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Evangel70 -> The McBush Presidency (6/1/2008 11:06:27 AM)
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McCain takes hit from Obama on Iraq progress
GOP candidate's 'surge' numbers appear off mark
Campaigning in Wisconsin on Thursday, McCain said that the so-called troop surge President Bush initiated last year was working, asserting as evidence that the United States had fewer troops in Iraq than it did before the surge began.
"We have drawn down to presurge levels," McCain said.
But according to Pentagon figures, McCain, who regularly argues that his superior knowledge and judgment about the Iraq war makes him more fit than Democratic front-runner Barack Obama to be president, is wrong.
The US currently has more than 150,000 troops in the country; prior to the surge, there were about 130,000. Even after planned withdrawals over the next two months, the Pentagon has said it expects to have 140,000 American troops there at the end of July….
[John] Kerry also raised McCain's trip to a Baghdad market last year, during which McCain cited security gains in the city despite being protected by a heavy US troop presence and wearing body armor, and McCain's mistake two months ago in saying that Iran, a largely Shi'ite country, was training Al Qaeda, the Sunni terrorist network. It is impossible to argue that you are an expert on Iraq, Kerry said, "if you don't know the number of troops, if you don't know who's training whom, if you don't know what's safe."
story here
Obama connected McCain's Iraq comments to President Bush's unwillingness to admit fault "when he was presented with facts that went against his views" on the war.
"Just like George Bush, John McCain is refusing to admit that he's made a mistake," the White House hopeful continued. "And that's exactly the kind of leadership that has got us fighting for five years in a war that should've never been authorized."
Obama's response
So, if McCain can't get his facts straight, how is he expected to lead the nation? Is he suffering from the same "I misspoke" syndrome as Obama and Clinton or are we in for 4 more years of lies and denial?
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