St. McCain gets very bitchy when someone dares question the progress of his Hundred Years War:
The surge proponent ratcheted up his rhetoric today, accusing his Democratic rivals’ of having a fundamental misunderstanding of what it takes to fight a war.
“The argument is really almost insulting to one’s intelligence to say how long we’re in Iraq,” McCain said, noting that the U.S. has maintained thousands of troops in Germany, South Korea and Japan for decades.
Last Friday, five more US soldiers were killed in Iraq. 5 years after "Mission Accomplished."
Will someone from the press, please — just once — ask St. McCain how many Americans were killed in West Germany or Japan in 1950 or in South Korea in 1958?
Added St. McCain:
“Anyone who worries about how long we’re in Iraq does not understand the military and does not understand war."
I’m pretty sure calling two-thirds of the country idiots isn’t wise in a campaign year.
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“Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran”
The man is a walking insult
Zed
or not
Yeah, Americans absolutely -love- the idea of 100 years of war, John. This needs to be brought up, again and again and again. McCain can’t win adopting this sort of thinking.
McCain’s campaign motto “No Peace until 2108″
Somehow, 100 years does not seem long enough to get anyone from the Bush family to serve in a war started by and that benefits the Bush family.
Amazing that St. McBush is running as the War President, while the current War president has a 29% approval rating. He must be listening to Rove.
McCain is February’s Giuliani. By March the GOP will have settled on Huckabee.
more crazyTalk from McCain
Added St. McCain:
“Anyone who worries about how long we’re in Iraq does not understand the military and does not understand war.”
Maybe I would prefer to not have to understand war…
Forgive me but I have a proposed caption for the picture above:
Message to Crazy Train,
The war has been over for a while now , dude, it’s called an occupation, idiot.
Wow, bold prediction. Highly unlikely but I like the boldness.
Or how about
“Dang, Joe, your tongue is cold!”
And any reporter who doesn’t follow up to obvious bullshit like McCain’s is very easily intimidated, incompetent or a Republican.
blue texan – THANK YOU for stating the obvious re – how may soldiers were killed in germany and s korea!! the MSM never asks st john any thing serious… just repeat his mantra – the straight-talk express – uh huhhhhhh
“Anyone who worries about how long we’re in Iraq does not understand the military and does not understand war.”
Well, I guess now we can look forward to these quotes:
“Anyone who worries about health care does not understand hospitals and does not understand disease.”
“Anyone who worries about the economy does not understand taxes and does not understand corporations.”
“Anyone who worries about immigration does not understand Mexico and does not understand Mexicans.”
Oh please, bring this asshat on…
This has its echo in a vile David Brooks column today, the same unabashed hostility towards democracy.
On any Democrat’s effort to end the war:
“There would be private but powerful opposition from Arab leaders, who would fear a return to 2006 chaos. There would be irate opposition from important sections of the military, who would feel that the U.S. was squandering the gains of the previous year. A Democratic president with few military credentials would confront outraged and highly photogenic colonels screaming betrayal.
There would be important criticism from nonpartisan military experts….”
Screaming colonels. Nonpartisan military experts. Arab leaders (just Arab ones, mind you).
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02…..ref=slogin
“The argument is really almost insulting to one’s intelligence to say how long we’re in Iraq,” McCain said,…
Is it even possible to insult the “intelligence” of a pro-war Republican?
I almost can’t read McBobo any longer. Every column is the same thing. The Democrats are in trouble! The Democrats are in trouble!
gah, what an asshat!
Getting the political establishment to accept that they were wrong on something this big is going to require an overwhelming Democratic victory by an opponent of that war. It will take someone with the balls to point out again and again to the American people what this village fantasy is costing them in lives and money. They are beginning to understand the lives, and when they understand that the war picked their pockets, they will be livid and unforgiving.
I hope St.McCain keeps up the war talk, let him be Bush III, help him
beat himself.
And I don’t know who took my screen name “malcontent”, but whoever it is can blowme.
And I don’t think that 1000 US soldiers/year were killed in those places 5 years after we “occupied” those countries and defeated their military forces. We didn’t have to increase force levels by 25% to quell uprisings. And I don’t recall that we were still attempting to establish a government split by three warring factions that threatened to rend Japan or W.Germany into smaller statelets? Where regions were given up to warlords running personal militias (one of whom said that he would no longer be restrained by the US or Iraqi government to do “what needed to be done”).
I almost can’t read McBobo any longer. Every column is the same thing. The Democrats are in trouble! The Democrats are in trouble!
Well – if he’s speaking of anything other than the presidential race – he’s fucking right…
(full disclosure – I just spent a good part of the morning watching CSPAN2)
Reporter: Ok, John — whay are we still in Japan?
McCain: Well, that just That proves you don’t understand war.
Reporter: Why are we still in Japan?
McCain: I just answered you.
Reporter: No, you just ignored my question. Why are we still in Japan?
McCain: The reason is that you just don’t understand war. If you did you wouldn’t ask such a question.
Reporter: What…?
McCain: That’s all, thank you. Somebody else — next question?
There long ago ceased to be reporters other than those who are very easily intimidated, incompetent or a Republican.
If a Dem Prez were to exit from the illegal occupation without an oil deal in place the goops would be all over him/her for not only abandoning the crusade but of giving away “our” oil leaving us at the mercy of desperate socia*ists like Chavez. And if the bush/cheney corp could have found away to bail and keep the oil they would have before now.
Zackly.
Then they pivot and say, ‘this is a different kind of war,’ after they just compared it to the other two.
Maddening.
McCain will not make it through the campaign without melting down in
public, he is a nutter looking for a place to blow.
If a Dem Prez were to exit from the illegal occupation without an oil deal in place the goops would be all over him/her for not only abandoning the crusade but of giving away “our” oil
It’s only “our” oil to the extent that the Boosh/Big Oil companies could then assure that the flow from Iraq would be minimal, thus keeping prices up…
“Anyone who worries about how long we’re in Iraq does not understand the military and does not understand war.”
We do not need another Extremist-in-Chief. It will kill this country.
Keep in mind this is from the man who went shopping in Baghdad last year to prove to us all how safe it was there because of the surge — that all you need with you at the Mall of Baghdad is ten armored humvees, dozens of soldiers with rifles, and two Apache attack helicopters and you’ll do just fine.
I have a T-Shirt for him: Dumbfuck Extrordinaire.
70% of the American people to David Brooks: Bite me.
Way OfT – Dear Gawd, I don’t ask for much. But please, might it be possible that the MSM/teevee people lose the Pavlovian reaction to keep producing Jokeline as a “Democratic” spokesman?
Sanctimonious dismissals of trenchant policy questions are insulting.
Sanctimonious dismissals from an emotionally unstable war criminal who abandons loving loyal wives for younger wealthier trophies are revolting.
OTOH – McCain is the perfect embodiment for the greed-based cult of personality wrapped in psychotic denial of reality that comprises the GOP wing of the corporatist party.
Oh, come ON. There’s……ahem.
Why, there’s…….
Yes! In 1986 there was that….um……
Let me get back to you on that.
I cut Bobo out of my media consumption entirely after this piece which says, “Hey you poor people, you’d better elect Rick Santorum again, or you’ll be sorry!”
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/2333
It’s so devoid of fact or reason that I felt it was grounds for termination. But of course as we know around here, Bobo exists to push BigMoney approved storylines on the electorate, not to search for truth.
Begs the question why are we in Germany, Japan and South Korea, huh?
OT: If I try to post at TBogg’s place, it asks me to log in. Every time I click the log in link, it bounces me over here, where I am already logged in. Does TBogg now have a separate log in?
Enough of “leaders” who “understand” war only long enough to start one.
We deserve leaders who understand the value of peace.
(rising to applaud)
It’s completely wrong for McCain to compare Iraq to North Korea… there is no DMZ in Iraq or any place to put one. How are we supposed to separate the three sects of Iraq that are fighting with each other? It makes my head spin when he makes this analogy… enough for me to post about it… here it is if you wish to read.
Mr. Purple
I bet I’m not the only hippie-chick humming this song this am:
http://www.arlo.net/resources/…..gone.shtml
(When Will They Ever Learn?)
On the FISA cloture vote 69-29-2
Democrats voting for cloture:
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Conrad (D-ND)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lincoln (D-AR)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Webb (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Lieberman for Lieberman party voting for:
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Not Voting:
Clinton (D-NY)
Graham (R-SC)
http://www.senate.gov/legislat…..vote=00019
Oh, and we are doing a heckuva job keeping the peace in Japan: Japan PM calls Okinawa rape case “unforgivable”
Different words but essentially the same result if the Clintons are re-elected. The Clintons’ political expediency on this issue is appalling. They did not just actively support this war. THEY SUPPORTED IT AT ITS INCEPTION. AND AS STATED BY THE CLINTONS IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT GO FIND ANOTHER CANDIDATE.
When the GOP needs a chump to front the party, there’s no one more qualified than the one they release when they break the glass, John Sidney McCain III.
IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT GO FIND ANOTHER CANDIDATE.
I can do that.
There’s always Mike Gravel. And then came Bronson.
“Anyone who worries about how long we’re in Iraq does not understand the military and does not understand war.”
Two things: first, the above quote doesn’t account for, what’s the count now, seven or eight Generals who have questioned the wisdom of the war. The fact that these retired generals are giving voice to their objections is unprecedented, I think. Certainly I don’t remember anything like it in my lifetime.
Second, didn’t we try to leave Germany after the Berlin wall was taken down, based on the fact that communism was not longer considered the major threat it had been? Didn’t the Germans implore us to stay? Didn’t South Korea insist that for us to leave would put them in serious peril? Aren’t we substituting for an armed force of their own because we banned the Japanese from creating a military after WWII? Is this the same situation with Germany?
Republicans tell us that Reagan defeated the Soviet Union by forcing them into unsustainable military spending. So, exactly whom does McCain seek to defeat by applying that same strategy against the United States?
For perspective on McCain’s military wisdom:
Letter to editor:
In urging a “centrist” continuation of the status quo in Iraq David Brooks enumerates the likely opponents of any Democratic president who might try to end the war( “When Reality Bites”, Feb. 12). He lists “Arab leaders” (not Israeli ones, of course), “nonpartisan military experts”, “important sections of the military, who would feel that the U.S. was squandering the gains of the previous year”, “outraged and highly photogenic colonels screaming betrayal” and, in a nod to the public, “Republicans and many independents”. Nowhere does he mention the overwhelming majority of Americans who recognize the invasion of Iraq as a catastrophe and oppose the indefinite occupation of that country. In continuing his indefatigable advocacy of endless war, this time implicitly approving of military resistance to civilian government, David Brooks has shown outright hostility towards the principle of democracy and the welfare of the nation.
…or really want to get “a head.” Ahem…
http://www.unconfirmedsources……21-jdg.gif
IOW The war is GOOD for the military-industrialists who own the political process. Anyone who worries about how long we’re in Iraq does not understand the military [and how it’s run by military contractors] and doesn’t understand the [economic aspects of] war.”
But Ann…. that is history and who knows history or facts?
Sun Tzu is soooo pre-9/11
What the fuck is wrong with Webb and Whitehouse? They are usually to be counted among the sane.
Here’s an anecdote to refresh everyone’s memory of one of the reasons we’re in Iraq, in case David Brooks hadn’t already. Last week I went to DC’s MLK Public Library to check out Mearsheimer and Walt’s “The Israel Lobby”. They don’t own a copy. They do, however, have six copies of Abe Foxman’s no doubt rigorous and scholarly “The Deadliest Lie: the Myth of Jewish Influence.”
I fucking keep telling everyone about Webb but noooooooooooooooooooooo
Senate’s back. Feingold up.
In all history, there is no instance of a country
having benefited from prolonged warfare.
[Sun Tzu, The Art of War, 400BC]
Sun Tzu obviously never encountered GE, Halliburton, Lockheed-Martin, Blackwater, etc.
And Sun Tzu, unfortunately, never considered the idea that there might ever be a time at which the fortunes of corporations outrank the good of “the country”.
Good point!
OT but part of the same old shit.
From the BBC
and I thank you for it. we need to watch very carefully those who may not be what they seem to be.
Welcome to our world here in Arizona…. with the two crazy white guys. McCain mo’ War and Kyl I destroyed Habeas Corpus like I always wanted.
Just where exactly did McCain get all those national security creds? Just exactly has he done to have such besides the suck up media?
My question to the Repugs or the McCain Democrats…. exactly how much is mo’ War costing the USA every week?
March 19th, the 5th anniversary of the war show you understand what the war is costing.No shopping no work no school to the streets time is running out. I hear DC calling.
thank you !
OT but with the FISA fiasco today it’s appartent that the Senate is nothing more than a collegial boys and girls club. They stand for nothing except for staying in the good favor of their esteemed colleagues. They are pathetic. It’s beginning to look like the only way to restore constitutional democracy is another revolution but then revolutions arise from an outraged citizenry. Americans are no longer citizens but merely consumers. A nation of consumers care little for constitutional democracy as long as the shelves are stocked at Wal Mart.
And about the “Land of the Morning Calm” :
During the early morning hours of 2 November 1966, while US President Lyndon B. Johnson was sleeping at Walker Hill Resort near Seoul, ROK, North Koreans attacked a United Nations (UN) patrol south of the DMZ. The ambush signaled the beginning of a “Second Korean Conflict” that would last through 1969.
Newspapers around the world carried the story: “A few hours before President Johnson left Seoul for home today at the end of his Asian journey, six American soldiers and one South Korean of a United Nations Command patrol were killed by North Koreans. . . .This is undoubtedly the gravest incident in the series of clashes near the uneasy zone . . . it was believed to be the rnosl; brutal incident since I953.”(2) “. . . the Communists charged into the United States sector lobbing grenades, using submachine guns, and finally coming to grips in a brief but savage hand-to-hand combat….”(3) “. . . the Communists fired 40 to 50 bullets into the bodies of the dead Americans and mutilated and bayoneted the corpses.
. . .The patrol ambushed by the North Koreans fought back so fiercely until it was wiped out that one of its members ., . PFC [Private First Class] Ernest D. Reynolds . . . who had been in Korea only 17 days . . . will be nominated posthumously for the Congressional Medal of Honor. The only survivor of the patrol was PFC David L. Bibee . . . 17 years old. He was wounded but escaped death by playing dead. “The only reason I’m alive now is because I didn’t move when a North Korean yanked my watch off my wrist.”(4)
The communist follow-up was a rapid acceleration of military attacks, amphibious landings by commandos, sabotage and guerrilla actions that would test US resolve to honor its commitment to the security of South Korea.
During the 12 months beginning in November 1966, more than two dozen Americans were killed and scores more were wounded in combat. Artillery fire was used by ROK troops in April 1967 to repel a communist incursion in a battle that involved more than 100 men. In June of that year, a US 2d Infantry Division barracks was dynamited. September saw two South Korean trains blasted, one carrying US military supplies. In October, North Korean artillery fire sounded for the first time since 1953 when more than 50 rounds were fired at a South Korean army barracks. (5)
The action was by no means limited to the DMZ. In June 1967, four South Korean police and a civilian were killed in a battle with North Koreans near Taegu.(6) South Korean intelligence information indicated the communists were preparing an elaborate infiltration program for guerrilla warfare in the south and were hoping to enlist the masses for a full-scale subversive movement.(7)
In response to the urgency of the situation, US Army Special Forces teams, based in Okinawa, were inserted into the rugged mountain areas of South Korea and fought against the North Koreans during the summer of 1967. During the nine-month period from May 1967 through January 1968, in the US sector of the DMZ alone there were more than 300 reported hostile acts during which 15 US soldiers were killed and 65 wounded.(8)
Actually, I’ve long agreed with you on that one. The only thing he’s good for is as a buffer regarding the war. For things like civil liberties, or anything else, he’s still a Rethug!
I guess he never seemed like anything but what he is to me. But then I’m pretty cynical and I have a lonnnggggg memory.
So what religion is David Brooks?
ahhhhh raven – what you say lol
In this dark night of day I say good morning-went played guitar until 3 this morning,
Nice comment Kirk Murphy
Mad would not excatly describe my state,
these posturing pusillanimous puffed up popinjays pissing all over themselves with their self important excrementitious utterings make me want to take a pin and prick them but I am afraid of being overcome by the fetid stink that would ensue.
David Brooks (journalist)
Republican
oh cripes – I can’t wait until the nominations are over.
I blame Kodak.
When they stopped making projectors, they opened a vast rent in the national psyche.
Perhpas after the nominations are done we’ll see something useful come out of that void.
Until then, the partisans’ projection war seems likely to continue unabated – and unedifying.
Two corporatist candidates who both fund this obscene illegal war and both serve the lethal industries that give them money – as distinguishable in their ethics as the Crips and the Bloods.
And about as pathetic an excuse for blood-letting: textual, verbal, or literal.
Do I want to vote for a woman who is passively/actively complicit in ecocide and votes to keep funding our illegal immoral war in Iraq, or an African-American who is passively/actively complicit in ecocide and votes to keep funding our illegal/immoral war in Iraq?
BFD.
What a farce. The only thing that saddens me more than this complete non-choice is all the energy wasted on the pretext that either ambitious empty vessel differs meaningfully from the other in their policies.
I’d call them shiny objects, but if they’re so goddamn shiny, how come both of their deeds and actions – and their fervent mouthpieces’ mindless, ceaseless cheerleading/trash talk – just make me wanna hurl?
Of course, trashtalking about sports contests also make me wanna hurl – but at least the narcissistic gazillionares onto whom their hapless rapid fans project their own passions and hopes don’t even pretend to serve us.
What pathetic choices. What pathetic “fans”. What a pathetic discourse.
I can’t wait til the nominations for the Democratic wing of the corporatist party are over.
May the empty vessel win!
As one of them surely shall.
HA! Ain’t that the truth…
Hah!
The “only thing”? The Webb amendment was no small thing.
Sun Tzu–Guess he skipped that class at the War College.
Geez. Why don’t we just nuke Iraq and Iran right now? If we don’t do that, then clearly we should release our most lethal biological weapon onto the world (after giving the richest Americans the antidote of course) to ensure that we are the only ones allowed access to the World’s natural resources. We’ll have to leave a couple of poor people alive so that we’ll have slaves… We just can’t have savages and barbarians using perfectly good resources that the United States should be using. This is the only sure way to ensure our safety!!!
RantingRaver.com
[In case your sarcasm detectors didn’t get tripped, I’m being facetious.]
Slight variation: “No Peace Before 2108″ — he’s not too sure it won’t be 12,008. But, it will be really hard to think of a reason for staying once the oil is gone.
Good find. We just need to record what he says and play it back to people from now until November.
As I said before: how can he campaign on perserving the Bush war if the popular opinion in 2006, which has only escalated, was that we need to end this war now? The general election is going to be hard fought on this topic.
The man is extraordinarily dull. Can he possibly win this election?