McCain calls for 10,000 extra troops for Iraq

Financial Times ^ | November 10 2005 | Caroline Daniel and Guy Dinmor

[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.

[daybreakcoming]

GirlyMan Kerry and LooseCannon McCain both want to be president so badly that we can look at both of these plans and thank God they are not.

[HarleyLady27]

This guy is SUCH an idiot!!!!

[publana]

What will we do if he runs against Her Thighness? Stay home and not vote? It is a conundrum. :/

[La Enchiladita]

John McCain is the Anti-Christ.

[La Enchiladita]

He's the death of the party!

[RVN Airplane Driver]

You said McCain and Kerry... it gets harder and harder to tell them apart.

You have got to be $hitting me....you can't see the difference....you need to take another look. On many issues I don't agee with McCain....but to put him in the same class with kerry.... I have had the exhillartion of being shot at and not hit...poor John....got hit and I expect you have never had the experience of either....

[Axhandle]

This was an event at the American Enterprise Institute. I went to the site and read the whole speech. It is a bunch of blah blah blah that we all know already, but that he felt the need to reiterate. Then, simply to get some media attention, he threw out the contrarian view of adding more troops to Iraq so that he can appeal to the crowd that supports our efforts in Iraq. This is nothing more than McCain and AEI establishing good relations in case he should become President - a show of good faith by AEI in giving McCain a forum to grab more attention. AEI is hoping to maintain its influence in a McCain administration and McCain is hoping for some decent press from AEI during the campaign/presidency.

[Para-Ord.45]

Why is McCain such an oddball?

Why McCain defends Kerry

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39892

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

Why doesn't the Bush administration just take the Iraq war's critics advice, and end all the criticism?

It's so simple: send over an additional 10,000 troops, then withdraw all the troops before Christmas.


(If this needs a sarcasm tag, we're all in trouble.)

[Don Corleone]

We could use those 10000 troopers here on the Arizona border!

[varon]

Instead, he called for a military counter-insurgency strategy to create permanent safe areas in the country,....

Three years, tens of billions dollars, over two thousand dead and approximately thirty thousand crippled for life, all for some fricking safe areas?

WTF is going on???

Doesn't anyone in our leadership remember what winning is?

WTF are we doing there?

[Don Corleone]

I have had the exhillartion of being shot at and not hit...poor John....got hit and I expect you have never had the experience of either....

I have had the experience of both in 2 wars and McLame is still an ass!

[dighton]

We seem to have a 30,000 troop difference of opinion here between the RINOcrat and the communist.

Odd, because McVain and Jean-François pulled their numbers from the same place.

;-)

[RobbyS]

McCain is too d--d old to be elected president.

[yldstrk]

Shut up, MaPain....

[Warriormom]

I agree with you, but I just wonder if he would make the same call if he were in charge.

[manwiththehands]

Senator John Kerry has laid out an alternative strategy that would enable the US to bring home 20,000 troops.

Could it be?! Is he finally talking? Is Senator and President wannabe John Kerry FINALLY sharing with us his "secret plan" to end the war in Iraq?! It has to work! Oh, yes it has to work!

/sarc

[PISANO]

I hate to criticize a man who is a fellow Vietnam Vet and who gave so much for his country. But it becomes more and more difficult NOT TO as time goes on.

I will continue to turn off the TV whenever he comes on and never support his agenda nor support him in his political career. That is the way I will handle my distaste for his philosophy and anti-conservative rhetoric.

[Right_in_Virginia]

Conceding that there was an “undeniable sense that things are slipping” in Iraq,

Huh? This guy needs to get his arse out of DC for a while.

[Godebert]

"I'm not throwing out my opinion like you are doing about me since you don't know me..."

I know that you would vote for a man that called the Swift Boat Veterans "Dishonest and Dishonorable".

Maybe you agree with McCain?