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McCain would have made a strong and decisive president..., instead of our current weak and divisive president.

CHAINS YOU CAN BELIEVE IN

seven years to late john, afganistan, iraq, pakistan,one big mess

Why, why do we continue to engage other nations in killing their people in the name of what we believe to be "good for the world".

In the past 50 years of engaging other nations for this cause can we say that we have really won any of them, if so at what expense.

I know it's good for companies who provide militar hardware and ordinates but at what cost to human life. We don't like abortion but we don't mind war?

REALLY? How? The British fought in Afghanistan for 80 years!

The Soviets fought against the Taliban for 10 years & left!

Why would we be different!? Interesting how the Bush Regime focused ALL the money & power on Iraq, when there were NO nukes, NO WMD's and NO terrorists there..... until we invaded Iraq! It was OIL, of course.

ALL of a sudden the Republicans are demanding action and escalation in Afghanistan, when for EIGHT YEARS did IGNORED Afghanistan!

It was President Obama who RAISED the Troop level upon taking Office!

62% of Americans believe Afghanistan is another VIETNAM!

(excuse the yelling)

PLEASE PRESIDENT OBAMA END THIS SENSELESS WAR!

Bidens kid isn't over there anymore, so it's no longer a priority to anybody in this administration.

Same old argument used in Vietnam and Iraq wars. Seems we never learn from history.

Six months ago this same military genius said that, after Iraq, our troop would have it easy in Afghanistan. Too bad he never paid attention to the British or Russian experiences there in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Senator McCain has lost the last shred of his remaining credibility with most Americans.

John, there is a reason why you were not elected president. We have been in Afganistan for the past 8 years as well as Iraq and we are not winning either "war". We aren't winning because no one can win. Our equipment is worn out, our armed forces are on their second/third tour. We are fighting drug cartels over there when we should be using our resources here in this country. We always unlimited resources to fight wars while the rest of the country is cutting programs in education, human services, law enforcement and border security. Wake up old man, you need to take Cheney and Palin and retire and let the president we elected do his job.

This would have made a lot of sense SIX YEARS AGO when you and the chicken hawks diverted resources to IRAQ. Too late now buddy, get out of the way and quit being subversive.

By the way, aren't you the dope that tapped Palin for VP? Good judgement.

This old war horse wants to keep a conflict going somewhere in the world 24/7. He comes from a military family, and like General McCrystal thinks keeping a war going justifies their existance. I cannot fathom why these republicans are so blood thirsty and want us to be fighting someone all the time. We all know now how Bush bullied other countries and now they hate us. Obama is just now creating an atmosphere that puts us in a better light with the world. Just put a republican in high office and we will have another war going before we can end the two they started.

To bad John McCain did not know this before now.

Please be real McCain,you must beforgetting where you spent all that time as a POW.You can't win this war, it's been tried for centuries with no one not even the Russians and they war right next door.so wake and face the fact we need to go where ever the terrorests are and what country they are(yes special opps) currently recruitinn and hinding and stop try to meddel in other countries affairs.Thats whats gotton us in the mess to begine with.
Bush didn't want a war there so why do you think Oboma does,it's time to bring the men of women of the country home and take care of our own.America cann't be the worlds police force any more.We have to many problems here with crime,hard drugs(I for one believe prohabition not working),and a badly negitive job ratio(ya you and Bush gave away all our jobs along with all the other crooks in washington Dems and Reps alike)..So please stop your yappin and let folks in the know get us out of these messes or even help to solve the issues like you where elected to.

And can you answer why we are still there in the first place with all your profound knowledge? How is our occupation in an irrelevant country helping us? We're spending billions that could be spent here.

John is right – - he would have made a better President. Is it too late to change our minds?

Sane junk he's spread before. Three things: 1) Please senator, define our goals in this misguided war, 2) Please get your facts straight. The world did not walk away from Afghanistan once. Several countries have been at war here and none have succeeded. Unwinnable, John. You're delusional and, 3) Stop using fear as a politcal tactic.

Bush walked away from Afganistan for Iraq and you didn't have a problem with that. McCain you have no credibility.

Why does John McCain constantly get his simplistic nonsense into the media? Why do journalists love him so much?

Obama keeps voting "present" on this issue, what more do you want from the man............a decision. His track record of voting present should have been a clue for all you that missed it.

That is why protecting the population must be job one right now, and in the immediate term, much of that work must be done by U.S. and NATO troops

So we will protect the Afghani civilians from harm...yet allow our own American citizens to die from lack of healthcare? McCains values seem quite twisted to me...

On one hand, I'm glad to see that the war in Afghanistan is finally being given some attention.

On the other, I would love to ask McCain & Co to define what a victory there might look like. They went in without any clear goals or timelines, and I think to this day there is no clear idea of what "winning" there might be...

The world walked away from Afghanistan once. Your buddy Bush walked away a second time. You all rubber-stampped the bungling of the war in Afghanistan for seven years. Especially grotesque is that, just like Viet Nam, YOU and the previous administration fought the war politically, not sending enough troops there to do the job so you could plan Iraq. American troops' blood is on your hands, just as much as Bush and Cheney's.

Time for you neocons to go tea-bagging, and let the adults handle this.

I'm so glad we went with the smart guy this time!

for the first time I would have to agree with Senator McCain if we leave now you just wait and see the next generation of Terrorist that our kids will have to deal with. If we let the taliban back in afghanistan and send women back into those dark days it would be devastating. I hate sending our men in women into harms way and that is devastating as a former service women I am scared for them and it definitely scares me when I see all that they are doing in the those remote places but we started this and if we leave now with Pakistan doing what we asked them to it will be the worst mistake.

Maybe you should have been advising, oh, I don't know, how about George W. Bush, like in 2001-2002? The bungler in chief could have used some intelligent advice then.

All you neocons that are blaming Obama for Afghanistan do realize that George W. Bush started this war in 2001, right? When the war started, the world was on our side. We could have chased bin laden to Moscow or Havana and no one would have given it a second thought. Eight years of bungled foreign policy later, Obama has to run international land mines to try to do Bush's job.

Maybe W should have kept his eye on the ball in 2001 when bin laden was cornered in Tora Bora, instead of planning his invasion of Iraq.

But then, facts have never been important to neocons.

Senator, why will we succeed when other nations have not?

why not cut bait and run, set up bases inside the region, use strike teams and preditors to attack from the sky. We are fitting a war that hasn't been won by the British,or the Russians. Look at the history of the Afgan region. No one can win here. We are fighting a war against the wrong people. The taliban didn't start 9-11, Al qaeda did. Why sould be stay in a country and lose lives when they are hidden in the mountians of Pakistan ? Lets cut and run and team with NATO and attack from the air with drones. You keep a couple dozen in the air at all times and they'll come out sooner or later and then fire a missle and kill them. We can't let John McCain deside this war, he is an ex vet who would want to support them men in battle, as I would being an ex soldier. However we have to let personal opinions and politics not sway whats going on. We have been there for 7 yrs and haven't even come close to winning this war ! why are we there ? Get out, save lives!!!!!!

Yeah, right. And, we should still try and win the Viet Nam war too.

This coming from a man who voted not to allow rape victims to take their attackers to court. This man loves violence and death.

Stop pushing Barack. He should takie his time in making such an important decision. Quit rushing him. It is better than rushing in with a half baked decision and end up with the whole world being afraid of the USA.

With the leadership we have now we might as well pack it up and leave Afghanistan. We are wasting our resources and most importantly as a veteran we are endangering and killing our blessed soldiers with this half ass effort.

Obama needs to know that not making a decision is in fact making a decision. Have a nice day.

It's a waste of our finest people's lives. Bring them home and strenghten our borders. Lets quit being the world's policeman.

Who cares what McCain thinks? Doing the Presidential Election – he pop up saying anything all of the time – he is a know-nothing.

I definitely lean to the right- but one thing I just can't get about the republicans: Why do they all get off on wars?

John,
We did not go to Afghanistan to build what the neocons see as their vision of a nation. We went to break up the terrorist gang operating out of the country. You and ex President Bush, through your inattentiveness, have embroiled the United States in yet another civil war with us once again supporting a corrupt puppet government. Congratulations to you and the war hawks on another "mission accomplished".

I agree. If we don't win in Afghanistan, where will the U.S. get its supply of heroin. If we don't have that supply, the entire N.Y.P.D. will have to live on what the city pays them and Miami will become just another so-so vacation spot.

Mr. fear/hate at it again. Where was he when Bush left Afghanistan for Iraq?

Now, why didn't you say that when Bush was in office? He is the reason why Afghanistan is in such a mess. After 9/11, instead of going after Al Qaeda over there, he decided to take care of a personal vendetta against Saddam Hussein (the stupidess move ever). Bush is the reason why so many American troops are being killed today in Afghanistan.

Way to go Bush!!

please define "winning the war in Afghanistan" for us. Is it not leaving until there is total peace? or what? We cannot fight an open ended war in that country. Noone in history has ever occupied Afghanistan, including Genghis Khan, the British or the Russians.

He is war monger, even Alexander the great could not win in Afghanistan.

We're not going to win the war in Afghanistan. We're not even going to be able to accomplish the original goal, which was to root out the terrorist organization responsible for the 9/11 attacks. We'll be lucky if Pakistan doesn't fall into a more extreme Islamic regime. We'll be equally lucky if Iraq doesn't fall into a more hard line Islamic regime like Iran.

The USA has yet to learn how to use a surgical scalpel instead of a sledge hammer when it comes to accomplishing military and political goals. We've made the Middle East much more dangerous than it was when we went in. We've stirred up resentment, causing more anti-American sentiment and hatred, which will eventually lead to more terrorist attacks.

We took the wrong approach to begin with and it will eventually come back to bite us.

You'd better try to convience your president! His peace prize makes him even slower to make a decision.

John, go back to crashing jets, it is what you know best.

He probably thought singing to the Viet Namese helped us win that war too. HE KNOWS NOTHING. An inept pilot that was captured by the enemy and san – HE KNOWS NOTHING.

Perhaps if the Bush administration would have the full focus on Afghanistan from the very beginning instead of attacking Iraq and dividing the attention, we wouldn't be having this conversation. The current President is left to deal with the mess that Cheney, oops I meant Bush, left for him to clean up................................Take all of our troops out of Iraq and get more combat troops into Afghanistan and finish what Bush should have finished in the first place......................get bin forgotten too

Personally, it is beyond me why anybody cares what this old loser and traitor thinks about anything. He showed me what his judgement is worth when he chose narcissitic quittin failin palin as a possible vice or president for America. Think God these two weren't put in charge,
because I shutter to think how much worst off we would be if they had been elected.

hey McCain put your money where big mouth is or is this your PORK that you always say you are against

You said the same thing about Iraq........what you Military people don't understand is we can't change the minds and hearts of these people, they have to much hate and differences among themselves, they are fighting tribal wars........civil war.......just yesterday we had our first American diplomat (a decorated Marine) resign because he said himself we can't win this War.......so why keep sending more troops to be killed........you Republicans are Blood Thirsty........

I don't think the US should stay in Afghanistan. It's not worth the lives that have been lost and will be lost. No other country has been able to win the war there and we won't either.

John McCain needs to stop playing the war game and retire.
We couldn't win in Iraq, we won't win in Afghanistan.

Does McCain think that we are idiots?

He is the man who said that Afghanistan should be "put on the back burner" while we were fighting a War Of Choice in Iraq.

This man supported the policies that put Afghanistan exactly where it is, and now he's complaining? Please!

Why weren't Sen. McCain and the rest of the last administration so concerned about winning in Afghanistan for the last 7 1/2 years? They say the President is dithering but they dithered there for almost eight years. They let everything slip in Afghanistan and allowed the Taliban and Al Queda to regroup there and in Pakistan. Listening to their advice is very annoying because they it is like "Do what I say, not what I did".

: the world walked away from Afghanistan once, and it descended into a cauldron of violence, hatred and human rights atrocities that served as the base for the worst terrorist attack in history against our homeland
-------------------------------

Then why the heck weren't we in there as opposed to Iraq? This is what truly baffles me. Evidently EVERYONE had access to this type of intelligence. EVERYONE knew where we needed to focus our military resources pre and post 9/11. EVERYONE. Why the hell did we end up in IRAQ?? Why would all of these experts allow the 'Shrub Cutter' to SEND OUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS to be killed in the WRONG COUNTRY???! And I DON'T apologize for my yelling.

Why weren't Sen. McCain and the rest of the last administration so concerned about winning in Afghanistan for the last 7 1/2 years? They say the President is dithering but they dithered there for almost eight years. They let everything slip in Afghanistan and allowed the Taliban and Al Queda to regroup there and in Pakistan. Listening to their advice is very annoying because they it is like "Do what I say, not what I did".

There isn't a physical war to be won. The country has never been totally controlled by one military force. Neither Napolean, ALexander or Ghengis Khan were able to control the country. The fight is for the hearts and minds, trying to win the people over from the radical Taliban-style of thinking. It is reminiscent of the ideological fight going on within the Republican Party right now. The radical ideologues are trying to take over the party, but moderates MUST win out.

Corrected comment sorry.
This is the biggest lie of them all. We need to provide colonialism in someone else's country because it provides profits to our military industry. We know the truth here this war is nothing more than a way to make money through our dislike of other people, same old same old reasoning that caused us harm in the first place. This is Vietnam again, and the cost in American lives is not worth it.
End global colonialism; stop interfering with the affairs of other nations because we do not agree with it.
Bring our brave American children home; defend the homeland from the homeland, not by invading our nations.
No more wars for profit!

When we saw the Taliban explode some ancient monuments in the 1990s because the monuments did not meet their definition of religiously correct, little did we realize that about a decade later the same Taliban would allow al Queida to use Afghanistan as a base of operations for 9-11. The Taliban are jhadists, and we are in danger because we also do not meet their definition of religiously correct.

I am bewildered, however, at what the Administration is spending so much time on during the current debate about what to do. The President's own choice for local commander, GEN McCrystal, is the foremost expert in the Army on special ops. GEN Petraeus is the expert on counterinsurgency. Do we need this debate to water down their recommendations so that the Administration can look politically correct?

This is the biggest lie of them all. We need to provide colonialism in someone else's country because it provides profits to our military industry. We know the truth here this war is nothing more than a way to make money through our dislike of our people, same old same old reasoning that caused us harm in the first place. This is Vietnam again, and the cost in American lives is not worth it.
End global colonialism; stop interfering with the affairs of other nations because we do not agree with it.
Bring our brave American children home; defend the homeland from the homeland, not by invading our nations.
No more wars for profit!

I don't agree with McCain on a lot of things but I do have say that he makes some very good points in his written opinion.

Again, I'd like to ask the 'hawks' in our government what is a 'win' in Afghanistan? Since we are not at war with the nation of Afghanistan, or any nation in particular, how will we know when we've 'won'?

Another useless piece on the man whose background as a veteran is crashing five planes and spending the war as a POW (which, granted, was horrible).
If we had stayed in Afghanistan/Pakistan looking for bin laden instead of changing course and invading Iraq maybe we wouldn't be in the pickle we are in right now.
Once again, thanks to the shrub and Darth Vader we are in a heap of trouble eight years later with no end in sight.

We can not win the war in Afghanistan. The question must be ask is why do these people hate the United States so much. It is stupid to believe that they hate us because of our life style. If we had not bothered them in the first place we would not be fighting them now. It is amazing how we can find money to fight these senseless wars but will not spend funds in this country to fix the things that are broken. Time has change. Gone are the dominating days of U.S. in the global community.

Bomb bomb Afghanistan; And what it they do not want our help?
our soldier's dying for a people that see us as a controller of their state? What energy we have to fight a war, but no energy to give all of our citizens the opportunity for Universal Healthcare, what a party.

Yeah, but what does win mean? Have a nice day!

old man macain, you had 8 years to win the war and you never did or will you ever win so shut up and get into your shelter.

Once again my senator from AZ speaks from an uninformed postion. What exactly are/were are goals in Afghanistan? Why did Sen McCain and rest of the Republicans stress a more coherent goal and strategy. Are you now nation building? What is the TRUE measure of WIN or SUCCESS. People toss those two words around like a football but exactly what does it look like. Stop the maddnes until we know why we are sending servicemen and women to fight or die. The world has habitually withdrawn from Afghanistan. Where are our allies now – where is the world. I have served for 22 years within the Special Operations and have been to both Iraq & Afghanistan.

Wait a minute. Isn't this the same person that said we could muddle through in Afghanistan? Please CNN and other MSM, let it go. No one wants to hear what this man has to say. Mccain and the rest of his war mongers should just go away. I wish he would explain why the war wasn't won earlier. Oh that's right, they lied so that they could start another war in Iraq.

These guys sure love to send other peoples kid's to fight their pointless wars for them. You never hear Republicans question the huge amount of tax dollars need to fund these adventures – they just complain about spending money on the disadvantaged in their own country.

I agree we must win in Afganistan, but after eight years I still have no idea as to what victory in Afganistan means.

What are our military objectives for victory in Afganistan? Once military objectives have been determined our military leaders will be able to determine the force structure and support package needed to accomplish the military objectives. Afgan rule is up to the Afgan people, not us, and our form of government will not work in Afganistan, because our form of government is a unique experiment that we have been working on for 200+ years, the Afgan people will have to develop their own course.

This would not be an issue if GWB had followed through and doen what he should ahve here, instead of going into Iraq on faulty or false intelligence.
It is also time that this country and it's leaders look at history and see that over that time no one has been sucessful in this area and the cost is not worth it. The USSR is th most recent example that this cannot be won, get out now.

get your name out

doesn't matter the subject or why, publicity is good

give it a rest McCain

And as an aside... I think we must win (by that I mean get Afganistan in some state of stable) in Afganistan, for that matter Iraq

now, how we get there is more difficult than simply "we must win"

Hate to tell you McCain, it is unwinable war. I guess your next target is Iran..Hey, get some of your fellow Republicans to get all their eligible family members to sign up, go to Iraq and Afghanistan. Seems like the rich and privileged stay at home, and the ones who have no health insurance or job have to go fight "your" wars..You have lived your whole life on your Vietnam experience, you know the hell of war, but you are willing to send others to "your" war, you have learned nothing about war other how to capitialize on it.

McCain does have a point, but the problem is... HOW? We have the world's greatest militaries, and we've been trying for 8 years (although for several years we took our eye off the ball more than we should have because we had an incompetent and corrupt commander-in-chief who decided Iraq was more important even though it had nothing to do with anything in the War On Terror and everything to do with lucrative contracts for his oil buddies) and so far the progress hasn't been satisfactory or permanent.

Just saying "we must win" won't cut it; we need a workable strategy on how that can be accomplished. And so far that hasn't been forthcoming, because that's a nearly impossible country to conquer, given the terrain. It's like one big country-sized fortress.

Sen Mccain WE HAVE BEEN THERE FOR ALMOST 9 YEARS Thanks to W and company neglecting Afghanistan its too late besides its not a war its an occupation and more of our men and woman are dying senseless PRESIDENT OBAMA END THIS THING NOW!

You tell 'em John... of course you want to kill as many people in Afghanistan as you think our military can and of course you want us to WIN... you just do not have a clue when it comes to defining just what there is to WIN in Afghanistan. You simply cannot use your 19th century logic (?) in a 21 century war.

Perhaps we could capture a pile of rocks, plant the American flag in it, claim we WON and then our precious, courageous children can come home where they belong.

Of course any military person wants to win; of course any general wants more troops; of course the military is trained to kill, kill and kill, almost anything that moves; somehow, by your logic that revenges 9/11 and makes America more secure. [You never tell us how killing everything in Afghanistan will make America more secure.]

President Obama will soon be sending more troops to Afghanistan… what most people do not realize is that we can only deploy about 4,000 troops a month, at best, to this meat grinder, as we do not have an endless supply of courageous, innocent children to go fight to WIN a pile of rocks!

I agree that the puplic option has taken a seriously bad rap.I do believe that anew brand name , would breathe new life in the debate,
and new confidents and the genral puplic. I propose a new brand name. consumers choice.

Nobody's listening to you Johnny boy. Go home McCain!

John, we said you knew where Ben Laden is - when are you gonna share that with the rest of us so we can get the hell out of there where we don't belong anyway?? Liar! NO credibility and ZERO solutions!

Mr. McCain is dead wrong. There is no winning in Afghanistan. After 8 years of trying, it should be clear to every one that all we are doing is wasting our valuable resources.

God has saved America and the world with the defeat of Mccain last November.The language he speaks best is that of war.

I cant thank god enough everyday that John McCain will never be president, he is like Bush and Cheney all rolled up into one, a one man "country" wrecking crew.

Past Afghan history mandates our path!

Just what America needs: reiteration of the obvious. What ever caused him to think we didn't know all that already?

Such hubris! To believe we could do something the Russians couldn't: conquer a wasteland and the rodents which infest it. Bring democracy to the chronically poor and illiterate?

The third world is a universe away from our own. And how can we expect to help people who won't help themselves?

Mcshame...listen, that's why you didn't win, people don't trust you, your are so high on Wars that if you would've won, we might be in WW V. Goodbye now, please go help Sara Palin with terriorist get re-elected to a PTA for Rush Lingblah or Community Organizer for FauxNoise or something.

We can win it if Obama would quit dragging his feet and do what needs to be done...............it's not like there a lot of choices.

We will win this war with a counter terrorism strategy, not a counter insurgency.

No need to worry, nobama will just apologize for the US somemore and the liberal media will eat that up and report favorably about it.

I applaud you John, at least you have a vision and don't need a month to figure it out or expres it. Wake up Obama!

Obama stated also it was the war we need to win, not the Iraq war. But now, Obama can't make a decision as to what to do. Refuses to follow the advise of Generals or troop that are in the fight. This Is his 3 AM phone call that he has so far refused to answer and commit too.

you mean pour some more money and lives in this mountain region...where these thugs are escaping through mountain...may be in pakistan, may be in India...lord does not know where they are...I think, we need to involve Indian soldiers, pakistani soldiers, etc., not American soldiers....and spend a dime...first we need to protect our own borders...and restrict immigration...and inflow into our nation...foreigners are sneaking in...on the pretext of education, medicine, and engineering...with all kind of people...wake up, caveat emptor...

Thank you. the reason we "lost" Korea and Viet Nam:

1. Democrats who start wars never finish them
2. Democratic Presidents don't listen to their generals, they either fire them or disregard them
3. We were fighting a war in a classical way instead of in the villages.
4. We gave up

Mc Cain is right

The debate about whether or not we should be there ended when we went in. Same with Iraq. It is our responsibility to finish what we started. Preferrably with as few casualties as possible and minimal cost and time spent. If we pull out now, having not finished, things would probably become worse than before.

I know the decision to go in is debatable but don't let opinions over whether or not to go in cloud judgement of what to do once there.

The only thing we should be doing in Afghanistan is getting out, being there serves no purpose for the United States. If we stay for the next 50 years, that country will be what it wants to be. Our resources could and should be put to much better use. We cannot truly even give a good reason for being there.

"Our goals there are achievable."

And they are . . . ?

It's so easy to play armchair quarterback. The bottom line is that nobody has won a "war" in Afghanistan in the last 30 years, and unless we have clear goals and a clear exit strategy, the only option at this point is to pull out completey to avoid the quagmire. The real problem is in Pakistan. Or are you like Bush, and just don't worry about bin Laden much anymore?

Pretty hard to succeed when our commander in chief has no strategy and can't make any decisions..............too busy campaigning for his fellow Democrats on his tax payer provided jet and polluting the air. We were foolish to believe his lies of working for ALL Americans, he really meant to say working for all DEMOCRATS.

Stop playing games with the American people and our soldiers. We are not in Afghanistan to kill terrorist, we are in fact killing freedom fighters in their own country. Let’s bring our soldiers back from around the world to help our own freedom fighters at home get rid of the elitist corrupt politicians that are destroying our nation and stealing our liberty.

The American people are waking up and finding the truth about the deception that we live in with the collaboration of elected officials. It is about time that you politicians begin to deliver the truth or get out of office. You can no longer fool the majority of us. Are you going to be with us or against us? If you were a real patriot, you would have been standing with us on September 12th in Washington DC.