Republican Civil War? McCain scathes the Bush administration

I was kind of relieved to hear McCain criticize the Bush administration. At least he speaks his mind when it's necessary and doesn't toe the party line always.

Anyhow, McCain criticized Rumsfield and Bush.

You can read the article here:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-11-05-mccain-usat_x.htm

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McCain: Force levels in Iraq inadequate
By Barbara Slavin, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain sharply criticized the Bush administration's conduct of the Iraq war Wednesday, saying the United States should send at least 15,000 more troops or risk "the most serious American defeat on the global stage since Vietnam."

"Victory can be our only exit strategy," said McCain, one of the strongest supporters of the war.

McCain also challenged Defense Secretary Donald Rumfeld's assertion that the 132,000 American troops in Iraq can defeat the insurgency in the country. "The simple truth is that we do not have sufficient forces in Iraq to meet our military objectives."

Meanwhile, Defense Department officials announced a plan for rotating U.S. troops in Iraq next year that includes a return of the Marine Corps and a net reduction in the total American force.

for a "Draft McCain" campaign. We need a primary opponent for Dubya to get him to spend some of that money, and so that America hears another Repub saying some of what we'll be saying in the general election.

McCain for Zell Miller?


(just kidding really)

Did anyone READ his criticism?

McCain is saying we have to increase US military involvement, he's focusing totally on MORE violence and force, he's defining victory in the same narrow terms used by Rumsfeld et al

WHile this is a split in the GOP perhaps, it is a split based on positions that are extreme and that no sane Democrat would endorse!

US needs to get out of Iraq pronto, turn it over to others.

The US has NO business running that country, and continued US presence will ensure that the place turns into a further disaster!

McCain simply knows what we need to do to get to a point where we can turn Iraq over to the UN/Iraq. Atleast he has a clue about an exit strategy.

doesn't sound like he's talking about getting the the point where we can turn Iraq over to the UN/Iraq...

Sounds like those hawks who saw the only way out of Vietnam to be total military victory, which of course would have meant the parking lot scenario.

Sorry, McCain may be gutsy and independent and has more integrity than other repubs, but on this issue he is blinded by the inability to see that success cannot come from purely military victory, and by his inability to see Iraq as a society made up of human beings like you and me.

We need to get out now, the last thing we need to do is to escalate in the way McCain wants us to. That's the surest way to provoke even fiercer resistance, the surest way to fill the ranks of the resistance.

McCain is a conservative republican. Unlike most ConReps these days, he seems to be honest and have integrity. But his stand on the issues themselves are not anything that Democrats should find attractive. If you want a "military hero" as a candidate, at least go for someone like Clark.

One of the best arguments to reach Republicans in order to get us back on track is not that President Bush is evil or that Conservatism is a foolish philosophy--it is that President Bush is incompetent. He's a dunderhead, and we don't need a dunderhead in the oval office.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

they would have supported McCain. Instead they attacked him relentlessly. They had Bush selected a long time ago because they know he is not his own person, has no vision or concern for the country and its citizens, is only concerned with energy companies and acquisition of power and wealth for himself and his contributors and will go along willingly with their hairbrained neo-conjob ideas.

?

My money says he is still voting with shrubmeister on everything that come before the Senate, so his words are hot air. He's like the blowdryer in the restroom at the theater. That's McCain, Hagel, Lugar.

Just hot air blow dryers in the restroom.

He's been putting on a despicable act all year. In that 87 billion, he was one of the senators who voted against appropriating a certain amount of cash to get Reserves updated with equipment over there. Some of them us Vietnam era nightvision, have no flack jackets etc. There are even Reserve units that have to use flack jackets around their vehicles because they aren't armored. It's garbage. McCain talks big, but he did his share in getting Rummy a good sized slush fund to bungle away.