepen" the relationship between the two nations.

"We believe that there is not stability except through understanding and discussion, " he said.

Iran has long touted its historical, geographic and cultural connection to Iraq as more powerful than the tens of thousands of U.S. troops here. Iranian officials claim that the continued U.S. military presence is the real destabilizing factor.

But Sunni Muslims bristled at Ahmadinejad's visit. In downtown Fallujah, which at one time was the center of the Sunni-dominated insurgency, about 400 people held signs and chanted anti-Iran slogans.

"The teacher's association protest the visit of the Iranian president, killer of Iraqi children," one sign read. Said another, "We demand the Iranian president stop supporting the militias which are killing the Iraqi people." Others accused the group of supporting the Sunni insurgent group, Al Qaida and another accused Iran of stealing Iraqi oil.

<h3>Last week, 500 people demonstrated against the visit in Diyala province, and Arab leaders in Kirkuk rejected the visit in a written statement.</h3>

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http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/...q.ahmadinejad/
updated 5:57 p.m. EST, Sun March 2, 2008
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in Baghdad Sunday for the start of a historic two-day trip, said "visiting Iraq without the dictator is a good thing."

The Shiite-led Iraqi government rolled out the red carpet, literally, for Ahmadinejad as he became the first Iranian president to visit Iraq, a country that was a bitter enemy when Saddam Hussein's Sunni government was in power.

Ahmadinejad, at a joint news conference with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, said the trip "opens a new chapter in bilateral ties with Iraq."

"We have had good talks in a friendly and constructive environment," Ahmadinejad said. "We have the same understanding of things and the two parties are determined to strengthen their political, economic and cultural cooperation."

Later in the day, Ahmadinejad met Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Both al-Maliki and Talabani have made official trips to Iran since taking office.

At a joint news conference with al-Maliki in Baghdad's Green Zone, Ahmadinejad did not hide his disdain for the United States and its leadership.

"(U.S. President) Bush always accuses others without evidence and this increases problems," Ahmadinejad said. "The Americans have to understand that Iraqi people do not like America." Watch Ahmadinejad comment on the U.S. presence in Iraq »

The United States has accused Iran of supporting some insurgent groups in Iraq, including supplying EFPs, the deadliest and most sophisticated type of roadside bomb.

<h3>Ahmadinejad shunned the security measures followed by many other leaders on visits to Baghdad, riding from Baghdad's airport in a civilian-style sedan -- and not an armored military vehicle or helicopter -- to central Baghdad.

His official welcome and meeting with Talabani was at the presidential house outside of the heavily-fortified International Zone where most high-level events in Baghdad are held.</h3>

Ahmadinejad said a unified and powerful Iraq is in the best interest of Iran and all its neighbors.

"Iraqi people are passing through a critical situation but as we know, the Iraqi people will overcome the situation and the Iraq of tomorrow will be a powerful, developed and unique Iraq," he said.

Ahmadinejad was warmly welcomed in Baghdad. An Iraqi military band played the Iranian and Iraqi national anthems as Ahmadinejad and Talabani stood side-by-side at the end of a long red carpet outside the presidential house. Ahmadinejad then walked down the carpet where he was greeted by two Iraqi children with flowers and a long line of Iraqi officials.

Ahead of his trip, Ahmadinejad said it would "contribute to regional peace and security" and stressed that the people of Iran and Iraq share close bonds.

"My visit to Iraq is to the benefit of all countries, because if there's peace, if we establish peace and put an end to (U.S.) occupation, that will be to the benefit of all countries," the Iranian leader told Tehran-based Press TV before his departure.

Although Iraq invaded Iran in September 1980 after a territorial dispute, and the two countries fought an eight-year war, Ahmadinejad said the nations share a common history.

"The people of Iran and Iraq have close bonds, and there are many holy shrines in Iraq," he said. "People travel there, so we have age-old, historical bonds and common civilization."

He noted that Iraq has a new government, and is an "independent state."

"We should help them," he added.....

<h3>In the top quote box, I show that Joe Lieberman confirmed that he advised McCain that the US and Iran are sharing a common adversary in Iraq, Sunni factions and al-qaeda.</h3>

Compare the accounts above of the visit to Iraq by the Iranian president, announced publicly at least a week before his arrival in Iraq. He traveled by unarmored sedan from Baghdad airport, he spent a small amount of time inside the Green Zone, and despite Sunni protests of his visit to Iraq, in other citiies, he slept outside the Green Zone as well.....with the back to back "surprise arrivals to Iraq by McCain and Cheney, "for security reasons", and the heavy security surrounding them, as they spent almost all of their visits inside the Green Zone:

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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/...n3941689.shtml
McCain Makes Unannounced Trip To Iraq

BAGHDAD, March 16, 2008
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(CBS/AP) Sen. John McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, arrived in Baghdad on Sunday for a visit with Iraqi and U.S. diplomatic and military officials.

The trip by McCain, who has linked his political future to U.S. military success in the nearly five-year-old war, coincided with the 20th anniversary of a horrific chemical weapons attack in northern Iraq.

McCain met with Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh and planned to meet with Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, according to the U.S. Embassy. Further details of McCain's visit, which had been anticipated, were not being released for security reasons, the embassy said.....

...McCain was combative toward reporters' questions in the heavily guarded Green Zone, and responded testily to a question about his comment that it was safe to walk some Baghdad streets. He later acknowledged traveling with armed U.S. military escorts.

Violence has dropped throughout the capital since, with an influx of some 30,000 additional U.S. soldiers sent to Iraq last year. The U.S. military has said attacks have fallen by about 60 percent since last February....

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...aq-797144.html

Independent.co.uk
McCain upbeat about war on visit to Iraq
By Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad
Tuesday, 18 March 2008

Helicopter gunships circled overhead and checkpoints choked traffic in the streets, but the US Vice-President, Dick Cheney, and the Republican presidential nominee, John McCain, were in Baghdad yesterday to give upbeat accounts of improving security.

Mr Cheney said he sensed "phenomenal changes" and "dramatic" security gains since he last visited 10 months ago. "I am happy to say," said Mr McCain, "Americans are more and more understanding of the success of this strategy of the surge".

Contrary to these optimistic forecasts, a female suicide bomber blew herself up in the Shia holy city of Kerbala yesterday, killing at least 40 people.

With their heavy security and meetings with Iraqis mostly confined to the Green Zone, it would scarcely have been evident to either American politician that the Iraqi capital is divided into hostile townships of Sunni and Shia. The top US commander General David Petraeus complained last week that security gains had not been matched "by sufficient progress by any means in the area of national reconciliation".

This is scarcely surprising. Paradoxically, it was largely because Sunni and Shia Iraqis had come to hate each other more than they did the Americans that the Sunni insurgents switched sides at the end of 2007. They formed al-Sahwa (the Awakening Councils) and allied themselves with their former American enemies.

They did so because of hostility to al-Qa'ida, but above all because the minority Sunni community was being overwhelmed by the Shia. The formation of the 80,000-strong al-Sahwa militia is the most important reason for the optimism of Mr Cheney and Mr McCain. Armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, the brown-uniformed militiamen belonging to the movement search cars at the entrance and exit points to Sunni areas.

Mr McCain said yesterday that "al-Qa'ida are on the run, but they are not defeated". But in parts of Baghdad al-Sahwa is often al-Qa'ida in Iraq in a new guise rather than a reaction against it.

"Al-Qa'ida think they can become an official militia through al-Sahwa," said Ibrahim Mohammed Abdullah, 35, an al-Sahwa militiaman in the al-Khadra district that was formerly an al-Qa'ida stronghold. "They can gather information on the police commandos and tip off anybody who is going to be arrested."

Other al-Sahwa members confirm this. Saleh Jabar Mohsin, 21, a former student, explained the recent wave of assassinations of al-Sahwa members. "We know," he said, "that anybody from al-Sahwa who has been killed, was shot because he really was working against al-Qa'ida or other Islamic groups. A second reason might be that he had refused to play a dual role [working for both the Americans and al-Qa'ida].".....

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http://www.breitbart.com/article.php...show_article=1
Cheney makes surprise visit to Iraq

Mar 17 04:25 AM US/Eastern

US Vice President Dick Cheney swept into Baghdad on an unannounced visit Monday, looking to highlight security gains and promote elusive political progress days before the war enters its sixth year.
Minutes after he arrived, an explosion rocked central Baghdad, following a roadside bombing that killed a policeman, underscoring the violence that still grips the nation almost five years after the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Cheney met the top US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and the US ambassador Ryan Crocker, and was to hold talks with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and other senior Iraqi political figures.

The unheralded visit, shrouded in secrecy and blanketed with security, came as Cheney opened a nine-day visit to the Middle East and beyond, with scheduled stops in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the West Bank, and Turkey.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/30645.html

....Cheney spent Monday in a tightly choreographed hopscotch, moving at least six times for high-level meetings. In the fortress-like Green Zone compound, which houses the U.S. and Iraqi headquarters, he met Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki; Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq; and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker.

Maliki said his talks with Cheney focused on negotiations for a long-term U.S.-Iraqi security agreement that would replace the United Nations mandate for foreign troops, which expires at the end of the year.

Traveling under military guard along roads that had been swept for bombs and were lined with security forces, Cheney ventured a mile or so outside the Green Zone to call on Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Abdelaziz al Hakim, the head of the powerful Iranian-backed Shiite party known as the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.....

Do they think we are stupid? Neither Cheney nor McCain has an Iraq or Iran, or a middle east policy that is "reality based". <h3>By the description of his state visit to Iraq, the Iranian president demonstrated that his country is the winner in the Iraq war. He pre-announced his visit, and conducted himself in Iraq without fear. Cheney and McCain arrived in Iraq like thieves in the night, continuing to hide behind heavy military escort, or inside a fortress, during their entire visits, even as they praised and took credit for the improving security conditions.</h3>

As Glenn Greenwald wrote about McCain's speech:

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.....Just as one would expect, given their identical worldviews, Bush and McCain burdened with exactly the same absurd contradictions. Hence: the key to our security is to undermine Muslims' resentment towards the U.S., which we'll accomplish by occupying Iraq indefinitely and threatening Iran. "Victory" in Iraq means a government supported by the majority of Iraqis and yet which somehow is simultaneously a "key U.S. ally in the war on terror" and a friend of Israel.....

......We should continue to interfere in Middle East countries (thus ensuring increased anti-Americanism) and simultaneously spread democracy (thus ensuring the election of anti-American political leaders). We must rein in government spending while pursuing hegemonic policies that we can't remotely afford to pay for, etc. etc.....

Isn't this an apt description of the Bush/Cheney/McCain disconnect?