Saturday, December 08, 2007

McCain: Iraq Surge Is Succeeding

Speaking at the Old Bedford Town Hall, Arizona Senator John McCain argued that the surge in Iraq is working.

“Our strategy is succeeding. I can look you in the eye and tell you that our strategy is succeeding,” McCain said.

McCain told a crowd of almost 300 citizens, “Al-Qaeda is on the run, but not defeated. If I were Al-Qaeda I’d be trying to plan some spectacular event so to set back American public opinion.”

“They know if force a timetable for withdrawal, they can eventually take over Iraq. If we had did what the Democrats wanted to do six months ago, Al-Qaeda would be saying they beat the United States of America.”

The Republican presidential candidate also took a shot at Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

“My colleague the State from New York, Senator Clinton, said ‘General Petraeus I would have to suspend disbelief to belief the surge is working.’ Well, my friends, any reasonable person today would have to suspend disbelief to think its not working. We are making progress,” McCain said.

A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll showed thirty-six percent of New Hampshire Republican voters think McCain has the best Iraqi policy.

1 comment:

Pete Chown said...

I think it's dangerous to claim a military victory, as McCain is doing here. Much of the decline in Iraqi violence is probably because of the efforts made to engage the Sunni tribes.

The Sunnis could stop playing ball any time they feel like it, and yet I think people in the West are getting overconfident. At the end of November, plans were put forward for an unending American military presence, and preferential American access to Iraqi oil. That is really dangerous; nothing could be more calculated to make the Sunni tribes switch the insurgency back on.