It is clearly based on political posturing and has little to do with reality.
He has stated that he wants to add about 100,000 men to the Army and Marines, and then send 20,000 more troops into Iraq. McCain thinks that these extra troops may be what we need to win in Iraq. While he is promoting this idea he is also stressing that Iraq may be won or lost in the next ninety days.
There are a number of contradictions in his pronouncements that make you question his intelligence or honesty.
First, 20,000 men will not make any real difference. Prior to our attack of Iraq, war games studies and at least one very senior army officer stated that we would need over 400,000 troops to secure Iraq. The current security situation in Iraq is now far worse than it was in 2002. We have about 150,000 men in place, and to have any real impact we need at least 300,000 more. All putting 20,000 more men into Iraq will do is give the insurgents more targets.
The next point that I find highly questionable is the timing. McCain want to grow the Armed forces by 100,000 ground combat troops. This new growth is where the new men are suppose to come from.
The obvious contradiction comes from the fact that he is claiming that the next 90 days are critical to our success, then proposing a plan to meet out goals that will take far longer than three months to work. Right now we are just are meeting our recruiting needs. To do this we have lowered standards, lied to recruits and raised the age limits to the point that grandparents can now join the army as privates.
It is fantasy to pretend that we can find 100,000 new recruits, we are already having to pull out all the stops to get the 70,000 we need each year.
Even if we are able to find an extra 100,000 recruits, there is no chance that we can get them trained up and into the field within the time frame that he is claiming is critical.
It appears that the man who claimed to be leading the straight talk express, has switched trains to the double talk circle route. The end effect is to leave me wondering if the man who would be President is lying to me, or just stupid.
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5 comments:
"It is fantasy to pretend that we can find 100,000 new recruits, we are already having to pull out all the stops to get the 70,000 we need each year."
Oh, I don't know. There are 50,000 Republican staffers about to be unemployed.
Good point, but I fear that the vast majority will turn out to be chickenhawks and refuse to serve.
Of course they are chickenhawks. I was dishing some snark. :)
It truly is a fantasy on McCain's part that we will find 100,000 new recruits to be trained and go to Iraq...unless he reinstates the military draft. Someone should grill McCain on how he thinks he'll get such a large number of recruits, if elected. I used to like McCain, years and years ago, but I am really concerned about his position on the Iraq war.
I guess the new recruiting age of 41 and half leaves me out, on the verge of my 52nd birthday. Maybe John McCain's age should eliminate him from the presidency. Is it deliberate lying or the dementia of an old soldier? Either way, I'm getting off the express train.
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