McCain's Tunnel Vision on Iraq

McCain & Crist Audition For Roles of Bush & Cheney

For Immediate Release: April 8, 2008

TALLAHASSEE - John McCain and Empty Chair Charlie Crist have a lot in common.

After not even knowing the difference between Sunni and Shiite, John McCain today displayed a Crist-like ability to live in a parallel universe. Harkening to Crist's sweet denial of Florida's Republican recession, McCain continues to delude himself on progress made in the war in Iraq.

With violence escalating in Baghdad - rockets rained down yesterday on the supposedly safe "Green Zone" - and General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker testifying in Washington, McCain reaffirmed his commitment to an endless war. He refuses to say whether he understands how dysfunctional the political situation in Iraq is currently - a point that General Petraeus concedes - or begin to offer any plan for withdrawal.

Petraeus has declared that that "no one" believes "there has been sufficient progress by any means in the area of national reconciliation," while McCain maintains, "I don't care what anybody says. I've seen the facts on the ground." McCain waxes on about his willingness to keep our troops in Iraq for 100 years, even though he has failed to put forward any plan for the future of Iraq and refuses to explain how he will pay for the war that is now costing American taxpayers $12 million a month while making Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy permanent. [USA Today, 3/24/08; Reuters, 3/14/08; Washington Post, 3/14/08; AP, 3/10/08; [NH Town Hall meeting, 1/3/08; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf7HYoh9YMM&e] ]

A majority of Americans want our troops to begin withdrawing and 89 percent of Americans think the cost of the war has contributed to the economic problems in our country. [New York Times, 4/4/08]

"John McCain is so stubbornly hung up on meager gains in Iraq's military that he is oblivious to dangerous deteriorations in the country's political state. With so much at stake, we simply can't afford any more of this Republican tunnel vision in the White House," Florida Democratic Party spokesman Alejandro Miyar said. "George W. Bush blazed the trail, and unfortunately, McCain appears to be blindly following in his footsteps. He offers nothing more than a third Bush term on Iraq, and that's the last thing the American people want."