It turns out John McCain, Mr. "National Security" himself, doesn't even have the most basic understanding of what is going on in Iraq and the greater Middle East. While on a tour of the Middle East for the last couple days he has made repeated misstatements about Iran, al-Qaeda, and the feuding Sunni and Shiite religious factions:
"Today in Iraq, America and our allies stand on the precipice of winning a major victory against radical Islamic extremism. The security gains over the past year have been dramatic and undeniable. Al Qaeda and Shia extremists -- with support from external powers such as Iran -- are on the run but not defeated."
On Tuesday, the senator, appearing in Israel, made a nearly identical assertion that al-Qaeda was leaving Iraq to retool and regroup in Iran.
It was, he said, "common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran, that's well known. And it's unfortunate."
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who was accompanying McCain on the trip, was forced to lean over and whisper in McCain's ear that it was Shiite extremists, not Sunni al-Qaeda, that was going to predominantly Shiite Iran.
Now I don't expect the average blue collar worker to understand the differences between Sunni and Shia, but considering it is virtually impossible to conduct foreign policy in the Middle East without understanding these basic dynamics it definitely calls into question the qualifications of John McCain.
Obama also called McCain on his ignorance:
Just yesterday, we heard Sen. McCain confuse Sunni and Shiite, Iran and Al Qaeda. Maybe that is why he voted to go to war with a country that had no Al Qaeda ties. Maybe that is why he completely fails to understand that the war in Iraq has done more to embolden America's enemies than any strategic choice that we have made in decades.
But of course ignorance is only one possible explanation for his repeated false statements. Hunter from Daily Kos explains the other, more likely, alternative:
Why do people keep calling it a "gaffe"? If he's stating something that's flatly wrong three times in two days, it's not a gaffe, it's a talking point.
All recent evidence has indicated that McCain has simply internalized the central Bush lesson of his war: if the facts are against your desired policy, make up new facts and continue on your way. A sufficient percentage of the population will believe it.
McCain didn't get where he is today by being stupid. He did get there, however, by being manipulative when the situation has warranted, by misrepresenting facts when they worked against him, and by knowing which wings of the Republican Party to cozy up to at which times. If he's completely misrepresenting one of the most fundamental facts of the war, there's two possibilities. The first is that he's dumb as a post. Possible, but unlikely.
The second is that, like Bush, he simply isn't interested in letting the facts get in the way of a good speech about the shocking, scary, I'm-holding-a-flashlight-under-my-chin-right now bugaboo of the moment. Since Iraq has turned out to be such a disaster, and since McCain supports Bush's bloody legacy, there's only one rationalization possible to explain why things aren't working out: it must all secretly be Iran's fault.
Third Bush term, indeed.
And yes, if this seems familiar, this is the same question that has repeatedly arisen when discussing Hillary's statements -- is she just ignorant of the truth, or is she purposely trying to deceive voters to get what she wants? Despite her incompetently run campaign, she isn't stupid, so I think it is safe to say both her and McCain (and all Republicans) have deception in common.
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