The only McCain ever tried to fight in, he got his ass kicked. So why is he now claiming to be some kind of a badass? How does spending 5 1/2 years as a POW translate into “knowing how to win wars?” What war does he even have the impression he’s going to win now? Does he think we’re actually fighting any kind of a real war in Iraq? Did he have a cellmate at the HH who was an expert on multilateral, Sunni insurgencies. How does an occupying power “win” a civil war between intenal opposing factions?
Shouldn’t he just shut the fuck up with this stupid line of his? There’s nothing to “win” in Iraq and using that kind of language just makes him look blustery and uninformed. He’s got enough problems with that already. He’s also goingaround saying that Obama was wrong for saying the troop escalation in Iraq wouldn’t work, when in fact it hasn’t worked. His handlers are very cruel to allow him to go around saying stupid shit all the time, and somebody ought to remind him that he lost his own fucking war.
Quick answer(s): I don’t know. None that I know of. Bad ass is a relative term. He’s a politician; he wants to garner votes, so… he logically will play his one ace in his hand: his military service. What I wonder about is his stance on torture, having had some personal experience with that himself… But it doesn’t keep me up at night or inspire me to start Pit threads.
This (the thread, the election, the war in Iraq) won’t end well. <shoots off starter gun>
He’s been to Iraq more times than Obama. So there.
Seriously, what else does he have? Maybe he’ll do his own tour of Europe. I’m sure he could draw thousands of people like Obama did. The difference is that the crowd would be burning flags.
Fear was W’s strong suit. Elect me or terrorists will kill you. McCain will play pretty much the same hand. Obama will lose in Iraq, but I know how to win. Makes no sense, but there you are.
Perhaps he has some insight that Obama doesn’t because he’s an owner of Silver Stars, Bronze Stars, Purple Hearts, Distinguished Flying Crosses, a War College graduate, a 22-year Navy vet (hmm…perhaps he did more than be captured in those 22 years, no?), holds a Master’s in National Security Strategy and has logged 21 years as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The facts are indisputable, Obama hasn’t even completed a term in the Senate yet.
Obama is well-educated, Harvard Law, state legislator, community organizer…and has never seen a day of military service, and whom has no working concept of how the military and national strategic policy works.
I am not casting stones here. I am awaiting the outcome of Presidential debates.
People that have military records have a less than desirable success rate as POTUS.
Lawyers from Illinois, however, are off the charts.
FoieGrasIsEvil: And for all that he still cast his lot in with the party that supports torture and continuing an occupation against the will of the local government we set up. How quick of a learner is he, again?
McCain’s claim is not just that he has military service, but that he “Knows how to win wars.” He has never won a war, so it’s a stupid thing for him to say. Having been a POW in Vietnam does not mean he knows how to win wars.
While your list of facts is fairly accurate, I have a problem with the bold part of your statement.
I am a year younger then Obama, have never served a day in the military or any part of government. But I have a concept of how both the military and national strategic policy work. Not at all nuanced or at any level of detail, but I can follow along when more knowledgeable people hold forth. I think it is fair to say that Obama has a much clearer grasp of both then I do, especially since I believe that he is now getting national security briefs due to being the presumptive Democratic candidate.
And Diogenes point is valid. McCain may have more insight into the military mindset (which may be a good or bad point) and systems, but that by itself does not mean he knows how to win a war. And his continual gaffes on the international situation and the history of both the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts does not inspire confidence in his abilities in his supposed strong suit.
Thanks. I think you just put your finger on why that line annoys me so much. I respect Mccain’s military cred, but what does it have to do with the price of weed?
I want to know why the word peace is painted on John McCain’s campaign plane.
He wants to bomb Iran, he wants to keep US troops fighting in Iraq for another century…who the hell believes that anything he stands for will lead to peace in any way?
Who’s he trying to fool? Why does it say peace on his plane?!
Cheney’s still going around saying Iraq was in part behind 9/11. It’s the repeat-bullshit-ad-infinitum strategy, and it works for the people who buy it in the marketplace of ideas. He wouldn’t sell it if nobody was buying it. There’s a not insignificant number of people who will believe McCain just because he’s their sumbitch.
Actually, him selling his military experience isn’t the worst thing; that’s going to come this fall when he’s still behind and has to resort to the “Obama’s a Nigger, you’re not going to vote for a Nigger, now are you?” gambit.
So, uhmm, if he knows how to win the Iraq war (yeah yeah, just follow me here) why hasn´t he shared his winning strategy with his everyone in earshot so the killing can stop and peace be restored?
Or he´d rather keep mum and let people die so as to retain something that would, conceivably, land him in the oval office?
We won the war in Iraq; took about three weeks. Rather astoundingly, there seems to have been zero planning for the occupation and inevitable insurgency we’ve been dealing with for over five years since.
So it’s like an absurdist comedy when I keep hearing about “winning the war”. What exactly is that supposed to mean?
John McCaine used to have appeal to a broad range of people because he was a Republican, but a maverick who wouldn’t hesitate to fight his own party on a matter of principle. In this campaign, he’s just sounding like another Republican.
I would argue that is exactly what they teach you in war college - but he has, in fact, book knowledge on “how to win wars” - along with some real world experience in both “how to participate in war” “how to hold relatively minor management positions in war” but perhaps most (or least) impressively “how to provide congressional oversight to the process of war.”
I do not think that Roosevelt fought in any wars. Nor did GW Bush.Being smart enough to check facts before getting in to one seems more sensible to me.