opened again but i was struck by how dove issuish this was. what were your thoughts? this is the foreign policy the president, that candidate obama always wanted to pursue. this was the outlines of what he described and what he campaigned on for six years and for six years he was a reluctant wartime president because of this situation in afghanistan and frankly wrap there was always a little bit of a rorschach test when it came to obama in 07 and 08. one of the ways that that would sort of paper over this of the idea that he didn t want to be viewed as simply an antiwar guy since he was anti-iraq and he used to say he was anti-iraq. that was a dumb war. afghanistan was a right place. we have a bad strategy. he was caught with his own rhetoric and when he came in, he focused on figuring out how to clean up afghanistan, surge troops in. but i can tell you in hindsight, there are a lot of people around the president and there s even some thought that the president
mission in afghanistan, the president did not believe in it. it took him forever to make the decision. he got the surge troops in place, and the problem, according to gates, was that he campaigned on that being the good worth. campaigned on taking that war taking it back from the taliban, and then when he sat down and looked at it, he wasn t into it. so he sends these troops in with a date to pull out, much to the dismay and anger of general petraeus and then says i don t believe in the mission. guys like that try to complete the mission that the person who sent them in doesn t believe in. and that s the outrage we re hearing from coast to coast. i imagine at walter reed today, as they read these excerpts in this book. imagine the commander in chief claiming that he supports you, but not your mission. how do you separate the two? how do you separate yourself as commander in chief from your troops and the mission you re putting forward? it just doesn t make sense, doesn t make sense
but if mr. john mccain had his way, it would have been the united states doing that whole thing on his own. if it is our policy that moammar gadhafi must go, then it seems that some action must be taken. they are not a formidable force, we are the strongest nation in the world. we should be able to take care of their defenses as well as their air assets without too much difficulty. shouldn t be too much difficulty, so john mccain wars in georgia, russia, libya, anywhere else? senator, could have been president john mccain? some u.s. forces, approximately 20,000 should remain for a period of time to help the iraqis secure the hard-earned gains that we had made together. i would be very reluctant to reduce the surge troops. under president john mccain we would have been in two wars, in iran, libya, russia, we still
even though john mccain is not president. but if mr. john mccain had his way, it would have been the united states doing that whole thing on his own. if it is our policy that moammar gadhafi must go, then it seems that some action must be taken. they are not a formidable force, we are the strongest nation in the world. we should be able to take care of their defenses as well as their air assets without too much difficulty. shouldn t be too much difficulty, so john mccain wars in georgia, russia, libya, anywhere else? senator, could have been president john mccain? some u.s. forces, approximately 20,000 should remain for a period of time to help the iraqis secure the hard-earned gains that we had made together. i would be very reluctant to reduce the surge troops.
but if mr. john mccain had his way, it would have been the united states doing that whole thing on his own. if it is our policy that moammar gadhafi must go, then it seems that some action must be taken. they are not a formidable force, we are the strongest nation in the world. we should be able to take care of their defenses as well as their air assets without too much difficulty. shouldn t be too much difficulty, so john mccain wars in georgia, russia, libya, anywhere else? senator, could have been president john mccain? some u.s. forces, approximately 20,000 should remain for a period of time to help the iraqis secure the hard-earned gains that we had made together. i would be very reluctant to reduce the surge troops. under president john mccain