Obama v. McCain on troop levels, more

MSNBC by Domenico Montanaro | May. 30, 2008 (News Report)

"It's very disturbing to have John McCain continually raise questions about what he knows and what he bases is judgments on," Kerry said. "If you don't know the numbers of troops, it's very difficult to make a judgment about whether or not you're overextended. It's also very difficult to have an understanding as a citizen about what levels of troops he's gonna keep there, because if he thinks 150,000 is pre-surge, and that's where he's gonna stay. That's a ... Full Story »

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3.4

by Elaine Meyer - Oct. 1, 2008

This story on the subject of McCain's incorrect statements about troop levels in Iraq is well-sourced on the immediate matter of McCain's troop level comment but could provide broader context for McCain's arguments that he has foreign policy experience. Commendably, the writers challenge McCain's assertion that he did not say troops were at pre-surge levels by referencing a quote from him and theylink to reporting that contradicts McCain's statement that an Iraqi marketplace he toured was safe. This is how reporting should be done: the reporter investigates the veracity of any statements s/he quotes from an official rather than just playing two officials' opposing statements off one another. The article would benefit if it did this in response to other remarks by McCain, such as his campaign's comments that Obama has no experience on the issue. Reporting on this issue also suffers as long as the media fails to spotlight McCain's past foreign policy experience rather than presenting--unremarked upon--his claims that this experience is beneficial.

(comment refers to full article)

Juan Cole provides useful perspective on McCain’s experience: McCain’s taunts are ridiculous. His foreign policy-making experience is also limited, since he was not in the executive. To the extent he has been involved in others’ foreign policy initiatives, he has been wrong most of the time. He demanded more money in the 1980s for the mujahideen in Afghanistan, some of whom later morphed into al-Qaeda and the Taliban. He coddled Pakistani military dictators such as Gen. Zia ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf. Gen. Zia promoted the fundamentalist Jama’at-i Islami and the ‘Islamization’ of Pakistani law. Musharraf declined to follow through on former PM Nawaz Sharif’s pledge to send in a SWAT team to get Usama Bin Laden, in fall of 1999. McCain also was tight with Ahmad Chalabi and helped get up the Iraq War in the first place.