Here is the atrocious political comment du jour by a presidential candidate. It’s from Senator McCain about Senator Clinton’s war plan she laid out at the last debate:
“…The statements made by Senator Clinton,” said McCain, “about setting a specific date for [withdrawing troops from Iraq] is the first time, I think, in American political history, that a candidate of a major political party has advocated surrender.”
He’s been throwing around this, “Democrats want to surrender” crap since the start of the surge.
Apparently John McCain doesn’t know what the word surrender means. Because Senator Clinton is not suggesting the troops lay down their weapons, throw up their hands and deliver themselves to the mercy of the enemy. Nor does she propose that we abandon our overall war against extreme Islamic terrorists.
We’ve been told over and over that the war on terror has many fronts and that Iraq is just one of them. If that’s true then getting out of Iraq isn’t surrender. It’s a strategic retreat. Because if things on a particular front are hopeless, or, if that particular front is worthless in terms of military or strategic value, or, both — as is the case with Iraq — then the smart thing to do is retreat from that front and put your resources where they can be more effective.
You think a war hero would know the difference between retreat and surrender. Actually, he probably does know the difference. I’m quite certain McCain knows “surrender” is not what Clinton is advocating. But it doesn’t matter to him because it serves his agenda to portray Hillary as weak, timid, and afraid.
I don’t care much for Hillary Clinton, but she’s far from weak, timid or afraid.
You’re right, but your point is mere semantics. Hillary wants to lose, and for the worst reason: naked political opportunism. Either way, though, we are in fact winning in Iraq. Al Qaeda’s gotten their asses handed to them, and even worse for them, they’ve been utterly rejected by their core constituents in what was once the capital of the Caliphate. We couldn’t have done that to them in Afghanistan, even if we’d killed OBL. If Iraq suceeds, they lose–easy enough to understand if you put aside domestic politics.