McCain: Iraq troop surge must be 'significant and sustained'

[rodeodance]

http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/blogs/politicalticker/2007/01/mccain-iraq-troop-surge-must-be.html

Friday, January 05, 2007

McCain: Iraq troop surge must be 'significant and sustained'

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- On the same day the top Democrats in Congress said a troop surge in Iraq would "stretch our military to the breaking point," Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain reiterated his support of increasing U.S. forces in the war-torn country and said they must be 'significant and sustained'.

"The worst of all worlds would be a small, short surge of U.S. forces," McCain said Friday during a speech at the American Enterprise Institute. "We tried small surges in the past and they've been ineffective because our commanders lack the forces necessary to hold territory after it was cleared."

[AlCzervik]

1. MCCain-Now with extra terribleness®

[liberal renegade]

3. flip flopper

Somebody stick a fork in his ass, he's done!

[Renew Deal]

12. He is so over for 2008.

He wants to claim that no one tried his way in Iraq. That's because no one other than Bush is that crazy.

[AlCzervik]

15. Crazy+Pandering is a really bad combination.

i'm waiting for his Captain Queeg moment. Quick, someone hide the strawberries.

[mbperrin]

2. Hell, John, grab a gun and go - take Big Dick with ya!

nt

[wordpix]

23. good one

[last1standing]

4. A couple of definitions for McCain's benefit.

Main Entry: surge
1 : to rise and fall actively : TOSS <a ship surging in heavy seas>
2 : to rise and move in waves or billows : SWELL <the sea was surging>
3 : to slip around a windlass, capstan, or bitts -- used especially of a rope
4 : to rise suddenly to an excessive or abnormal value <the stock market surgeed to a record high>
5 : to move with a surge or in surges <felt the blood surging into his face -- Harry Hervey> <she surged past the other runners>
transitive verb : to let go or slacken gradually (as a rope)

Main Entry: es·ca·late
Pronunciation: 'es-k&-"lAt, ÷-ky&-
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): -lat·ed; -lat·ing
Etymology: back-formation from escalator
intransitive verb : to increase in extent, volume, number, amount, intensity, or scope

Gotta love that "Straight-Talk Express". I can only think he meant straight to Hell.

[LibDemAlways]

5. For a guy who spent time in a hell hole Vietnamese

POW camp during an unwinnable war, he sure doesn't seem to have learned anything from the experience. Escalation didn't work in Vietnam and it won't work in Iraq. McCain seriously has a screw or two loose.

And he's supposedly Presidential material? Don't think so.

[cyberpj]

7. Amazing what money and power can do, innit? It's all about his ambitions now folks... nt

[CrazyOrangeCat]

10. yeah, definitely lost his marbles.

how could he forget the hell those troops are in?

for absolutely no good reason . . .

unbelievable

[Renew Deal]

13. Now that he's a politician, they're all pawns.

No spine.

[rodeodance]

6. I read today that only 8.000 troops would be avail. for this "surge"-to-be.

[TheCowsCameHome]

14. Econ-o-surge.

[aquart]

8. So he's saying George's plan will fail as it has in the past.

We already know that, little John.

But I would be fascinated to see your list of available battalians which could be sent in the numbers you require for the time you require. Of course, what you are not saying is you need enough soldiers to kill all or most of the Iraqi people because the is the only way for the US to bring peace in that nation.

It's good that you don't mind killing millions, John. Really. It's a good thing to know about you.

[havocmom]

9. Because without a huge kill off of young adults, the unemployment situation

will no longer remain hidden to the masses and there will be riots in the streets.

These blood suckers are disgusting.

[NMDemDist2]

11. with what Army? there are no more troops, no more tanks, no more

HumVees

what the hell are they smoking?? :wtf:

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

16. He must be having flashbacks of some sort. A lethal combination of years of torture and years in the

American political theatre. MKJ

[tom22]

30. This is like watching

a car wreck just before the impact.

[whistle]

17. McCain is marching us right into war escalation just like what happened

...with Vietnam.

<snip>
Ho Chi Minh to the French, late 1940s
You can kill ten of my men for every one I kill of yours, but even at those odds, you will lose and I will win.

Richard M. Nixon, speech, April 16, 1954.
If in order to avoid further Communist expansion in Asia and particularly in Indo-China, if in order to avoid it we must take the risk by putting American boys in, I believe that the executive branch of the government has to take the politically unpopular position of facing up to it and doing it, and I personally would support such a decision.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1954
You have a row of dominoes set up; you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is that it will go over very quickly.

John F. Kennedy, speech, New York Times, October 13, 1960.
Should I become President...I will not risk American lives...by permitting any other nation to drag us into the wrong war at the wrong place at the wrong time through an unwise commitment that is unwise militarily, unnecessary to our security and unsupported by our allies.

John F. Kennedy, 1961
Now we have a problem in making our power credible, and Vietnam is the place.

Barry M. Goldwater, Why Not Victory?, 1962.
Once upon a time our traditional goal in war and can anyone doubt that we are at war? - was victory. Once upon a time we were proud of our strength, our military power. Now we seem ashamed of it. Once upon a time the rest of the world looked to us for leadership. Now they look to us for a quick handout and a fence-straddling international posture.

Gen. Curtis LeMay, May 1964
Tell the Vietnamese they've got to draw in their horns or we're going to bomb them back into the Stone Age.

Lyndon B. Johnson, statement after Gulf of Tonkin incident, August 4, 1964.
We still seek no wider war.

Lyndon Johnson, Oct. 1964
We are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.

Ronald Reagan, 1964
We are at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long climb from the swamp to the stars, and it has been said if we lose that war, and in so doing lose this way of freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its happening.

Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964
This is not a jungle war, but a struggle for freedom on every front of human activity.

Ronald Reagan, interview, Fresno Bee, October 10, 1965.
It's silly talking about how many years we will have to spend in the jungles of Vietnam when we could pave the whole country and put parking stripes on it and still be home for Christmas.
<MORE>
http://www.vietnam-war.info/quotes/

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

18. Great quote compilation. Bookmark for your post, and K & R rd's OP.

MKJ

[IndianaGreen]

19. If your erection lasts more than 4 hours, please consult a physician

McCain has been taking too much Viagra, he is having surges that are significant and sustained.

[David Zephyr]

20. Ha!

:rofl:

[Betty]

21. He must be for reinstating the draft, then

since there are no significant nubmers of troops available right now to add to the clusterfuck.

[frylock]

22. you're done, son..

good luck on that Presidential bid, gramps.

[pinto]

24. (aside) It still amazes me that the escalation agenda has so roundly been termed a surge.

I wish the media would call an escalation an escalation and leave the spin to the Administration's talking heads.

[Ian David]

25. I think he and Bush are trying to see who blinks first. n/t

[tabasco]

26. The profiteers want to keep us in Iraq as long as possible.

McCain is their tool and has sunk to the same level of scum as Dick Cheney.

[theHandpuppet]

27. McCain left his brain in Vietnam

And is trying to rewrite the story via Iraq.

[goforit]

28. It's over bucko!!!

[LynnTheDem]

29. "We tried small surges in the past" ...spelled

es kah LAY shun

[Warren Stupidity]

31. New bus for mccain campaign!

Its shorter than the old straight shooter express. It has a new name too: the straight jacket express.

McCain: certified crazy. Perhaps he should consider that other rethuglican nutball Alan Keyes as his running mate. Or perhaps Johnny can be his own running mate.

[Freddie Stubbs]

32. If it is sustained, it is not a surge, it is an increase

[Drum]

33. What is he smokin'?

Hasn't he heard about the 9000?

:eyes:

[Hekate]

34. Who is that and what has he done with John McCain? We can't recognize this guy any more. nt

[daleo]

35. Surge(significant, sustained)=escalation.

Iraq(2007)=Viet Nam(1967)

[Kenergy]

36. I guess he missed the lessons learned in Viet Nam memo n/t

[Eugene]

37. The word, Senator, is "escalation." With what army?

American Enterprise Institute? Does John McCain have any shame?
He's become a complete conservative whore.

A significant and sustained "surge" is a long-term escalation.
A small, short surge is all the U.S. military can muster.

The armed forces are stretched to the breaking point with some troops now
about to start their third combat tours in Iraq. Increasing the troops
will come from extending the tours of troops scheduled to return,
redeploying the replacement troops early, or both. This is unsustainable
in the long term.