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McCain’s Militant Mixup

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Posted on Mar 19, 2008
McCain

Presidential contender John McCain took a trip to the Middle East to showcase his foreign policy chops, so the opposition was particularly delighted that it was during such a demonstration that he committed this gaffe.

While attempting to explain Iran’s influence in neighboring Iraq, the would-be commander in chief repeatedly refers to Tehran’s support for al-Qaida. Iran is a Shiite country that has been accused of arming Shiite militants, and not the militantly Sunni al-Qaida.

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By AnAmericaninGermany, March 23 at 8:33 am #
(9 comments total)

Every day in America a little more decency dies, buried next to honesty and integrity, all in the pursuit of presidential power.  For all his talk about experience and knowledge, McCain continues to show his ineptitude right alongside his willingness to sacrifice his values simply to become president.

This grandstanding trip to the Middle East was nothing more than a political ploy to show his “presence and participation” in the debacle that is US-Middle East relations.

I can’t listen to these people anymore and I wish the American people will have the temerity to stop watching American Idol and Big Brother long enough to throw these opportunistic, grandstanding “politicians” out of Washington. 

America needs a leader with a clear vision of truth… not the one with the most well thought out sound bytes; especially when they get it wrong again and again and again.

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By cyrena, March 22 at 10:06 am #
(4164 comments total)

From Buzz Flash

Will Joe Lieberman be John McCain’s Assisted Living Caretaker and Vice-President as They Bomb Iran?

In case you’ve been so caught up in the battle royale of the Democratic primaries, Joe Lieberman has been escorting John McCain around Iraq and Israel, acting as his assisted living caretaker.
Not only has Lieberman once or twice bailed McCain out of his confusion between Sunnis and Shiites, he most recently saved McCain from his equating the Jewish Holiday of Purim with Halloween while jaunting around Israel. 

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/editorblog/069

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By Klamer, March 21 at 10:02 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

McCain; good save us

He may be yester years’ national hero. He may be a maverick. He may have compromised his soul and kissed the right wing nut jobs to become prez. But, in my book he is too senile and ingorant to become Prez. God help us all!

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By msgmi, March 20 at 6:35 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

It could be...

Here’s the next possible scenario...McCaine replaces GW....Liebermann replaces Dick...Condi stays, Rumsfeld returns along with Feith, Wolfowitz, and Bolton...Scooter makes a comeback and in his third month in office McCaine will sing his song, ‘...bomb, bomb, bomb, iran’ while an air war is launched...and the neoCON new world order gets an extra boost.

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By Trigger finger, March 20 at 4:39 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

McGoon the looser! Senile, not very smart, but still determined to lead his country into starting WWIII.  Reminds me of a German leader I once read about. That’s what I like about America though, you can be as dumb as a bush and still become president. Seems like he would be a better fit as a V.P. He looks really sleepy all the time and he is storing up food and nuts for a long rest.

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By Joe, March 20 at 10:42 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

It’s a tribute, I guess, that Truthdig allows some latitude in the postings, including those of the misbegotten 666 infant, Gomerspile. I posted a brief piece on Alternet a few years back using the word “raghead” and got thrown off the site. Problem is,
my post was a satiric parable aimed at hate-filled flag-wavers. The folks at Alternet were unable to understand it.

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By Paolo, March 20 at 4:29 am #
(286 comments total)

Bush's Amerika

Bush has demonstrated how little the American people expect from their “leaders.” After all the gigantic lies and stupidity of George W. Bush, what’s a little stupidity from McCain?

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By squasher, March 19 at 8:41 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

As a Canadian following your electoral process, one has to ask, “What the hell is going on?”
Does anyone realize these simple basic facts;
a) the electoral process is a 4 year war of attrition-it never stops it never starts. It’s like the Energizer bunny.
b) the candidates with ethics, morals, intelligence or any combination thereof have long been weeded out, ie Dennis K, Mike G, Ralph N, Ron P.
c) why does no one tackle full on with vigor and courage the most important issues facing your future--Health care, poverty and corporate and financial chicanery
d) Eliot Spitzer is disgraced and almost impeached for a minor sexual peccadillo, while Bush and Cheney keep smirking and conniving while being guilty of despicable war crimes

I’m not trying to be condescending or portray Canada as the model to follow. In fact I see us sliding into similar patterns with our Neocon cloned Prime Minister Stephen Harper. It makes my heart ache to see your once great nation being flushed down the toilet snd the vortex consuming your friends to the north.
Please get back on track!!!

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By votenic, March 19 at 7:36 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

2008 Presidential Election Weekly Poll
http://www.votenic.com

Vote Weekly!
New Weekly YouTube Video!

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By Jared, March 19 at 3:39 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Iran supports both

Actually, Iran training Al Qaeda HAS been widely reported in the news. He meant to say extremists, but his original statement was accurate too. Look at the 9-11 Commission Report, page 61 or The New York Sun 11/14/06, or USA Today 4/11/07, The Guardian 5/22/07, and on and on. Could someone please at least PRETEND they aren’t just looking for any little thing to crucify McCain over?

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By Blackspeare, March 19 at 3:29 pm #
(177 comments total)

Sunni, Shia, Sufi what the diff!  You would think that with all the confusion over the various Islamic sects someone would prepare a simple one page primer to explain the differences.  Scott Ritter tried to do it awhile back, but he got too verbose and lost in history----any takers???

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By go Hillary!, March 19 at 2:28 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Pile,

With supporters like you Hillary is sure to win.

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By dick, March 19 at 1:59 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

It was not a gaffe. He is stupid, and ignorant.

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By Eso, March 19 at 12:59 pm #
(50 comments total)

Obama is right on target with this one, and he should press his advantage. We have had an ignoramus in the White House these many years, and if McCain gets in, we will have an ignoramus spending the next 3 trillion $ that we should be spending on education. This visit to Iraq was for political show, not because of political savvy or because he knows what is going on there.

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By Billy, March 19 at 12:35 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

McCain repeats himself

He said this more than once, which makes it more than a gaffe.  it just shows that propaganda works, for the Bush administration had claimed for months that the IED devices were coming from Iran.  no one in the MSM called them on the fact that the Sunni’s were the “insurgents,” so that meant the Shiites were supplying the Sunni’s with IED’s.  Obviously, this worked on McCain, who is not know as a thinking man.
Incidentally, isn’t a gaffe when you accidentally say what you really believe?

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By cyrena, March 19 at 11:40 am #
(4164 comments total)

Hi Tony…

Just thought I’d kick-in to add to your comment here.

• “I have heard Clinton say it’s a fairy tale that Obama is anti-war.”

Now how incredible is it for Hillary of all people, to say this? SHE is the fairy tale, and she obviously has not concept of how someone can be AGAINST (or ANTI) war, and still acknowledge the reality that WAR does in fact exist! (just a cursory look at history would tell her this.)

And, if she was at all interested in making other than superficial comments (of her own) about comments taken out of context, (Obama’s opposition to war) then she would examine the circumstances in which war, or more correctly, THE USE OF FORCE, is deemed justified.

People DO make war on each other, and the history of the globe has pretty much determined that. And, when the need for SELF-DEFENSE arises, it is expected that people and/or nations might go to war. That’s why we now have so many international agreements and laws, governing first, the OCCASIONS when the use of force is legitimate, but also the LAWS that govern the CONDUCT of war as well.

Does Clinton not get those realities, and does she not understand the laws that have developed from the earlier destruction of so many other wars? That was the whole point, after the horrors of the first and second world wars; It was to hopefully prevent the use of force in the future, as the only way of resolving disputes. And, if war could NOT be avoided, or if the use of force was to be employed under legitimate purposes, then we have already agreed upon LAWS to govern that use.

Barack Obama obviously knows this, and we should expect him to, since he is a scholar and teacher of the law, and because he wants to be the president.

So, since Hillary is also a lawyer, (at least on paper) and since she wants to be the commander-in-chief herself, why the hell can’t SHE figure that out? Isn’t SHE supposed to know that the use of force is to be avoided, until there is absolutely NO other recourse?

Nope…because she LOVES war. THAT’S what she should be concentrating on telling people. Instead of claiming that Barack ‘thinks’ differently than how he says he does, (and I never can get over the arrogance of folks like that.) Example, I say I really don’t like squash, and Hillary comes along and says that I’m not REALLY ‘anti-squash’. Makes me wanna just turn her mug into squash as snacks for the puppies. Besides, I didn’t say that other folks couldn’t like squash either. I was just speaking for myself.

Anyway, Hillary should just be telling folks what SHE thinks, and not what Obama thinks. He can speak on his own behalf well enough. EXTREMELY well I might add.

So, Hillary should just let us all know how much she loves war, as long as it does what she wants it to do, which is to keep her elite class in power, and ‘protect US interests’ abroad. And, US ‘interests abroad’ are determined by that same tiny elite group of rulers that enrich themselves at our expense.

Now THAT’S what she should be explaining. She should be telling us why she loves it so much.

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By nefertiti, March 19 at 8:24 am #
(80 comments total)

what a fool.
this is a guy who wants to become a US president.  Bush once believed AL Qaeeda was shia too . (he had no clue , since he does not read newspapers he once said )

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By P. T., March 19 at 8:22 am #
(774 comments total)

McCain Is Dazed and Confused

The senior citizen is dazed and confused.

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By Tony Wicher, March 19 at 8:04 am #
(781 comments total)

Great speech on national security by Barack in

Hell, yes! Obama just gave the clearest geopolitical strategy for peace I have ever heard!  People say he is not anti-Such a contrast with McCain! The man is obviously gaga!

I have heard Clinton say it’s a fairy tale that Obama is anti-war. But Obama said it back in 2002: I don’t oppose all wars, just stupid ones”. But if 99% of all wars are stupid, that still makes you pretty anti-war, doesn’t it? In the Art of War, Sun Tzu says that the greatest general is the one who wins the war without firing a shot. The most important objective of intelligent diplomacy is to avoid war, and with such diplomacy one can achieve one’s objectives without war. This is especially true if those objectives benefit both ourselves and the people of other countries at the same time. Having friends all over the world will give us far more security than any amount of military force.

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By Expat, March 19 at 6:45 am #
(867 comments total)

OMG, we have a senile.........

^ alzheimer ridden old man spouting irrelevancies and misinformation with joe lieberman (no caps intended) and he’s running for president of the United States!  I’ll bet he’s the voters choice; why, he’s the next president.....not!!!!!!!!!  This is just sick/pathological!

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By tomack, March 19 at 6:39 am #
(58 comments total)

Shiite, Sunni, Salami, Baloney, Irish, Welsh, Scot, Dane...aren’t they all the same? It’s really not important that a presidential candidate know about these DETAILS (after all, look at the man in the oval ofice), what is important is that he was there in the desert, next to a ruin, and wearing the blue suit, white shirt, and red tie.

Details?

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By Aegrus, March 19 at 6:28 am #
(741 comments total)

This man is not being elected president of the United States of America. Anyone who thinks he will be elected is just too influenced by the MSM.

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By jackpine savage, March 19 at 3:43 am #
(703 comments total)

You would have thought that after Bush got called out for not knowing the difference between Shia and Sunni that other politicians might have boned up on the issue a little.

Never mind that Sen McCain has been abroad on taxpayer funds campaigning for president, or that he’s held fundraisers in foreign countries.  Or that, as Doug points out, he’s blabbing about what the military is going to do next.

It’s hard not to be the laughing stock of the world when the people who represent your country end up sounding like Miss South Carolina every time that they open their mouths…

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By Douglas Chalmers, March 19 at 2:44 am #
(2932 comments total)

More than one gaffe....

The significant gaffe wasn’t the absurd statement about Iran and Al Qaeda but in telling all and sundry (including the enemy) about the forthcoming “major battle” in Mosul!

Apart from that, the Jordanians must have been utterly disgusted by having all that filth spewed out on their doorstep by McCain accompanied that creep Liebermann.

And obviously Americans shouldn’t give a damn about the poor citizens of the city of Mosul.......

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By weather, March 19 at 2:26 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Israel's mouthpiece

Lieberman was affixed to McCain in Jordan yesterday.

Please free US from the arrogance and deceit that is Israel, its not a relationship, its extortion - all very carefully dressed up and packaged and all at our immense expense.

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