nonsense about syria and crossing the border into iran and syria because of the surge, then and a reference to cambodia in 1970, you said, quote, when you set in motion the kind of policy the president is talking about here, it s very, very dangerous. quote, as a matter of fact, i have to say, madam secretary, i think this speech given last night by this president represents the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since vietnam. if it s carried out, i will resist it. in march 2008 you said, quote, here the term quagmire could apply. what are these, the fulbright hearings all over again? i lived through them. and this guy is going back into some last year at marienbad kind of weird 1970s movie where you go back into the past that never even happened. why is he fighting hagel over vietnam? well, it s interesting because he s ostensibly fighting with him over iraq, but it immediately becomes over vietnam. he seems to be mad that hagel took issue with him about ir
have to say, madam secretary, i think this speech given last night by this president represents the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since vietnam. if it s carried out, i will resist it. in march 2008 you said, quote, hear the term quagmire could apply. what are these the fullbright hearings all over again? i lived through them. and this guy is going back into some last year at marion bad kind of weird 1970s movie where you go back into the past that never even happened. why is he fighting hagel over vietnam? well, it s interesting because he s ostensibly fighting with him over iraq but it immediately becomes over vietnam. he seems to be mad that hagel took issue with him about iraq and compared it to vietnam being the big blunder, which, of course, mccain and hagel both served in. you know, when mccain talks about iraq, all he wants to talk
president is talking about here, it s very, very dangerous. quote, as a matter of fact, i have to say, madam secretary, i think the speech given last night by this president represents the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since vietnam it s carried out, i will resist it. and then, of course, you continued on and on for months afterwards talking about what a disaster the surge would be, even to the point where it was clear the surge was succeeding. in march 2008, you said, quote, here the term quagmire could apply. if that s not a quagmire, then what is? even as late as august 29, 2011, in an interview, 2011, in an interview with the financial times, you said i disagreed with president obama, his decision to surge in iraq as i did with
overall war of choice going into iraq. that point found broad support in our latest nbc news/ wall street journal poll with nearly 6 in 10 americans saying the entire iraq war was not worth it. let s remember that the mccain/hagel grudge goes way back to comments, well, like these. well, i think our invasion and occupation of iraq represents one of the great blunters of american history, and we will pay a high price for this for a long time. now, that would be in march 2008. you remember, it s the year that barack obama won his first term as president defeating none other than john mccain. do you think mccain is still angry that hagel backed obama? holding a judge? no, never. if mccain played the betrayed besty, fellow republican lindsey graham took the role of disappointed dad over his remarks about the, quote, jewish
you know what, let s not do that. i think everybody can see that you re black. one of the ironies, i think, of my dear brother, barack obama, now president obama s victory, was that we have a relative moratorium on serious discussions of race. and that s partly because his strategy his strategy was to evade issues of race. but in march 2008, explosive videos of obama s pastor, jeremiah wright, hit the airwaves. no, no, no. not god bless america, god [ muted ] america! the reaction was damning. reverend wright had officiated at obama s wedding and baptized his children. their connection might have tagged obama as an angry black man, an image his campaign worked hard to avoid. the association threatened to derail everything. but obama seized the chance. to explain his ties to wright, he spoke to a broader, tougher topic race in america. the issues that have surfaced