Redstate

Posted at 3:04pm on May 14, 2008 Poppies in Iraq and Arabs in Afghanistan: Did Barack Obama “Pull a McCain” in his SpeechTuesday Night ?

No -- What he did was far worse.

By Jeff Emanuel

You could say that Barack Obama "pulled a John McCain" with his verbal gaffes regarding Iraq, Afghanistan, Arabic-speaking translators, and the War on Terror in his May 13 speech to supporters in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

You could say that -- but you would be wrong.

“Conflating” Sunni and Shi’a?

Two months ago, pundits and politicians alike descended upon Senator McCain with accusations of confusion, a lack of touch, and even outright dishonesty when the Republican presidential nominee said that al Qaeda fighters in Iraq have been receiving funding, training, and equipment from Iran during the last year-plus of the Iraq War.

Mr. McCain "conflated" Sunni and Shi'a organizations, which clearly "represent opposing sides in the Iraqi civil war[sic]" crowed the liberal web site ThinkProgress (an outlet with its own track record of mixing up historical events).

In an ABCNews blog post entitled "Err-Jordan," reporter Jake Tapper wrote that McCain "seemed to step in it" with his assertion that Sunni al Qaeda and Shi'a Iran were working together, asking if the Senator was suffering from "jet lag." (Tapper, who has been one of the most solid reporters of this campaign season, later posted an opposing viewpoint, if not an outright correction.)

Susan Rice, then still a senior foreign policy adviser to Barack Obama (she was later relieved of the position for undermining Mr. Obama's claims that he would initiate an immediate withdrawal from Iraq if elected, and for referring to Hillary Clinton as a "monster"), called McCain's assertion "very bizarre," saying that "there is no body of evidence to suggest Iran is aiding Al Qaeda in Iraq" and noting that Mr. McCain had "made the same statement three times in as many days. Surely he must know, as Senator Lieberman reminded him, that Iran is not engaged with Al Qaeda in Iraq. I don't know if he is confused, or is he cynically trying to conflate Al Qaeda and Iran as Cheney and Bush did Al Qaeda and Iraq in 2002 and 2003?"

Read on.

Posted in 2008 | Afghanistan | Barack Obama | GWOT | inexperience | Iraq | John McCain | War | zero-sum foreign policy — Comments (6)/ Email this page » / Read More »