CNN

Straight Talk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain#Early_life_and_military_career
Dry read but straight facts about Mr. McCain best read of the campain no suger coating virtues and vices.
Nobody compares experience X knowledge that equals wisdom.
I recently went to a wedding followed by a young groom leaving for Iraq. I explained the soldiers burden: we carry memories and scars so our family hopefully never has too. There is no guarentee of this it is only a soldiers prayer.
President Bush carry's the presidential burdens so the soldiers don't have too. He accepts the blame the dogpiles lead by media and politics and the enemy, carries the heaviest burdens of our time. Unlike Vietnam explained in depth by this encyclopedia's portray of John McCain.
Many cantidates have already been crushed by their lesser burdens in war, lack of support for what they voted for. When times got tough the weak got going, away from their convictions and principles.
McCain is proven he has already handled worse. He accepted nomination for these burdens knowing full well what they mean on the deepest level. Few others seem to have a clue.
If he's willing to lead I'm willing to follow.
John McCain has gone far beyond any living US man in patriotic in duty, honor and service. and we never have to ask no John how do you really feel?
I'de go back to war for him without doubts.

Well Ladies and Gentleman I want you to know Mr MCain did not walk around the green zone he was no were near the green zone i wont tell you were he was that is all you need to know. And secoundly there isnt a single troop out there that thinks we are failing if you are a patriot which i hope you are you will quit squabbling and start supporting Mr. Busch has done right by our country. He is a excellent leader do i agree with everything he does no i dont but you know what he is a human just like me and you so yes he can and will make mistakes. If you think for one moment Iraq is not a better place and that the middle east hates us you better just take your butts to the airport buy a ticket and come over here and talk to them they love us a small majority dislikes us and they are know as the islam extremists and did you know that they will not stop untill they make islam the only religion in the world they believe that they are the ultimate power of god and they are not they dont even follow the quaran so i say to you go ahead and elect a democrat and see what happens 911 was nothing what will come if we pull out of the middle east will shock the world for hundreds of years. So please educate yourselves before you make assumptions from no more information then what the press gives you i hope you enjoy your holidays at home with your families i will be enjoying my holidays with my troops as we fight for your freedom to sit there and say our leadership is failing you good day

McCain would be a great advisor to the president, thats it...we have tried the old man route already, they do not share the troubles of the current middle class...
HILLARY IS THE CLEAR CHOICE!!!!

Funny stuff Dave, too bad the closest you ever got to putting on the "uniform" was when you worked at McDonalds.

You can't lick McCains boots (great line).

And for you geniuses out there here are a few facts, we have foiled at LEAST 19 terrorist plots since 9-11 (google Deroy Murdock's recent "Post 9-11 security through vigilance" for a great read) so what this idiot Bush is doing is WORKING and since the surge took place the situation has improved dramatically.

How can you tell, the media stopped reporting on it.

For the record, I support Joe Bidens idea due to the FACT that these people have not done enough to secure their own freedom.

If Hillary Clinton proposed Bidens idea, you would all know about it, but since he is not the media darling... she is not in HIS league.

Did John McCain go to the Green Zone again?

It's amazing how these people go to the Green Zone and think they are in the real Iraq. Like Jon Stewart said: That's like going to the Olive Garden and thinking you went to Italy.

How can you call 100 bombing a month a success? The Iraq people have virtually no infrastructure, 2.5 million displaced. If we had 1 bombing in 6 months in the U.S. the DHS goons would have everyone stripped naked and probed hourly.
The surge was sold to give the Iraqi gov. time to organize. Has that happened?

The Keating Five.

The bottom line is that Mr. McCain is very correct, and the problem is not only the Democrats (and some Reps) that are and have ingnored the facts on the ground, is the fact that they are also ignoring the Generals who are over there on the ground.
The Dems are going to be the death of America through their refusal to deep down inside FACE the true facts, of this war.
The true facts are the dems are ignoring the facts of what the Generals have to say, when the Generals and their troops are the ones over there fighting this war and know best.
Thank you Mr. McCain for supporting our troops and seeing first hand that progress is being made. The wise listen to the Generals, their troops, and their Commander in Chief, who truly support our troops.
This article shows me that Mr. McCain is a very wise man, and there is much to be said for years of experience that he has. Fully capable of leading America.

I listen to you Democrats and Republicans like there are two different parties. They are the Washington Party for Govt by Govt. We are 11 trillion in debt closet to 60 trillion with medicade and social security.

The dollar is less than a Canadian Dollar we make nothing in this Country the taxes are out of control the two parties fight over the loser of the month club.

Get a grip they are all worthless. One Party tries to scare us to death the other tries to give everything away like all we are is worthless and weak. Where are Americnas that had pride and did not depend upon the Govt for everything.

The Middle East is buying our banks and our companies and you two parties fight over the same garbage every election, and the Country get's weaker.

This is not s sporting event it is our Country at stake. The politicians took our Country away from us.

Not one campaign promise has ever been kept. It is all crap it is about the candidate and their ego not the Country

I love reading comments by drugged-up college students and arm-chair generals, especially the comments calling Senator McCain a "traitor," or the ones saying that McCain should be "smacked."

Who in the hell are these fools? I know they exist, but I don't meet many of them in my daily life. My guess is that most of them are internet trolls who wouldn't have the guts to shoot off their mouth unless they were safely surrounded by their fellow leftists...

Here's a tip: Just because you read a Howard Zinn book and watched a Michael Moore movie, that doesn't make you an intellectual. In fact, it most likely makes you even dumber. Examine the facts on the ground. Read some of the best reporting (both negative and positive) on the subject of Iraq (I suggest Michael Yon or Bill Roggio). Then, make an objective judgement about the war instead of trying to wish things true (one way or another).

By the way, the next time you decide to shoot your mouth off about a man who spent five years as a POW, repeat the following mantra: "I'm not fit to lick John McCain's boots."

Arkay, MI... please elaborate your point.

This just in: "The insurgency in Fallujah is over."

Nope, no progress here..

"There's a lot at stake here," he said. "I understand my friends the politics of it. I understand it when the Democrats stand up and fall all over each other to decide who can get us out the quickest, but I am grateful that we Republicans have stood fast, I am grateful that this president has stood fast."

You betcha. There is much more money to be made. There are many more Iraqis to kill. There are many more permanant bases to establish. American Empire uber alles!

Yep...McCain fails to realize that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, National Security, or even WMD for that matter.

The real reason we are there is for war profiteering to benefit Bush/Cheney constituents. After all even Greenspan recognizes it was all about the oil.

If the war is going so well...then turn over the security operations to the Iraqi government and bring in the UN as needed for back-up. Quit wasting my tax money on corporate welfare!

Its a pity that newscaster like Lou Dobbs was also commenting on the progress being made in Iraq and critisized Dems for not pumping another 60 to 80 billions towards this illegal war! I think people like McCain, Bush, Graham supported by Dobbs need a rubber stamp congress where no question is asked, no checks and balances when it comes to funding the war. I think these ignorants will only come to senses when Iraqis drive us out, gas prices hit $5/gallon, economy will tank and the country will go into record deficit by Bush's madness supporting this endless war. If you pump in another trillion of taxpayers money and deploy another 200,000 troops to curb the violence, you will definitely see some progress. Is it worth the cost especially denying the welfare of the american citizens?

We could "win" tomorrow and it was still an obscene waste of maen lives, men's limbs and our and our children's fortune as a huge debt has returned for every man woman and child.
And this doesn't even count the profound damage to our image and power throughout the world, as well as destroying 60 years of our effort in promulgating international law and human rights.
We are now known as an international law breaker, with leaders who are habitual liars, and a country which condones torture.
But we are not "winning" tomorrow. No shining beacon of democracy allied with us will emerge. Instead we may stay and bleed at a lower annual level for DECADES and it will end up to be a client state of a nuclear armed Iran if and when it ever functions and unites.
Even the best "victory" turns out to be a defeat. Thank you Karl Rove. You thought this war would get Bush elected in 2004, and it did, but in your effort for a permanant Republican majority, this war of choice doubled the mess that is the middle east and bleed us of our power and riches. Prosperity will flow to China and elsewhere.

Posted By Lee, Mays Landing NJ : November 27, 2007 2:54 am

Lee, I have never read more liberal garbage in my life...You are a hopeless small lil person. I would pray for you but your soul is already gone.

"a democratic ally in the volatile Middle East that can (hopefully) demonstrate to Muslims that there is a better way of governing than Sharia law."

-Brad, from the great state of Texas

Do you know that the current Iraqi government has laws that are closer to Sharia law than those under the secular government of Saddam Hussein, the tyrrant we removed from power.

http://www.republicansforobama.org/

McCain is nothing more than a me too Bush and we have had enough Bushes to last for at least 5 centuries.

Convenant, Boston, MA...Do you really believe that the terrorists could not attack our soil if they wanted too, and the reason for them not attacking is because of the republicans...IF SO you are so brainwashed by the GOP and their underhanded tatics you are beyond help...I should not have wasted my time responding to your comment...VOTE DEMOCRATIC 08 stop the hypocrites who lied about the war in Iraq & have brought our nation so much shame....

Democrats and the media are invested in defeat. They turned their back on their country at the first signs of hardship and manipulated the American people for their own political purposes. You have been lied to my fellow citizens but not by the current administration, it is the Democrats and the "mainstream media" who have misled you. Now it's time for them to pay the piper. History will remember these treacherous deeds and the people who perpetrated them. War is not easy but that does not mean that it is not sometimes necessary.
Posted By Brian Tampa, FL : November 27, 2007 10:15 am

This directly out of the mouth of Bill O'Rielly in his latest (last night) rant. Come on Brian be original. Your party just hates facts. Reporting facts is what the news groups do. Well everyone but FauxNoise.
BTW Brian...why aren't you over there? Put up or shut-up...we already have one coke head boozing cheerleader in the White House.
PS was Vietnam "necessary"? No, no it wasn't!

I can't find CNN's story on it, but per the LA Times and USA Today, yesterday Bush and al Maliki signed a pact to insure that the US would continue maintaining troops and financial aid to Iraq beyond his presidency.

That's the thing, Mac and Terry and others. It's not so much that we CAN'T win as the fact that it's killing too many Americans, stretching our military too thin, discrediting our country too badly, and especially costing too many tax revenues and getting us too deep into debt to foreign powers. AND it's committing us to more of the same for years to come.

Whether or not we can win is almost incidental. The terrorists couldn't damage us as badly as we're damaging ourselves. That's the bottom line.

Senator McCain could lead this country just fine.

Sorry to throw some common sense at you all but how can you just "stop the war" if the war won't stop. Pull out our troops in a retreat that will be marked in ambushes, captures and death? Then leave a nation of millions at the mercy of factions who obviously have no regard for human life. Of course you can't understand, you havn't been to Iraq. I have and cnn won't allow me enough words to describe how horrible this would be for the US and Iraq. God have mercy on your easily manipulated minds.
Posted By Andrew, somewhere ohio : November 27, 2007 12:39 pm .

Poetic words from the great State of Ohio...also known as the armpit of America. Keep cheering on a losing, illegal and moral venture. Why aren't you over there? I smell a phony soldier (don't blame me, blame your buddy on the right Rush Limprick for this on-going right wing talking point. Cheer on as more die and more treasure is lost. Gee for a bunch of "Christians" you certainly love your wars and lose of a future for your horrid off-spring. If you live in Ohio...please stay there our landfills are full enough already!

A terrorist vacuum cleaner? Where the hell did that come from . The only thing that sucks is the Americans are so ignorant to think that if we keep all the worlds terrorists busy in Iraq they will somehow forget about coming over here to attack us. What a misguided strategy–only Bush could have "thunk up".

I hope he isn't really expecting the dems to admit they are wrong? If so he's going to be waiting a long time. Everyone knows the Dems cannot admit they are wrong, to do so would remove the only thing they have to talk about.

And again we hear from the pathetic 19%. Perhaps the repukes should start admitting they were wrong about Bush! This war was wrong...everything about this war was wrong. For those of you that still support this immoral blunder please by all means sign up and get over there, otherwise stop cheering for more death and lose of treasure. The entire Middle East has been thrown into chaos. We have maxed out our credit cards with communistic countries (wow who would have thought the party that hates communists so much would gladly take their money and hock everyone's future in order to prop up a cokehead boozing cheerleader!).
BTW did McCain take his mother on this trip? Was he wearing bullet proof armor, were there more Blackhawks overhead, did he put more of our soldiers in harms way just for another photo opt, did they pay more Iraqis to open shops with nothing to sell to make it look "normal". How much is our government paying Iraqi refugees to move back to Baghdad? Will Bush and McCain stop at nothing to make themselves look good? The facts speak for themselves. If you can't see the facts turn off FauxNoise.

We have kept the war in Iraq. No attacks in the U.S. since 911. Once the Dems get their way, watch for bombings by Al Queda in NYC and Chicago, tainted food and water supply, etc.

You who criticize the war don't understand its real purpose; it's a terrorist vacuum cleaner – sucking all terrorists toward the conflict. Do you like Monday night football? Do you like your cushy lives? Do you like not having to be terrified on the subway or airplane? Then thank the troops in Iraq. If Iraq is never stabilized, it will still be worth it.

The only thing that makes America look weak in the world is that the rest of the world has figured out that the best way to beat America militarily is with our own liberal establishment fightting the war for them in the press and academia. You can't fight a war if half the congress are fighting it at every turn just to try to ensure their own political power at the expense of the future of our country.

Brian in Tampa says: "They turned their back on their country at the first signs of hardship and manipulated the American people for their own political purposes. You have been lied to my fellow citizens but not by the current administration, it is the Democrats and the "mainstream media" who have misled you. Now it's time for them to pay the piper. History will remember these treacherous deeds and the people who perpetrated them."

Brian–you are either totally brainwashed or just choosing to ignore much of what you are reading on this blog. First, CNN doesn't post here–it's for the public. Second, I know many career military officers and enlisted who consider themselves to be Democrats–and have served their nation with honor-some died in foreign lands for their country and it's ideals. There is nothing treacherous in a democracy about debate!! What is truly treacherous...and treasonable–is to launch a nation to war on false pretenses! This forum is for honest communication–by everday people–like you and I–to share ideas thoughts. I am thankful to CNN for providing a forum where I can post my thoughts without fear of being called names–or getting edited out of the conversation. I disagree with your interpretation of Democrats most strongly. Our visions for the nation may be different but not that far apart. Have a great day!!!

DUH, THIS WAS POSTED BY A CONSERVATIVE:

Who can deny that this war, born out of dishonesty, is long overdue for cancellation? I feel bad for our troops because our so-called leaders, McCain and others, have risked their safety for no good reason. I note that war-time contracts have the highest profit margin of any government contracts and those big bucks are hard to give up — very addictive — even more so than oil.

Posted By Joe G, Washington, DC : November 27, 2007 10:47 am

Its a constant rhetoric for McCain and other republicans to blame democrats on this Bush's illegal war. I don't understand the meaning of winning after 4000 americans and 100,000 Iraqis dead, more than 1 million Iraqis displaced, 1 trillion US Tax dollars spent with the violence somewhat reduced. And with this so called winning, how is US is going to benefit? Is the gas being sold at $1.50 a gallon? Are the lives of average americans improved? Is the world safe for americans? Realistically, this is all propoganda for republicans to fool americans, pump more money into Iraq and keep our troops for another 10 years so that military contractors and oil companies are benefitted.

Who cares what McCain thinks, he is a republican and we all know they LOVE war & will use any excuse or lie to have one...this war was not necessary had we sent the troops to the right country we would have won and our troops would be home...McCain & Graham should both move to Iraq since they think things are so nice there...I appreciate McCain's service to our country BUT he is not an expert on wars/combat as he seems to think he is...

Wow!! Some of the most inane comments ever from the good old libs. Hey why dont you guys go look at some of the comments made by the Peace Democrats (Copperheads), during the Civil War. They were almost the same crap you spout now. While the Union was getting defeated in almost every way during the ealrly years of the war you party who said it was not worth it and that Lincoln was only waging the war for power, came close to having enough support to beat him for re-election. If we hadn't turned the tide of the war by going through different Generals until we found the right one, we would have a very different world.

History seems to be repeating itself.
But then you Liberals wouldn't know about history as you only get the liberal view of it in school.

Are President Bush, John McCain, and I the only American's that believe the saying, "Those who have the ability, have the responsibility." How can over half our country claim to be Christians and over half our country think we should only help ourselves?

I served in the military. I thanked God for your support, but I didn't want American sympathizers to feel sorry for me. I chose to enlist. Let politicians do their jobs so that we, in the military, can do ours.

Sorry to throw some common sense at you all but how can you just "stop the war" if the war won't stop. Pull out our troops in a retreat that will be marked in ambushes, captures and death? Then leave a nation of millions at the mercy of factions who obviously have no regard for human life. Of course you can't understand, you havn't been to Iraq. I have and cnn won't allow me enough words to describe how horrible this would be for the US and Iraq. God have mercy on your easily manipulated minds.

Marquis, the lives of Iraqis might mean nothing to you, but remember that they too have loved ones. America's insensitivity to the suffering that has been inflicted on the Iraqi people has been noted by the rest of the world. It's time for the US to grow up and realize that Americans aren't the only human beings on this planet. One day, we just may suffer the consequences of our arrogance today.

Hey Brad from CA,

I like your name a lot– too bad you're wrong. This war is not a wasted investment as you are implying. Although it's true we have lost many good soldiers and billions of dollars in Iraq, the potential payoff is enormous– a democratic ally in the volatile Middle East that can (hopefully) demonstrate to Muslims that there is a better way of governing than Sharia law.

You also say that America is turning into "an emerging third world nation." The funny thing is, our nation has changed very little due to the war in Iraq and the broader War on Terror. My guess is 99% of Americans still go about their daily lives as usual. If you think this is a third-world country, please give some examples instead of using hyperbole.

It is easy to say progress has been made when you are back at your comfy home with your wife and kids. Military families with loved ones over there. As someone who is involved with a man in the military, before he was deployed we were discussing plans after both of our graduations. Well guess what Sen. McCain those plans were derailed the day that his reserve unit was activated and notified that he was being deployed. I will be graduating from a master's program in May and he won't be here to see it. He was suppose to graduate in Dec. guess what...That is not happening either because guess where he is...fighting for a country that doesn't want to help itself. So yeah there has been progress, Progress for Bush and Cheney's pocketbooks.

Since the Iraqis had law and order and an infrastructure before we went to war in 2003, and has suffered thousands of civilian casualties since, I don't see how McCain can say that "the people in Iraq are far better off now than when we began this."

Since the GOP has intimated that it is our responsibility to rid the world of dictators whom we don't like in the hope of pushing our brand of democracy at them, I am just wondering what other targets these Republican presidential candidates have in their scopes. Is Iran next? How about Syria? There are plenty of people in the world to attack. The list is endless. Where do we stop? I think it is time to let our soldiers return to their loved ones, because the leaders who are promoting these wars certainly aren't going to join them on the front lines.

Its easy to be a tough guy when you have no conscience.

Hey McCain, maybe I don't know how you and the other Republicans are wired, but advancing 10 steps in a war without end insn't far at all...As for the Congress, if any of the Rapublicans know anything about checks and balances, they'll know that Bush vetotes every bit of legislation they pass. All due to the fact that just baecause unlike the Republican Congress, this Congress won't roll over and do things just because Dubya said so. It's his war, let him pay for it...

Mac, Severn, Md

you need to take up a hobby so that you can get your feeling of "winning" something out of your system so as to not draw the lives of other Americans into your folly.

Jesus hates war

All the people in Iraq isn't worth the loss of a single American. This was one of the most foolish things the US was ever faked into.

Special thanks to Bush, Cheney, Rumbsfeld,Chulalabi, and Israel

Yeah, this war is all about the Democrats all right. With loud cries of "Anti-communism for all," the GOP set about reducing our once-proud democracy to a Russia-style 'managed democracy,' in which elections occur within the Ruling Party only. If the Democratic Party is unable to regain the White House even though the GOP is in ruins and is barely contesting the election, running Julie and the Mormon instead of electable candidates, we'll know that Rove did indeed break democracy and set up a permanent one-party government!

Actually, both parties are ignoring facts. While certain areas in Iraq are seeing less violence, it's rarely due to US intervention and more to do with Iraq's own forces. There are plenty of other areas in Iraq that have seen devastating violence in more recent years (Falluja for one example), and our presence in Iraq has so angered many Iraqis that Al Qaeda has seen a significant boost in supporters. The writing on the bathroom wall said it best: Fighting for peace is like having sex for virginity.

Mac in Severn: I don't totally disagree with you, however, the GOP are just as guilty of putting partisanship above the good of this country.

As an aside: George Bush doesn't need anyone to make him look bad, he does a pretty good job of that all by his lonesome.

War is not easy but that does not mean that it is not sometimes necessary.

Posted By Brian Tampa, FL :

Brian, care to try and explain to me why this particular war in Iraq was necessary?
Aaah, didn't think so.

We should not be wasting our treasure on a worthless, do nothing, elected government body! Oh wait..

Isn't this the same John McCain that went walking through Baghdad wearing a flack jacket, had helicopter support overhead and was totally surrounded by troops 6 months ago, while trying to show us how "safe" the streets of Baghdad were? The guy was surrounded by a small army and was telling us "...see everything is just fine here..."

McCain has zero credibility.

Great, we won, now what?
Stay there for a 100 years, having 40 (instead of 100) soldiers day every month, while whaiting for the the Iraqis to come together after a thousand years of differences.

You know what crazy old man McCain, get a rifle and go there yourself. Don't try to get other people's kids killed because you want to "stay the course". Whatever the heck that means.

...and if you think that its going to get better over there now, remember this, the Brits were there for over 40 years, and in the end they left and said "we have had enough of this crap"...

...a lull in violence doesn't mean that all of the sudden the Iraqis want us there now, and it doesn't mean they will stop killing our soldiers...

If this jerk's definition of progress in Iraq is wasting our treasury away to nothing while ignoring the needs of Americans and turning Arerica into an emerging third world nation, maybe he's right – we are making progress.

Who can deny that this war, born out of dishonesty, is long overdue for cancellation? I feel bad for our troops because our so-called leaders, McCain and others, have risked their safety for no good reason. I note that war-time contracts have the highest profit margin of any government contracts and those big bucks are hard to give up - very addictive - even more so than oil.

Democrats and the media are invested in defeat. They turned their back on their country at the first signs of hardship and manipulated the American people for their own political purposes. You have been lied to my fellow citizens but not by the current administration, it is the Democrats and the "mainstream media" who have misled you. Now it's time for them to pay the piper. History will remember these treacherous deeds and the people who perpetrated them. War is not easy but that does not mean that it is not sometimes necessary.

I hope he isn't really expecting the dems to admit they are wrong? If so he's going to be waiting a long time. Everyone knows the Dems cannot admit they are wrong, to do so would remove the only thing they have to talk about.

Well, since the stated purpose of the "surge" was to facilitate political reconcilation, which hasn't happened and isn't anywhere near happening, I would say one would have to be in serious denial, or a right-wing hack running for office (pretty much synonymous, really) to believe we've "succeeded" in Iraq.

And anyway once the al-Sadr Shiites and Baathist Sunnis get a load of the new security agreement Bush just signed agreeing to prop up in perpetuity the puppet gov't that excludes and marginalizes them, all hell is going to brake loose anyway, we'll be back to square one, and ol' McCain will have to find a new leg to stand on.

You are a hundred percent correct Mr. McCain, these democrats are rooting for failure and it is sickening.

The silence is deafening..

He forgot to mention that it was also the most deadly year since the start of the war. More Americans killed and damaged.
The bigger pictures is what is McCain suggesting about the Iraq government's lack of progress in resolving it's differences.
Also our troops tours will expire in March.
Do we just keep forcing them to stay beyond their deployment home?
This is not going to be the president's private football game.
We need to bring this war to a close.

The progress is great, but it doesn't seem to matter when various sources say that the Iraq government is the biggest impediment to political reconciliation.

It also doesn't change the fact that we are still losing soldiers, draining our military and financial resources, and compromising our own national security by sending our Guard troops overseas.

The war must end regardless of what's going on in Iraq.

Unless the dems acknowledge this fact, they could be in trouble. It's clear the dems have already tried to switch the topic to the economy, but, it may be too late unless they at least acknowledge some success. But then again, how do you do that without saying "I was wrong". Hill being the closest thing thye have to supporting Bush's policy in Iraq may be the beneficiary. No more "I will end the war in Iraq" from her.

Who would have ever thought!

McCain is a war monger, fear monger, and an ...He had his chances in 2000, and he failed. He will fail again, because voting for McCain is voting for Bush-it's the same. He embraced Bush's failed foreign policy. It is true that the U.S. death toll declined since the surge, but the Iraqi people cotinue to die, including children. He calls that "Progress?"

Big John seems to forget one very important fact.
This invasion and occupation of another country was only for the personal amusement of George W.
The death of one American was too much.

Now let's see how long it takes for the dems to finally acknowledge this progress – better yet, lets see how many will still live in utter denial and run on the "we already lost" campaign.

Did McCain walk around inside the green zone in Iraq in bullet-proof jacket again this time?

With the smerican soldier # surge, so does the american and sunnis para-military personnel. The armed sunnis is a destabilizing factor of the current iraq govt.

Thank you John McCain! I am delighted to hear Intelligent Truth. We can and will win in Iraq (and are winning) if we persevere.

Three Cheers for McCain on this one!

ThirstyJon

I am so tired of the Democratic party leadership trying to convince Americans that we have failed. They just want to make George Bush look bad. They put their party above their country. There can be no forgiveness for that.

McCain still has his head so far up his 'southern hemisphere', he may never see daylight again. Every time I hear this idiot say "my friends", I truly want to puke...the man is NO friend to the American Public. Certainly not to the young men and women dying so he can grandstand.

We could "win" tomorrow and it was still an obscene waste of maen lives, men's limbs and our and our children's fortune as a huge debt has returned for every man woman and child.
And this doesn't even count the profound damage to our image and power throughout the world, as well as destroying 60 years of our effort in promulgating international law and human rights.
We are now known as an international law breaker, with leaders who are habitual liars, and a country which condones torture.
But we are not "winning" tomorrow. No shining beacon of democracy allied with us will emerge. Instead we may stay and bleed at a lower annual level for DECADES and it will end up to be a client state of a nuclear armed Iran if and when it ever functions and unites.
Even the best "victory" turns out to be a defeat. Thank you Karl Rove. You thought this war would get Bush elected in 2004, and it did, but in your effort for a permanant Republican majority, this war of choice doubled the mess that is the middle east and bleed us of our power and riches. Prosperity will flow to China and elsewhere.

McCain gets good news too from a new general election poll has Clinton very competitive against the GOP, leading Romney and narrowly trailing Giuliani... But McCain runs by far the strongest, making sure the state stays in GOP hands.

2007 has statically been the deadliest year for Americans troops in Iraq since the war began. BUT if claims from the field (and McCain) are true, this comes with some sort of overall reduction in violence (number of attacks?)

Have we gone from Terrible to Bad? Or to just "OK"? Or is it too close to call?

... At the time, Clinton said that Petraeus' progress report required "a willing suspension of disbelief."

Although Senator Clinton's comment sounds literally impressive, it doesn't sound like comments that should be made by prospective commander-in-chief to a general, who happens to have a Ph.D. in international relations in 1987 from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. This is one of the world's top diplomat institutions.

This comment only shows that Senator Clinton is very ignorant of foreign relations and a poor candidate for president. Bill's help will only add confusions in the chain of commands.

Perhaps the surge is working. Perhaps it's just a temporary lull. I think Sen. McCain is counting his chicken before they hatch. We'll see. Regardless of whether the surge proves to be a success or not, it doesn't change the fact that we were wrong to go in to Iraq, we are wrong to stay, and the prospects of long-term stability are very poor. Imperialism is wrong, and that doesn't change according to the level of its success or failure.

As of today, the rate of American deaths climbed in November over October (God forbid the media should ever report another solider's death now that the surge is a "success"). Does that mean the policy is now failing, Sen. McCain?

I wonder if he had to tour around in a flak jacket with 100 armed guards like last time?

"Today it is clear we have succeeded with this new strategy"

So succeed in Iraq = bringing violence down to the level it was at the summer of 2006? It's a great start, but hardly reason to start popping the champagne corks.

Someone please smack this man.