Sen. John McCain, right, got a little help from Sen. Joe Lieberman on their tour of the Middle East. When McCain said al Qaeda had been moving between Iran and Iraq with help from the Iranians, Lieberman pulled McCain aside, whispered in his ear, and McCain corrected himself: It’s “extremists” moving between the two lands. Photo of McCain and Lieberman in Israel today by David Buimovitch / AFP
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by Jill Zuckman
In vivid rough and tumble detail, today’s back and forth between Senators Barack Obama and John McCain demonstrated what a general election campaign between the two might look like.
Obama took after McCain in his speech on Iraq, using mocking tones to suggest that the Arizona senator, who is the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
“Just yesterday, we heard Sen. McCain confuse Sunni and Shia, Iran and al Qaeda,” Obama said. “Maybe that is why he voted to go to war with a country that had no al Qaeda ties. Maybe that is why he completely fails to understand that the war in Iraq has done more to embolden America’s enemies than any strategic choice that we have made in decades.”
Mark Salter, the senior adviser to McCain, delivered a scorching response, questioning Obama’s knowledge of the situation.
“Senator Obama says that ending the war will not be easy, that ‘there will be dangers involved.’ Yet, in that patented way of his, he declines to name those dangers,” Salter said, echoing a criticism of the Clinton campaign that Obama is all gloss and no substance.
“Let me enumerate a few: al Qaeda, which is now on the run, will survive, claim victory and continue to provoke sectarian tensions that, while they have been subdued by the ‘tactics’ of the surge, still exist and are ripe for provocation by al Qaeda, which would almost certainly ignite again civil war in Iraq, a civil war that could easily descend into genocide,” said Salter, who served as McCain’s longtime chief of staff in the Senate.
“To say that invading Iraq was used as a recruiting tool for al Qaeda is one thing. To pretend that our defeat there won’t provide an even bigger one is foolish supposition,” Salter continued. “Iran, which trains Shia extremists and is known to arm and equip Sunni extremists, a fact Sen. Obama is apparently unaware of, will also view our premature withdrawal as a victory, as will other countries in the region, and the biggest state supporter of terrorists, a country with nuclear ambitions and a stated desire to destroy the State of Israel, will see its influence in the Middle East grow significantly.”Salter said Obama mischaracterizes McCain’s positions on troop levels in Iraq, and misses the point of the counterinsurgency strategy. McCain is on a week-long trip to the Middle East and Europe, meeting with the heads of Iraq, Jordan, Israel, England and France.
“The reason violence is down is because General Petraeus’ counterinsurgency is, which even Senator Obama recognizes, succeeding. Those ‘tactics,’ are advancing our ‘strategy.’ Deprive General Petraeus of the resources and manpower to employ those tactics, or worse, leave Iraq altogether, and our strategy will collapse,” Salter said. “That is national security 101.”
He said McCain will bring American forces home when U.S. interests in Iraq are safe, when al Qaeda is defeated, when Iran’s influence is contained and civil war in Iraq is remote.
“That, I think, is what is called ‘making us safer,'” Salter said. “Senator Obama’s plan, if it can be charitably described as one, would do the reverse.”
Update: Obama campaign responds to McCain campaign’s response to Obama’s Iraq speech:
“We wish the McCain campaign well as they try to figure out the difference between Iran and al Qaeda. Yesterday, Senator McCain said that Iran is “taking al Qaeda into Iran, training them and sending them back,” to Iraq. This was shortly after telling talk radio host Hugh Hewitt, “As you know, there are al Qaeda operatives that are taken back into Iran, given training as leaders, and they’re moving back into Iraq.” Or does Senator McCain believe the clarification that he issued yesterday, “I’m sorry, the Iranians are training extremists, not al Qaeda.” Or does he believe the statement that he issued today: “Al Qaeda and Shia extremists — with support from external powers such as Iran — are on the run but not defeated.” Huh?
“Does this sound familiar? Back in February 2003, before the war in Iraq began, there was no operational connection between Iraq and al Qaeda. But John McCain was saying that we had to invade and occupy a country that had no ties to the terrorists who carried out the 9/11 attacks because of Iraq’s, “support for the international terrorism of Al Qaeda.” Despite all of his Washington experience, John McCain voted for, supported, and continues to support the greatest strategic blunder in American foreign policy in decades. Osama bin Laden and the core leadership of al Qaeda responsible for the 9/11 attacks are not in Iraq. They are reportedly in northwest Pakistan, which is over 1,000 miles from Iraq. So while John McCain likes to boast of his willingness to follow Osama bin Laden to the Gates of Hell, all he has done is follow George Bush into a misguided war in Iraq while Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda have regrouped, and the Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan.
“This fall, John McCain will support George Bush Foreign Policy 101: endless war in Iraq; a policy of not talking to adversaries that has not worked; and a disturbing tendency to conflate very different threats. Barack Obama will offer a clean break from the failed policies of the past. He will end the war in Iraq, finish the job in Afghanistan, and focus on the threats of the 21st century,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.