John McCain Takes Ownership Of The Surge

John McCain is getting a little surge himself these days due to the Petraeus report that says the surge is working. McCain has been an advocate of more troops for some time now. “I was the only one of the Republican candidates that spoke bitterly against Rumsfeld’s strategy, which I knew was doomed to failure,” McCain said, ” I was criticized severely by Republicans because I criticized Rumsfeld’s strategy.” Now the surge is in vogue, and McCain is gaining popularity for it. He is currently on his ‘No Surrender’ tour, which replaced the ‘Straight Talk Express,’ cruising through Iowa saying things like, “I choose to win, I choose to stay, I choose to support these men and women.” So his campaign is almost totally linked to the war in Iraq, and the war on terror. Fear drives his campaign. He told about 100 members of the American Veterans Post 2 in Des Moines, Iowa that he will get Osama bin Laden. “This is why we’re in a long war and it’s an ideological struggle. Do not under-estimate the influence of Osama bin Laden. That’s why I say we have to get him,” McCain said. Then he added, “I’m confident that I would get him.” He really doesn’t have a plan yet saying, “I will not describe what I will do in order to get bin Laden, except to say that I’ll get him.” He also has ideas for Iran, but it’s a secret. “I certainly won’t explain that to bin Laden, but I’ll get him. I won’t tell the American people how I’m going to stop the Iranians from acquiring nuclear weapons and stop them from sending weapons into Iraq that’s killing Americans, but I’ll do it,” he said. McCain will do all these things behind closed doors, so Diplomacy is certainly out. When asked why bin Laden was still running loose making videos McCain blamed weak intelligence and Bill Clinton’s failure to get him, “when they knew where he was.” McCain says his ‘No Surrender’ tour is not just about his campaign but to help Americans overcome and understand frustrations about the war in Iraq. “I believe that we should not choose to lose in Iraq,” he said. “War is an awful thing, but it’s not the worst thing. Defeat is the worst thing.” So even if the war is wrong, we should continue until we defeat something, instead of trying to fix the wrong. Even when we can’t define what winning means. If we continue on the Bush, Patraeus, McCain path we will be fighting in Iraq for decades.
Alan Cosgrove