Mccain hides behind Petraeus to attack Obama (Part 1)
- 00:07:23
- YouTube
Mccain hides behind Petraeus to attack Obama (Part 1)
John McCain addresses a town hall meeting in Pemberton, New Jersey, 13 June 2008 McCain says the United States is winning in Iraq, and he strongly opposes Senator Obama's plan to begin troop withdrawals shortly after taking office. "He said the surge could not work and would not work, and to this day, to this very day, Senator Obama refuses to acknowledge that we are winning in Iraq," he said. "He refuses. He called it spin. Is General Petraeus spinning the American people? I do not think so. I do not think so." Obama was on the campaign trail Friday in Ohio, usually a key swing state in presidential elections. Obama restated his opposition to the war in Iraq after a voter asked him why the U.S. image abroad has sharply declined in recent years. "Everybody supported us after 9/11. Everybody supported us going into Afghanistan. Right? It was not until we decided to go into Iraq, without listening to other countries who warned us that it might be a mistake, and George Bush basically ignored world opinion and the facts that there was no connection between 9/11 and Iraq, that is when world opinion plummeted," he said. The latest campaign jabs on Iraq come at the end of a week of back and forth volleys on the war, which is likely to be a key issue in the November election, along with the weakening U.S. economy. "McCain is betting that the American people will be persuaded, ultimately, that no matter how angry they seem to be about what is going on in Iraq, we cannot afford to lose," said Tom DeFrank of the New York Daily News and a frequent guest on VOA's Issues in the News program. "And, I think that Obama is taking the position that we will not lose, but we do not need to have as many troops there as we do at the moment, and with three-quarters of the American people opposed to the war in Iraq, I think that is an issue that works for Obama better than it does for McCain." http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-06-13-voa47.cfm?rss=iraq Contrary to General Petraeus's testimony, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) attest that the major destabilizing force in Iraq is the ongoing U.S. occupation. What's more, U.S. troops are being commanded to perform acts that directly violate their moral codes and the rules of war, making a positive outcome exceedingly difficult to achieve. Less than one month ago, over 100 veterans and active-duty soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan shared their eyewitness accounts of the occupations at Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan. Their testimony illustrated how the ongoing occupation of Iraq is resulting in the dehumanization and abuse of the Iraqi people, the destabilization and breakdown of the U.S. military, and the emotional and physical injury and damage to thousands of U.S. troops. Testifiers gave firsthand accounts of being ordered to raid the homes of innocent Iraqis, physically and psychologically abuse Iraqi prisoners, and indiscriminately shoot at civilians. "Petraeus continues to repeat the administration's talking points while ignoring what the soldiers on the ground know: the Iraq occupation is not working," said Kelly Dougherty, a former Military Police Sergeant in Iraq and Executive Director of IVAW. http://www.alternet.org/blogs/waroniraq/81826/?ses=0caf17407d5cb99b663800199ab0cf82
YouTube | June 15, 2008
