Election News and Features
Phil McCarten/AP
John McCain
John McCain
McCain’s ‘Surge’ Comments Put Him on the Defensive
by
Josh Katz
Sen. John McCain defended his words about the timetable of the Iraq troop surge on Wednesday, as critics emphasized his increasing number of similar mistakes.
30-Second Summary
Katie Couric of CBS spoke with McCain and Ill. Sen. Barack Obama July 23 about their stances on the state of the Iraq war. In the interview, McCain criticized Obama’s statement that the improved situation in Iraq is due in large part to Shiite offensives against militants and the Sunni Awakening, when Sunni Iraqis became actively engaged in combating insurgents.
McCain said that the troop surge, which he supported, brought about the Sunni Awakening. CBS, however, had deleted that portion of the interview, and only when the media obtained a transcript of the interview did the controversy begin.
Democrats jumped on McCain’s statements, pointing to a briefing from Col. MacFarland in Iraq from September 2006—months before the January 2007 troop surge—indicating that an awakening had commenced.
McCain opponents have also called McCain’s surge statement just the most recent in a number of gaffes: on several occasions, McCain has called the Czech Republic the no-longer-existent “Czechoslovakia,” and on his trip abroad he mixed up Sunni and Shiite, for example.
Then on July 24, McCain defended his remarks saying, “A surge is really a counterinsurgency made up of a number of components. … I’m not sure people understand that ‘surge’ is part of a counterinsurgency.”
Many analysts, including the National Security Network’s Shawn Brimley, contend that “the surge” can mean only the 2007 deployments. Brimley called McCain’s comments a “misguided attempt to score political points.”
But in The Wall Street Journal, Karl Rove writes that Democrats are missing the bigger picture, which is that Obama won’t admit that the 2007 surge has been successful.
McCain said that the troop surge, which he supported, brought about the Sunni Awakening. CBS, however, had deleted that portion of the interview, and only when the media obtained a transcript of the interview did the controversy begin.
Democrats jumped on McCain’s statements, pointing to a briefing from Col. MacFarland in Iraq from September 2006—months before the January 2007 troop surge—indicating that an awakening had commenced.
McCain opponents have also called McCain’s surge statement just the most recent in a number of gaffes: on several occasions, McCain has called the Czech Republic the no-longer-existent “Czechoslovakia,” and on his trip abroad he mixed up Sunni and Shiite, for example.
Then on July 24, McCain defended his remarks saying, “A surge is really a counterinsurgency made up of a number of components. … I’m not sure people understand that ‘surge’ is part of a counterinsurgency.”
Many analysts, including the National Security Network’s Shawn Brimley, contend that “the surge” can mean only the 2007 deployments. Brimley called McCain’s comments a “misguided attempt to score political points.”
But in The Wall Street Journal, Karl Rove writes that Democrats are missing the bigger picture, which is that Obama won’t admit that the 2007 surge has been successful.
Headline Links: McCain defends statements
While Democrats jumped on McCain’s apparent mistake about the Iraq surge, McCain’s advisors defended his words. McCain foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann said, "It would not have happened without the surge, and he has been very, very clear about that." The Washington Post provides the video clip of Katie Couric’s infamous interview with McCain.
Source: The Washington Post
On Wednesday, Sen. McCain fired back against those who criticized his statement on the surge, and according to the Associated Press, “It's all a matter of semantics, he suggested.” McCain responded by saying, "A surge is really a counterinsurgency made up of a number of components. ... I'm not sure people understand that `surge' is part of a counterinsurgency."
Source: Associated Press
Video: Keith Olbermann on McCain’s timeline
Keith Olbermann was one of the first to reveal the curious timeline Sen. McCain mentioned in the interview with CBS.
Source: MSNBC
Opinion & Analysis: McCain’s controversial words
Attacking McCain’s statements
In a column from Canada’s National Post entitled “McCain: Dumb and dumber?” Diane Francis asserts that McCain’s recent foreign policy gaffes raise serious questions about whether he is mental fit to hold the presidency. “The last time a slacker like this one got into the White House, we ended up with a war in Iraq that was totally unnecessary.”
Source: National Post
In the Democracy Arsenal blog, from the National Security Network, Shawn Brimley disputes McCain’s argument that by “surge” he was referring to “counterinsurgency.” According to Brimley, “The word ‘surge’ has always been used as shorthand referring to President Bush’s decision to deploy about 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Iraq in early 2007, the first of which did not arrive in Iraq until later in the spring.”
Source: Democracy Arsenal
In The Washington Independent blog, Spencer Ackerman asserts, “For McCain to say that the Anbar Awakening is the product of the surge is either a lie or professional malpractice for a presidential candidate who is staking his election on his allegedly superior Iraq judgment.”
Source: The Washington Independent
In defense of McCain’s words; critiques of Obama
Karl Rove, former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President Bush, argues that Sen. Obama is too “stubborn” to admit the success of the surge in Iraq. He goes on to defend McCain by saying, “Americans have seen both candidates flip-flop. Mr. McCain at least has a record of being a gutsy leader willing to take unpopular stands who admits his shifts and explains the new information that caused them.”
Source: The Wall Street Journal (free subscription may be required)
USA Today writes, “Why then can’t Obama bring himself to acknowledge the surge worked better than he and other skeptics, including this page, thought it would? What does that stubbornness say about the kind of president he’d be?”
Source: USA Today
An entry in the Hot Air blog questions Obama’s policies in Iraq if he were to become president, quoting Obama’s interview with Katie Couric. According to the blog, “We have no sense from his answer what he’d do” about Iraq.
Source: Hot Air
Reference: Col. MacFarland’s briefing
Col. MacFarland’s briefing on the Anbar Awakening from Sept. 29, 2006 is available on the U.S. Department of Defense Web site. In the briefing, MacFarland says: “I think that it’s not so much the insurgent groups that are fighting al Qaeda, it’s the—well, it used to be the fence-sitters, the tribal leaders, are stepping forward and cooperating with the Iraqi security forces against al Qaeda, and it’s had a very different result.”
Source: U.S. Department of Defense
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