September 11th, 2007
04:27 PM ET
14 years ago
McCain on Iraq: 'We cannot choose to lose'
Watch Sen. John McCain defend Gen. Petraeus' counterinsurgency strategy.
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain took the opportunity on Tuesday to make the case for remaining in Iraq as Gen. David Petraeus and Amb. Ryan Crocker testified about the Iraq war at a U.S. Senate committee hearing.
Related: Obama: Bad timing for Iraq hearings
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Why does it have to be a win? It's not a competition. No one is choosing to lose. They're choosing NOT to lose any more children to this stupid war.
Lose?There is no such thing as winning!We "LOST" the minute the first troops set foot in Iraq.Now it's only a question of how much more we lose until we leave!
Thats a way of life for dems.
I don't think we should LEAVE Iraq, but I think we should either carpet-bomb the place or gradually pull out and let these psychos kill each other till kingdom come. Lets cut our losses.
John McCain has the same problem General Patraeus and the President has. They believe the military can solve all problems. The peace that the surge has provided is being wasted. There will be major bloodshed in Iraq if we leave today or five years from now.
Answer my question; if we left today, how does Iraq not become a post-Soviet Afganistan esp with Iran next door?
We broke it and have to fix it. Iran is a major supporter of terrrorism. Giving them the upperhand is a long term solution to failure.
Amen John. Thanks for staying strong!
ThirstyJon
freedomthirst.com
The loss occured as soon as Bush started the phony pretences and invaded that country contrary to the International Law that we helped promulgate after WW2.
The whole world, save a few die-hard republicans and yahoo evengelicals in this country pretty much knows it was a fraud job by now.
Now we are simply bleeding gobs of money and limbs of the less wealthy part of our society as Iraq has become a breeding ground of new terrorists where none existed before and university for terror tactics. We've made Osama look good to muslims everywhere when before he was a marginal criminal.
We are occupying a people that are war with each other and us now that their nation has been destroyed, areas ethnically cleansed etc.
It's a disaster on so many levels but one thing we cannot do is to ever
LET ANY OF THE CRIMINAL ELEMENT THAT PUSHED THIS DISASTER OR APOLOGIZE FOR IT, the Republicans, "FIX" THIS DISASTER PAST NOV 2008.
"We have the greatest respect for Gov. Huckabee and respect his desire to elevate the discourse in this campaign. But there are nine people running for the GOP nomination and an arbitrary pairing of just two of them does a disservice to the voters. We will push hard for Lincoln-Douglas style debates once we get into the General Election, when there are only two candidates running."
– Thompson Campaign
I was really disappointed when I read this. I thought it was a pretty neat idea from Huckabee and could have served well to better know the candidates BEFORE we give them the nom. Bummer. Would have been a good chance for the public to get to know Thompson too, becuase I'm not sure too many of us do...
McCain is an outdated, senile old fool who has nothing left to say. I respect his past service, but he needs to shut up and go home.
Choose to lose? McCain and the ilk see this war as a matter of pride which we lost in 2000 when Bush was elected. If we do the right thing, McCain, we win. The right thing is to leave and gain some objective insight into the mess we made. Only then can we clean it up. You can't keep using a dirty mop and expect a clean floor.
Unfortunately, John of Warrenton, Missouri is right. No matter when or if we leave, Iraq will be a blood bath. The Iraqis should thank George Bush for destroying Saddam Hussein's government and for destroying any stability that the country might have once enjoyed.
"Thats a way of life for dems."
RightyTighty,
Actually, it appears that it is a way of life for the Republicans: 1.) Lost the House. 2.) Lost the Senate. 3.) Going to lose the Presidency.
What is your definition of "winning" in Iraq?
This is the man that should be our next President. He is the most qualified candidate to lead us through these troubled times..
Joe Biden has had it right all along . . . and we all heard Ambassador Crocker humiliate Senator McCain by dismissing his "soft partition" nonsense and saying that virtually all Iraqis favor a decentralized federal system as called for by their Constitution. This is the exact plan put forward, 18 months ago, by Senator Biden and Les Gelb. McCain was livid!
We need to leave Iraq!! We have our men dieing each and every day and why? So we can try and help them. I say to let them deal with their own problems.