Posted on 08/22/2006 10:22:28 AM PDT by areafiftyone
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Republican U.S. Sen. John McCain, who has been a staunch defender of the war in Iraq, said Tuesday that the sacrifices required were underestimated and Americans were misled into believing the conflict would be "some kind of day at the beach."
McCain, who has said the U.S. military should have gone into Iraq despite questions raised later about intelligence, said Americans feel frustrated because they had no idea of the toll the war would take.
"I think one of the biggest mistakes we made was underestimating the size of the task and the sacrifices that would be required. Stuff happens, mission accomplished, last throes...," McCain said during a campaign stop on behalf of fellow Republican Sen. Mike DeWine.
"We had not told the American people how tough and difficult this could be. It has contributed enormously to the frustration that Americans feel today because they were led to believe this could be some kind of day at the beach, which many of us fully understood from the beginning would be a very, very difficult undertaking."
McCain, considered a possible 2008 presidential contender, campaigned in a state expected to be crucial again to the presidential race, having given President Bush the electoral votes he needed to win in 2004.
McCain has supported the American presence in Iraq. He said Monday in an appearance in suburban Cleveland that if American troops announce a specific date to leave Iraq, insurgents will bide their time until they have an opportunity without interference from the U.S. troops.
"The chaos that would ensue would have direct implications for our national security," McCain said.
Other Senate Republicans, such as Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, have been more vocal in their criticism of the war.
I guess Hyptonized in Hanoi slept through the President's speech on the subject?
Yeah, and McCain led us to believe he was a Republican!!
Take a break, McVain. Can't you go a day without seeing your name in the press? Just one? Please?
One beef I do have with the administration was that it was announced or implied that the oil revenues would offset the cost of the war to the Amrerican taxpayer. To this day, that has not happened.
Day at the beach? How asinine.
/ I'm astoinished - NOT
/ I'm astonished - NOT
I guess some of us aren't as easilly fooled as the weathervane. I had concerns from the beginning.
Where on earth did you hear that?
McNUT is playing to the Democrats now.
Good one and so true!
The Iraq War has been over for a very long time now.
The reconstruction is the problems with Iran & Syria the main troublemakers.
I remember arguing with liberals who thought Iraq was going to be a quickie. I tried to get it through to them that it was going to be at least a five year occupation.
Oh, I think progress so far has been phenomenal. At the rate that the Iraqi troops were coming online, I was beginning to expect that this year would see the reduction of our troops by at least half, if not better.
I was saddened by the how rapidly the situation deteriorated last year when the liberals took control of the debate and turned Katrina into an indictment of the President's foreign policy. Don't ask me how they did it. I don't know. I can only blame the problems we're experiencing in the WoT on the MSM. If not for the utterly irresponsible press coverage, the terrorists would've given up on Iraq two years ago and moved on to fighting us elsewhere.
It is the illusory hope that the media holds out to the terrorists that keeps them tied to supporting the terror operations in Iraq. Take away the foreign support for terror within Iraq, and it collapses to a problem that the Iraqi security forces could handle even now.
We were consistently told the opposite by the administration, i.e., that it would not be a cakewalk.
And they will always be troublemakers. They will never let Iraqis live in peace.
Check the polls, adjust your stand on issues. Anything for a dollar, anything for a vote.
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