McCain Is Wrong On Afghanistan

McCain Is Wrong On Afghanistan
Forbes - NY,USA
Barnett R. Rubin 10.02.08, 12:01 AM ET


I have supported Sen. Barack Obama for president for well over a year, mainly on the strength of his positions on international affairs--I judged him the candidate most likely to restore America's position in the world. The first presidential debate reinforced that view, especially on the issue I know best: Afghanistan, Pakistan and al-Qaida. The vice-presidential debate Thursday, between Sen. Joe Biden, who has focused on this region for years and whose criticisms of the McCain-supported policy have proved valid, and Gov. Sarah Palin, who knows nothing of this deadly problem, can only reinforce the difference between the tickets.

Sen. Obama knows that on 9/11, America was not attacked by "terrorism," but by al-Qaida. The core leadership of that global network remains where it has been since 1996: in the border areas spanning Pakistan and Afghanistan. Yet before those leaders had been killed or captured, before Afghanistan was secured, before the Pakistan military reversed its policy of Taliban support, McCain acted as cheerleader for moving intelligence assets and Special Forces from South Asia to Iraq--a move so rushed and irresponsibly precipitous that the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Dan McNeil, threatened to confine all Special Forces there to base if further intelligence resources were removed. As long as we have four times more troops in Iraq as in Afghanistan, we cannot even start to remedy this situation. What's more, Sen. McCain refuses a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq even though the Iraqi government itself has demanded one.
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One of the comments left on this article was that Obama is getting support because of his speaking ability. How absurd is that? Obama can speak clearly and passionately but even with that, if he did not speak with the conviction, understanding of the issues and intelligence, none of that would matter. Obama has been right on Afghanistan, Iraq, national defense, the economy, global warming and energy issues, international affairs and above all, how to take care of veterans. Obama has a shorter record but his is one of excellence while McCain's is one of being wrong. What good does experience do a person when they have more time to prove they have been wrong on so many things and learned nothing from them?

McCain can claim anything he wants and look right into the camera but he lies as easily as he tells the truth. This comes from a person with absolutely no conscience at all. His record on veterans is abysmal but he tells veterans he knows how to take care of them. Does this mean he knows how to make them suffer?


He claims to know what is right in Iraq but his plans did not go past adding more troops. This was just a fraction of what has worked in Iraq but was not the success he claims it has been. It was his bad judgment when he pushed for the invasion of Iraq right after 9-11. This act was responsible for the deaths of the troops in Iraq, the Iraqi people, as well as the situation in Afghanistan since 2001.

America can't afford more years of experiencing McCain's record of bad judgment. kc