Posted on 11/10/2005 2:36:58 PM PST by jmc1969
Senator John McCain on Thursday called for an immediate increase of 10,000 troops in Iraq, and said the “stakes are higher than they were in Vietnam” for US foreign policy.
Conceding that there was an “undeniable sense that things are slipping” in Iraq, Mr McCain said “we need a renewed effort to win the home front. Without it we will lose this war as soundly as if we had lost on the battlefield...We must get Iraq right, as American stakes in the conflict are enormous”.
Senator John Kerry has laid out an alternative strategy that would enable the US to bring home 20,000 troops.
But Mr McCain called that plan “a major step on the road to disaster. If we leave now the most likely result would be full-scale civil war. No American leader would want our nation to suffer that moral stain. Instability in Iraq would invite further Syrian and Iranian influence.”
Instead, he called for a military counter-insurgency strategy to create permanent safe areas in the country, rather than focus on short-term seasonal offences across different parts of the country. “Sweeping and leaving is not working. We need to clear and stay.”
The rival policies come amid a stream of visits from Iraqi officials in the run-up to elections on December 15. Adil Abdul Mahdi, the deputy president, on Thursday met administration officials who see him as a contender for prime minister.
A leading figure in the ruling Shia alliance, Abdul Mahdi said the alliance sought consensus politics and would not impose an Islamist vision on Iraq. Sale of alcohol would not be banned, for example, he said. He stressed that the new constitution was a “marriage” of Islamic and secular and democratic ideas.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.ft.com ...
How can he be so wrong?
I wish John McCain would just go away.
OK McCain where we get these 10,000 additional troops out of your A$$?
Get lost, McCain. Do you think this will make up for leaking the secret prison story?
I don't care what anybody says, I will not vote for this man if he's the Republicans nominee. I don't trust him and I don't like him.
Do you think he would be recommending this if he were Secretary of Defense?
McLame pandering to the leftist media, what a shill.
He is worst than a RINO.
Where indeed. John knows this, but it's so much easier to grandstand.
Hey bullet-head... howz'a bout attacking some Dem's for a change you POS!
that may be......but I like him alot better then any Dem alternative.....he may be a maverick media whore but still is conservative on some issues...just not enough of them
On the radio...top of the hour.....this was the lead story.
McLame also said the bad news about the war needs to quit being sugar coated......huh?
At the risk of sounding like an armchair general (I am actually a cocktail hour general) I tend to agree (about the leaving part). Instead of pulling out I think we should pull back into the green zone and wait for Iran and Syria to start flooding across their borders.
John is the Christmas fruitcake that always lands with a thud!
There is a reason why my Democrat inlaws love McCain....
Agreed.
John, let the generals run the war.
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