McCain wrong on troop surge, it was a spending splurge

Just one more piece of proof that the surge in troops was not what worked the way McCain wanted. His answer was to send in more troops but wiser heads won the day and found a way to calm things down. They paid the enemy off and got them to kill off the bad guys. McCain was wrong on the need to invade Iraq after 9-11 when he said it on camera, wrong on not wanting any accountability, wrong on not demanding plans for the sake of the troops and the people of Iraq, wrong about never talking about what was happening in Afghanistan when NATO was screaming for more troops, wrong on VA funding, wrong on the GI Bill and for a man who claims he knows what to do, he's failed across the boards. The American people and the troops can't afford any more deception.

Secret killing program is key in Iraq, Woodward says
Story Highlights
Program likened to WWII-era Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb

Author discloses the existence of secret operational capabilities in latest book

National security advisor disputes Woodward's conclusion about the Iraq surge

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The dramatic drop in violence in Iraq is due in large part to a secret program the U.S. military has used to kill terrorists, according to a new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Woodward.


Bob Woodward's book, "The War Within: Secret White House History 2006-2008," came out Monday.

The program -- which Woodward compares to the World War II era Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb -- must remain secret for now or it would "get people killed," Woodward said Monday on CNN's Larry King Live.

"It is a wonderful example of American ingenuity solving a problem in war, as we often have," Woodward said.

In "The War Within: Secret White House History 2006-2008," Woodward disclosed the existence of secret operational capabilities developed by the military to locate, target and kill leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgent leaders.

National security adviser Stephen Hadley, in a written statement reacting to Woodward's book, acknowledged the new strategy. Yet he disputed Woodward's conclusion that the "surge" of 30,000 U.S. troops into Iraq was not the primary reason for the decline in violent attacks.

"It was the surge that provided more resources and a security context to support newly developed techniques and operations," Hadley wrote.

Woodward, associate editor of the Washington Post, wrote that along with the surge and the new covert tactics, two other factors helped reduce the violence. Watch Bob Woodward explain the strategy »
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http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/09/09/iraq.secret/index.html

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