McBush: Fact Challenged 1
And this is supposed to be a foreign policy maven.
Dick Polman has the facts (emphasis added):
Well, we can look McCain right in the eye and remind him that, as a matter of fact, we have not drawn down to pre-Surge levels. It’s just a matter of comparing the actual numbers. Before President Bush ordered his troop escalation in January 2007, we had 128,569 soldiers in Iraq; today, we have 155,000 soldiers in Iraq. In accordance with how math generally works, the latter number is larger than the former.
Putting aside MCain’s claim that Mosul is “quiet,” on the same day that Mosul reportedly suffered three suicide bombings . . . .
The problem, of course, is that McCain was declaring the draw-down to pre-Surge levels as Mission Accomplished, whereas, in factual reality, it is no such thing.
(snip)
McCain has twice confused the Sunnis and the Shiites.
(snip)
He has insisted that Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the most powerful figure in that country, whereas, in reality, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iran’s national security council are the powers that run the show. (McCain is fine with the idea of repeating the error about Ahmadinejad: “I think of you asked any average American who the leader of Iran is, I think they’d know.”) And after a recent clash between Iraqi government troops and Shiite insurgents pledged to Moqtada al-Sadr, McCain erroneously stated that a chastened Sadr had sought a ceasefire, whereas, in reality, the ceasefire was kick-started when the Iraqi government asked its allies in Iran to broke the process; in the end, Sadr’s forces were left virtually intact.
Mr. Polman goes on the wonder what the reaction might have been had Senator Obama made even one of these mistakes.
June 2, 2008 at 7:31 am
The Republicans can say we’re making progress in Iraq all they want but the Washington Post editorial board is pointing out the real facts of the situation: http://tinyurl.com/58vafv