Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain of Arizona may not have been paying the closest of attention last week during hearings on the Bush administration's Iraq policy.Speaking Monday at the annual meeting of the Associated Press, McCain was asked whether he, if elected, would shift combat troops from Iraq to Afghanistan to intensify the search for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
"I would not do that unless Gen. [David] Petraeus said that he felt that the situation called for that," McCain said, referring to the top U.S. commander in Iraq.
Petraeus, however, made clear last week that he has nothing to do with the decision. Testifying last week before four congressional committees, including the Senate Armed Services Committee on which McCain is the ranking Republican, Petraeus said the decision about whether troops could be shifted from Iraq to Afghanistan was not his responsibility because his portfolio is limited to the multi-national force in Iraq.
Decisions about Afghanistan would be made by others, he said.
"I've been sort of focused on another task," Petraeus said when pressed about whether more troops should be diverted to Afghanistan rather than Iraq.
Now, I realize that John McCain himself admits he doesn't know a lot about economics ("I still need to be educated"), but wasn't foreign policy supposed to be his strong suit? Looks like he needs a bit of assistance in that area as well.
h/t Huffington Post
UPDATE: On another subject, John McCain is now opposing Jim Webb's GI Bill. The bill is supported by both Democratic presidential contenders and has "bipartisan support from 54 senators on Capitol Hill in addition to Webb." But not John McCain, apparently.
If the deaths and maiming of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan doesn't concern him enough to know who even runs the show - then what does he even care about?
We really need to focus on slamming him. He's probably enjoying this Obama/Clinton sideshow far too much.
So his PR people came up with this whole idea that he is only following orders from the military.
The reality is that if Petraeus tomorrow said that we should get out of Iraq, he would be fired the next day.
100 more years in Iraq...check.
The possibility of invading Iran...check.
Not knowing who commands what and where...check.
That's just the foreign policy blather that John Sidney McCain has spouted on foreign policy in the last couple of months. Just think of when he opens his mouth on the economic plight of Americans, the absolute decrepit nature of our infrastructure, and the unwillingness to pay for our needs now so we can place the burden square on the backs of our children.
JSM proposes a gas tax holiday for the whole summer...which will cost us about 10 billion. I'm not going to notice a difference between 3.12 and 3.30 gas prices. Why do this? Oh yeah, pandering to voters by offering a meaningless tax reduction while increasing pollution is a way to win elections.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, seemed to give a thumbs down to bipartisan legislation that would greatly expand educational benefits for members of the military returning from Iraq and Afghanistan under the GI Bill.McCain indicated he would offer some sort of alternative to the legislation to address concerns that expanding the GI Bill could lead more members of the military to get out of the service.
Both Democratic presidential candidates - Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., - have signed on as co-sponsors, and the bill has gained bipartisan support from 54 senators on Capitol Hill in addition to [bill sponsor, Senator Jim] Webb. A vote on the proposal is expected before the summer.