John McCain -- A Real Commander-In-Chief By Emory "Trip" Bellard, Human Events

March 24, 2008

The fifth anniversary of the Iraq War is a strong reminder that we as a nation must consider which Presidential candidate will beat the terrorists and keep our troops safe, all while moving America forward. The answer to that comes in the form of Senator John McCain. His experience and understanding of the threat we face stands in stark contrast to the positions of Senator Clinton and Barack Obama.

Looking at Clinton's shifting views on Iraq; it's easy to see a pattern of politicking and pandering. In 2002, she voted for the Iraq War resolution, but now claims she would not have voted for the war. At the time she stated in the Senate floor: "So it is with conviction that I support this resolution as being in the best interests of our Nation." In January 2007, Clinton said, "If I had been president in October of 2002, I would have not started this war."

Her shifts continued with statements concerning troop withdrawal. On Meet the Press in 2005, Clinton said, "We don't want to send a signal to the insurgents, to the terrorists, that we are going to be out of here at some, you know, date certain." She continued by saying establishing a date for withdrawal would give a "green light" to insurgents to just bide their time. But earlier this year she said she'll start bringing troops "home within 60 days" of taking office.

Another egregious backtrack of Clinton's came in May 2007, when she said she would "of course" provide funding for the troops. But just weeks later, she voted against an emergency Iraq spending bill to provide $94.4 billion in funding for the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. She repeated that action by voting in November against $70 billion in emergency Iraq funding.

In a speech on Monday, Clinton continued to pander to voters by taking McCain's words out of context. She suggested McCain will "... stay the course, keeping troops in Iraq for up to 100 years if necessary." That is not the case, however. Senator McCain was speaking in terms of a post-war scenario to maintain an American troop presence, not a combat presence, just as Americans have been peacefully present in Germany and Japan for more than 60 years.

But it's not just Clinton who has shifted on the issues. Barack Obama has exhibited shifting rhetoric as well. In April 2007, he opposed severing troop funding, saying "... nobody wants to play chicken with our troops on the ground." But turned around weeks later and voted against funding for the troops, essentially pandering to left-wing extremist group MoveOn.org.

The group sent an e-mail alert to its 3.2 million members, threatening to support primary contests against Democrat candidates who voted in support of troop funding. And now Obama says he won't vote for additional troop funding without a timeline for withdrawal. Denying funds for body armor, mine-resistant vehicles, and combating IEDs sure seems like playing "chicken with the troops" to me.

Both Democrat candidates have shown they are neither straightforward nor consistent when discussing the Iraq War. America faces a very real threat of terrorism, and with Obama or Clinton in the White House that threat will only grow when we send a message to the enemy that we are willing to surrender and allow them to declare victory in Iraq.

John McCain will be the Commander in Chief who will get
positive work done in Iraq and Afghanistan by securing those countries and
keeping our troops adequately prepared. I cannot say the same for Clinton if she
was elected President, nor can I imagine the drastic consequences of Obama's
actions at the helm of our nation's military. We as Americans cannot trust
either of them with the fate of our nation's security, just as we cannot trust
their continuously shifting views on how to handle the War on
Terror.

As a veteran and leader on military and foreign relations issues, Senator McCain appreciates the sacrifices our troops have made. He also understands the very real threat posed to our nation each and every day by radical extremists. He knows that American and allied troops are making real progress. And he will be able to guide us forward to success.

Emory "Trip" Bellard is an Iraq War veteran who served with the 1st Infantry Division.

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Dems Take McCain Out Of Context On Iraq

Fact check: Democrats take McCain's remark on Iraq out of context

No, John McCain is not proposing a 100-year war in Iraq.

The future Republican presidential nominee and the Democrats vying to run against him in the fall are engaged in a debate of sorts over how long U.S. troops should stay in Iraq and under what circumstances.

That's a genuine point of contention. But Hillary Rodham Clinton and especially Barack Obama have distilled McCain's position into sound bite oversimplifications, suggesting he foresees a war without end in anyone's lifetime.

THE SPIN:

Obama: "We are bogged down in a war that John McCain now suggests might go on for another 100 years."

Clinton: "I've also been a leader in trying to prevent President Bush from getting us committed to staying in Iraq regardless, for as long as Senator McCain and others have said it might be _ 50 to 100 years."

THE FACTS:

The Democrats leave out a vital caveat.

When McCain was asked about Bush's theory that U.S. troops could be in Iraq for 50 years, the senator said: "Maybe 100. As long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed, it's fine with me, and I hope it would be fine with you, if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where al-Qaida is training, recruiting, equipping and motivating people every single day."

A troop presence that does not involve Americans being harmed is, by definition, not a war.

That hasn't stopped the Democrats from making hay with the comment on a frequent basis. And it's seeped down to voters, one of whom challenged McCain this week on his remark.

The senator pointed to the half-century or longer U.S. presence in South Korea and other parts of the world where forces are stationed to deter conflict, not fight one.

"No American argues against our military presence in Korea or Japan or Germany or Kuwait or other places, or Turkey, because America is not receiving casualties," he said. In fact, some Americans do argue against permanent bases in far-flung places, but not with the same vigor they oppose a war with casualties.

The White House said in May that Bush envisioned a long-term U.S. troop presence in Iraq similar to the one in South Korea, where American forces have helped keep an uneasy peace for more than 50 years.

REMARKS BY JOHN MCCAIN ON FLORIDA PRIMARY VICTORY

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

ARLINGTON, VA -- U.S. Senator John McCain's presidential campaign today released the following remarks by John McCain as prepared for delivery:

Thank you. Thank you, Florida Republicans, for bringing a former Florida resident across the finish line first in -- as I have been repeatedly reminded lately -- an all Republican primary. I have always loved this beautiful state, from the time I was a young naval aviator learning my trade in Pensacola to the time I commanded the largest air squadron in the United States Navy at Cecil Field. Most of all, I have always been indebted to Florida friends and neighbors in Orange Park for taking such good care of my family while I was away on a longer than expected tour of duty. Florida has always been a special place to me, and it is all the more so tonight. Our victory might not have reached landslide proportions, but it is sweet nonetheless. And I am deeply grateful to everyone who worked so hard to make it happen.

Time will only allow me to thank a few of our Florida supporters by name, but to everyone who, in good times and bad, devoted so much time, energy and hope to keeping our candidacy competitive, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Thank you, of course, to the great governor of Florida, Charlie Crist; to my dear friend, Senator Mel Martinez; to Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen; Congressmen Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart; Representative Marcelo Llorente; Commissioner Mildred Fernandez; Representative Adam Hasner; Senator Durell Peaden; Representative Bogdanoff and Council President Durell Davis. And thank you so much to our tremendous statewide volunteer leadership who stuck with us for eighteen long, very long months.

And as always, I want to thank my family for their extraordinary support and encouragement: my wife Cindy, daughter Meghan and son, Doug, who are here, and my children who are not here. It is obvious to me, as it should be to everyone, that I could not have done this without you.

This was a hard fought election, and worth fighting hard for, but I've been on the other side of such contests before, and experienced the disappointment. I offer my best wishes to Governor Romney and his supporters. You fought hard for your candidate, and the margin that separated us tonight surely isn't big enough for me to brag about or for you to despair. Governor Huckabee and his supporters, as always, brought to this campaign conviction and passion and something we don't always have enough of in these contests, good humor and grace. And I want to thank, my dear friend, Rudy Giuliani, who invested his heart and soul in this primary, and who conducted himself with all the qualities of the exceptional American leader he truly is. Thank you, for all you have added to this race, and for being an inspiration to me and millions of Americans.

My friends, in one week we will have as close to a national primary as we have ever had in this country. I intend to win it, and be the nominee of our party. And I intend to do that by making it clear what I stand for. I stand for the principles and policies that first attracted me to the Republican Party when I heard, in whispered conversations and tap codes, about the then Governor of California, who stood by me and my comrades, and who was making quite a reputation for standing by his convictions no matter the changing winds of political thought and popular culture. When I left the Navy and entered public life, I enlisted as a foot soldier in the political revolution he began. And I am as proud to be a Reagan conservative today, as I was then. I trust in the courage, good sense, resourcefulness and decency of the American people, who deserve a government that trusts in their qualities as well, and doesn't abrogate to its elf the responsibilities to do for the people what the people can and want to do for themselves.

We Republicans have always known that the first responsibility of government is to keep this country safe from all enemies foreign and domestic, and the American people unburdened by the heavy hand of government that spends too much of their money on things they neither want nor need, while failing to do as well as we should the things none of us can do individually. Government must defend our nation's security wisely and effectively, because the cost of our defense is so dear to us, measured in losses so hard to bear, and in the heartbreak of so many families. Government must respect our values because they are the true source of our strength; and enforce the rule, which distinguishes successful democracies from failed societies, and is the first defense of freedom. And the judges we appoint to federal benches must understand that is their only responsibility, and leave to elected officials their responsibility to make the laws that they enforce. We believe government should do only those things we cannot do individually, to tax us no more than necessary, and spend no more than necessary, and then get out of the way of the most industrious, ingenious and optimistic people in the history of the world so that they can build an even greater country than the one they inherited.

My friends, as I said the other week in South Carolina, there is nothing in our country that is inevitable. We can overcome any challenge as long as we keep our courage, and stand by the principles that have made our party and our country great. Our party has always been successful when we have, like Ronald Reagan, stood fast by our convictions. And we have only suffered when our allegiance to our principles has not been as steadfast as it should. I intend to make my stand on those principles, and I am confident we will succeed in this contest and in the bigger one in November against anyone the Democratic Party nominates.

Most importantly, I promise you again, I will always
put America -- her strength, her ideals, her future -- before every other
consideration.

Tonight, my friends, we celebrate. Tomorrow it's back to work. We have a ways to go, but we are getting close, and for that you all have my profound thanks. Goodnight and God bless you.

JOHN McCAIN's EXCELLENT VICTORY SPEECH from SC Last Night - Video

This was one of John McCain's Best Speeches ever!

Political Attacks On Military Service Should Be Off-Limits By George A Baker, Greenville News

January 19, 2008

The purpose of this column is not to encourage voters to necessarily support John McCain. I have great faith in the moxie and good judgment of our citizens to smell out a rat when confronted with one. My purpose is to refute the sickened kings of dirty tricks involved in the recent sneak attack on John McCain by a so-called veteran's group. Given the treatment that he received during the 2000 primary, I believe that Sen. McCain deserves better from our citizens than that which appeared in the S.C. mail this week.

I can say without doubt, backed up by those who were imprisoned with him from 1968 until 1973, that John McCain was and remains a true American hero today. This is not to say that we should vote for him because of his service in what became a very unpopular war, nor should we not vote for him based on the propaganda of a few misguided sunshine patriots.

I believe that John McCain is a true American hero for the following crosschecked and documented reasons. John McCain became a naval aviator after graduating from the Naval Academy in 1958. In Vietnam he flew attack aircraft off American carriers located in the Gulf of Tonkin.

As the son of the commander-in-chief of the Pacific Fleet, John McCain could have easily avoided combat assignments in order to deny the enemy propaganda ammunition should he be captured. In true hero fashion, John McCain would not consider such a proposition -- no red-blooded American fighting man or woman would do otherwise.

He chose to fly the most dangerous military missions because he was an American Naval aviator, seeking to fulfill and his Annapolis pledge of duty, honor and country. He was shot down on his 23rd mission by a Russian built SA-2 missile while on a mission over Hanoi, the North Vietnamese capitol that had previously been off-limits to allied planes due to international concerns. In bailing out of his crippled A-4 Skyhawk, and landing near a hostile village, John McCain was seriously injured and subsequently spent five-and-one half years as a prisoner of war. After capture, he spent six weeks in the hospital and probably would have died given the seriousness of his wounds, had it not been for the intervention of his POW comrades who took it upon themselves to nurse him back to some basic level of health

Once it was discovered who he was and what propaganda could be potentially made of his confessions, he endured heavy pressure to denounce his country and to escape the torture that he was systematically administered to him on a daily basis. He was the special target of his tormentors because of who he was perceived to be -- a member of America's military-political elite.

In August 1968 the agonizing torture was ratcheted-up with the knowledge that his torturers only needed to find his breaking point. In one well-used exercise his arms were pulled up to the point that they came out of their sockets, and today John McCain cannot raise his arms over his head. McCain later said, " I had learned what we all learned ... every man has his breaking point. I had reached mine."

American hero John McCain performed in the manner expected of all American fighting men and women. He bent but he did not break. He finally signed an anti-American statement confessing to a "black criminal" and "an air pirate" only as an alternative to taking his own life. Today he is clearly out of step with those who would sanction torture to gain information of dubious value.

Four years ago in the presidential race, a group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ran ads that challenged Democratic nominee John Kerry's service in Vietnam. The Boston Globe and CBS ran a series of ill-advised attacks on President George W. Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard. Surely these attacks ought to contain a richness of documented and crosschecked evidence.

A man's service to his country must be perceived to be honorable unless documented to the contrary. For any candidate running in any election and especially those running today, validated evidence exists to help us make up our minds. We only need to seek and verify truth, for as Congressman Grassley of Iowa recently said, "Truth is a great disinfectant."

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