McCain: Obama Doing What I Would Do on Battlefields
EmailJohn McCain told me he has no quarrel with how President Obama is prosecuting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But he’s worried that the commanding general in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal, is being pressured not to produce a clean recommendation for more troops.
My exclusive interview with Senator McCain took place far away from the world’s hot spots, on the south rim of the Grand Canyon, where he’s preparing for Senate Field Hearings on the National Parks. But McCain’s mind was clearly on what he had just witnessed on his extensive Congressional Delegation tour this month to Afghanistan and Iraq.
He’s concerned that McChrystal’s strategic review (expected in the next couple of weeks) won’t include a specific request for more troops. "We need to know exactly what resources he needs," McCain said. "General McChrystal is going to make some recommendations. I’m not happy with what he’s going to do…it will be high-risk, medium risk, low risk. Whenever you do that, they always pick the medium risk. I think he ought to do what General Pertraeus did, and that’s decide exactly on the number he needs and then we debate it."
McCain said McChrystal is under "great pressures" from people in the Administration to reduce estimates for more troops. "From the President?" I asked. “No,” McCain, said, "I think it’s from people around him and others…that I think don’t want to see a significant increase in our troop presence there." In fact, he had no criticism for Obama on the war front.
STEPHANOPOULOS: "Would we be fighting these two wars any differently if you were president now?"
MCCAIN: "Not now."
Read the full interview HERE.
- George Stephanopoulos
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Who gives a **** what this loser has to say? Why does the media give him so much airtime to offer his ideas? Those ideas were debated during the election and they were overwhelmingly rejected by the people. I suggest that McCain should go home and be quiet. Plus, Obama gave him the gift of relection to the Senate by chooisng Napolitano for Homeland Security. He should be thankful.
Posted by: Mike | August 23, 2009, 9:55 am 9:55 am
Who gives a **** what this loser has to say? Mike >>>>> Yeah Obama said we would be OUT of all this by now. AND the protests against the war are still being covered by the main stream media. Hmmm….
I see the anti war protesters out there every. Wait a minute.
Posted by: ChicagoBob | August 23, 2009, 10:04 am 10:04 am
? I thought he said he would stay in Iraq for 100 years. Why the change in philosophy?
Posted by: mallory | August 23, 2009, 10:55 am 10:55 am
I AM MAKING A COMMENT ON HEALTH CARE. IT SEEMS EVERY DISCUSION ON HEALTH CARE U HAVE A PANEL OF WEALTHY PEOPLE WHO HAVE NEVER HAD TO BUY THEIR HEALTH CARE. TELLING ALL OF US WHAT IT SHOULD BE. YOU ALL HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT IS LIKE.HOW ABOUT HAVE PANELS OF REGULAR PEOPLE . ONES WHO STRUGGLE FOR HEALTH CARE OR HAVE NONE AT ALL!!!!!
Posted by: gloria | August 23, 2009, 12:05 pm 12:05 pm
Now here’s a reason to reconsider the current approach to the middle east, if McCain agrees with what is happening, then it must be wrong.
Posted by: JR | August 23, 2009, 12:16 pm 12:16 pm
He should be thankful. Mike >>>> Yeah because Obama kept his promise of getting the troops out the first year in office. OH.. Wait. The media has sure been putting the war on the front page.. Oh Wait.. And the anti war protesters are getting more and more coverage.. Oh Wait.. The largest anti war protesters have been held because Obama isnt withdrawing.. Oh wait.. OBAMA? This is now a war of necessity? Obama the Hawk? ROFL you Obama nuts will forget everything he promised because he gives a good speech.
Posted by: ChicagoBob | August 23, 2009, 12:35 pm 12:35 pm
Who cares what Senator McCain says? I do, because he knows a heck of a lot more about the military and fighting than Obama and Biden put together ever will.
As for him being a loser, did you care what the losers in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections thought? I bet you did.
Posted by: Mike | August 23, 2009, 1:05 pm 1:05 pm
ChicagoBob wrote: “Obama said we would be OUT of all this by now.”
Boy did you get that backwards!!! See how your memory gets poisoned when you listen to those who – successfully – try to brainwash you by claiming Democrats are all anti-war? Maybe you’re too young to remember when people would vote for the GOP because, as they bragged then, they kept us out of wars!
Obama said from the beginning that our real war was against the Taliban and al Qaeda and called for expanding the fight against them.
Obama was the one who advocated bombing the Taliban in Pakistan when Bush was calling that “naive thinking” – then turned around and started doing it two months later.
Posted by: The_Mick | August 23, 2009, 1:41 pm 1:41 pm
Remember, with Obama, it’s what he really means..as opposed to what the teleprompter says.
Posted by: Charlie C | August 23, 2009, 1:43 pm 1:43 pm
How many Democrats voted for Obama because he was planning to “expand the fight”??? Don’t remember that one.
Posted by: Charlie C | August 23, 2009, 1:45 pm 1:45 pm
Trying to align yourself with credible people, John? Cannot quite scrape Palin off your shoe, can you?
Posted by: What Ev | August 23, 2009, 2:02 pm 2:02 pm
I use to respect McCain as an honest man. I was very ashamed of that when he tried to connect a panel of physician advisors to Palin’s “Death Panel” statement. That was such a blatant lie, it made me ill.
As if every private owned insurance company doesn’t have a “panel of experts” telling them what should and shouldn’t be covered. It’s the same thing.
I wish the health care debate was about what’s best for the people instead of which party can come out looking the best.
Posted by: Grace Howe | August 23, 2009, 2:13 pm 2:13 pm
How about a panel of RESPECTED experts/professionals to define the problems and propose solutions? Is this too much common sense?
Posted by: deanbob | August 23, 2009, 2:47 pm 2:47 pm
Why should the people that are happy with what they have with their private insurance now be forced into a national health care system? Why is Waxman trying to mess that up by intimidating the health insurance companies with these forms he sent out to fill out & have back in by 9/4. Waxman is nothing more then a little bully that when he gets a little bit of power he lets it go to his head & abuses it.That in itself is a dead give a way that this national health care they are trying to ram down our throat is going to dictate to us what we can & can’t do when it comes to our own decisions on our health. Have none of you never listen to the people that live in Canada & in Britian that have suffered through socialized medicine. One doctor was on TV last week, he was from Canada & he said they had a million people with cancer waiting to see a doctor & approx. a million waiting to have surgery. I think Britian has started not treating people with cancer at all. They said they can’t afford it. So for those of you that believe national health care is such a good idea go move over there where they already have it. I rather trust my insurance company who has taking care of me with all the problems I have & believe you me they are serious problems. If I was under a national health care I would be one of the ones that Obama said on TV that would be better off sending home with pain pills rather then trying to treat.
I get my treatments thanks to my health insurance without any hassels. I make my payments every month & meet my deductible & after that my PPO covers everything 100% for the rest of the year. So the government can keep their hands off of me & off of my insurance company. Somebody needs to stop Waxman with his unfair attack on insurance companies. I honestly do not think Obama knows what is in his health care plan. He let his czar Ezekiel Emmanuel write the bill & this guy does not have a good reputation. George, why don’t you interview some of these people from Canada & Britian?Are you afraid of helping save the American people & the freedoms we have but which are under attack by a bunch of socialist?
Posted by: wgep | August 23, 2009, 6:21 pm 6:21 pm
Easy health care bill. Let people shop for their insurance across state lines. This will give more competition out there for them. At the end of the year give families with health insurance a 5000 deduction off their taxes & the people that do not want health care just do not have to be forced to get it. That will make everybody happy & the only thing government should do is make sure no more money is taking out of the Medicare account for other things & they can take the rest of the 787B that is left & put that back in the Medicare Account & that will help tremendously to get Medicare back on the right track. That is what happened to Medicare to begin with. The money was suppose to never have been touched to begin with but somebody broke that rule & the government started borrowing from it & now its time to put it back.
By the way have you heard about the pamplet Your Life Your Choices being given to our VA’s. It is something the government came up with & sounds like it is trying to tell them that maybe their lives are not worth living.
Posted by: wgep | August 23, 2009, 6:38 pm 6:38 pm
You are one of the best political analysis. You are very fare, honest person. I wish we had more like you.
Posted by: Javad Saffarzadeh | August 23, 2009, 7:48 pm 7:48 pm
Senator McCain, is disingenuous!! One the one hand he’ll say he supports the President on his procecution of Iraq and Afghanistan and on the other he’ll condemn him for closing “Guantonomo Bay”…..this after making Abu Ghraib a central theme of his Presidential campaign. and him being a Vietnam POW!!
Come on Senator do something right! Get behind our President, President Obama, on one or the other “healthcare reform or closing Guantonom Bay” either that or resign your seat!!
Enough of the “doublespeak”!!
Posted by: Rich | August 23, 2009, 10:03 pm 10:03 pm
I hear the the two are clubing!
Posted by: Magbish | August 23, 2009, 10:28 pm 10:28 pm
NOT GEORGE! He stay home with the children…
Posted by: Magbish | August 23, 2009, 10:29 pm 10:29 pm
LET’S BE REAL. MCCAIN WOULD EITHER CRASH OR GET CAPTURED AND HALF TORTURED. THAT’S ALL HE’S EVER DONE IN ANY WAR.
OTHER THANN THAT, MCCAIN WOULD MARRY A BEER HEIRESS WITH HEAVY FAMILY MOB CONNECTIONS AND GET HIMSELF ELECTED AFTER DUMPING HIS DYING WIFE, THEN PICK A BIMBO AS A RUNNING MATE.
AMERICAN HERO, SCHMERO, ZERO
MCCAIN.
LMAO.
Posted by: CHUCK | August 23, 2009, 11:26 pm 11:26 pm
Uh-oh. McCain/Obama in total sync. Tells you we’re losin’ in Afghanistan big time.
Posted by: Pavel | August 24, 2009, 8:46 am 8:46 am
ChicagoBob:”Yeah Obama said we would be OUT of all this by now. ”
Citation please. Since INCREASING the war effort in Afghanistan was a key plank in Obama’s campaign, DOCUMENTED REALITY indicates you are lying. The biblical term would be bearing false witness, since you are accusing Obama of saying something he never did. The modern legal term would be slander, the same thing.
Posted by: jhw539 | August 24, 2009, 10:45 am 10:45 am
As an independent, I am happy that the Senator agrees with where we are right now. I wish he would be more involved with other projects in the administration and be constructive with his opinions. We could all learn by listening across the aisle. Our own crowd tends to get too loud and too biased at times. It’s like a breath of fresh air to hear another take on things.
Posted by: afbrat59 | August 24, 2009, 12:12 pm 12:12 pm
Time for Obama to relook at things if McCain is saying he’d do things the same way.
Posted by: sayeretmatkal | August 24, 2009, 2:17 pm 2:17 pm
The Health care program, where the Clinton fails some years ago, is a real challenge. But to succeed, money should stay home, not in wars. Afghanistan and war on terror, should be resolved on a political basis, engaging free nations and others, politically, militarily, and financially. So, multilateralism is the key. I’m not disappointed by Senator McCain’ interview. He would have done the same, because time came for change. But Sharks are all around, and if politics fail, they would take the lead again. Obama as a second term president is possible, for international and “local” reasons, but this is just the way it is, globalization in a world wide environment. Wagging fingers at the voting public ( asking for health and wealth, not to blame – see comments ), and acting to build a safer world. An extremely tight and close game, that is. mohammed suerte bennani surgeon author casablanca
Posted by: mohammed suerte bennani | August 24, 2009, 2:27 pm 2:27 pm
So their both wrong.
Posted by: john in anchorage | August 24, 2009, 3:59 pm 3:59 pm
Thats why you lost the election! You know dam* well Senator, that Afghanastan needs a more robust effort, you practically are saying it yourself.
People of AZ please find a new Republican to put in the Senate, this guy so badly wants to be a Senate Minority leader its pathetic.
Posted by: Larry W | August 24, 2009, 4:50 pm 4:50 pm
McCain..here’z a guy who couldn’t fly a plane righ..fell out and now thinks he’s a hero..
baby..there are a lot of better fighting soldiers or pilots than UUUUU
Posted by: WallyJ | August 24, 2009, 8:58 pm 8:58 pm
McCain – “He’s doing what I would have done”_______Yeah he probably is John, but if you were invading pakistani borders and executing car loads of people believed to be (from the sky) Al Qaeda members; then Obama and the people in his administration, and the democrats in congress, would be calling you a war criminal. After all, EVERYONE is entitled to the same legal and human rights as Americans. If you were president McCain, the women and children around these Al Qaeda members would matter. Since it’s King Barry ordering the violation of pakistani airspace, and systematic executions of a car load at a time; THEN IT’S OK!!! Our President is going after Al Qaeda, from the sky, with remote control drones, so it doesn’t matter how many poor simple villagers get the whole inside of their vehicle heated up to 2500 degrees, because he would NEVER slap one of them around to get some information.
Posted by: Ozarkess | August 24, 2009, 9:54 pm 9:54 pm
WallyJ – “McCain..here’z a guy who couldn’t fly a plane righ..fell out and now thinks he’s a hero..baby..there are a lot of better fighting soldiers or pilots than UUUUU”________The soviet technology north Vietnam could shoot down American aircraft quite effectively. The research/development that this ‘trial by fire’ caused is why our aircraft defenses are so advanced today. John is a hero. John’s military career doesn’t qualify him to be president, (he was weak because of his congressional career) but he should be respected when the topic is war.
Posted by: Ozarkess | August 24, 2009, 10:12 pm 10:12 pm
McCain never stepped on or saw a ‘battlefield’ in his life. He was a pilot that was shot down; this hardly makes him an expert in battle strategy. I am a Vietnam war veteran and until this very moment had a shred of respect for McCain. That shred has now been lost to shameful and inaccurate political pandering. When a Commander-in-Chief announces to those that serve in the military that since said military service is strictly ‘volunteer’; they should have no problem paying for their own health care. Obama keeps whining about the public being mislead on health care reform; he is bending the truth of the matter of disinformation to his own advantage. Who’s zooming whom? It does not take a rocket scientist to answer that question.
Posted by: Banderman | August 25, 2009, 7:49 am 7:49 am
Mike at the top of the comments should understand that many people would like to hear what Senator McCain has to say. Not all Americans agree with Obama’s point of view.
Posted by: Carlos | September 8, 2009, 10:42 pm 10:42 pm