May 02, 2008
McCain Thinks First Gulf War Was a Mistake (But Still Supports This One)
John McCain famously supports the war in Iraq. Today he said that the war in Iraq was about oil. Even CNN recognized this for the huge gaffe that it is — you just can’t say that in the US, especially if it might be true. So they called his campaign and offered McCain a chance to explain/retract. And explain it he did: making it much worse.
McCain’s explanation? Despite the context which pretty clearly refers to the current Iraq War, McCain now says he meant the First Gulf War—when the US came to the rescue of Kuwait after Iraq invaded it.
In other words, McCain’s explanation is that what he was saying is that in a world where the US had energy independence he’d use that freedom to abandon allies like Kuwait if they were invaded, but would support a policy of attacking and occupying countries like Iraq when they don’t invade their neighbors.
I. Am. Not. Making. This. Up.
In any rational media ecology this would be a million times worse than something your ex-pastor said. Can I at least hope for a little box on page one promoting the article on A24?
Posted by Michael : May 2, 2008 10:55 PM | Iraq | TechnoLinks
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It!
Straight Talk indeed!
I think it would be hugely amusing for the left to play it by saying "We agree exactly with Senator McCain's statement that the US should have an energy policy so it doesn't have to send troops to the Middle East. As Senator McCain said, an energy policy would prevent wars like he mentioned. He sure did some straight talk there about the connection between oil and war ..."
Posted by: Seth Finkelstein at May 3, 2008 08:02 PMDidn't a majority of Democrats oppose the Gulf War? Were they abandoning an "ally"? Or is that something you've just now made up?
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