It wasn’t my intention to belabor the point, but it’s kind of important to recognize how poorly John McCain and his campaign handle questions regarding foreign policy and national security.
As we all know by now, McCain has repeatedly argued recently that al Qaeda terrorists have traveled to Iran, received support, and then re-entered Iraq to fight U.S. forces. That’s false. Indeed, after having repeated the claim several times, Joe Lieberman whispered in his ear, prompting McCain to apologize for his error: “I’m sorry, the Iranians are training extremists, not al-Qaeda.”
His campaign staff, hoping to quell the controversy, quickly issued a statement, insisting that the senator “misspoke.”
Yesterday, the story took an odd turn when the campaign decided McCain was right the first time with his original bogus claim.
[W]hile the McCain campaign is backing away from the specific claims about Iranian training of Al Qaeda, it is asserting that Iran collaborates with Osama bin Laden’s organization.
Mr. McCain’s national security adviser, Randy Scheunemann, told The New York Sun, “There is ample documentation that Iran has provided many different forms of support to Sunni extremists, including Al Qaeda as well as Shi’ia extremists in Iraq. It would require a willing suspension of disbelief to deny Iran supports Al Qaeda in Iraq.”
Responding to Mr. Scheunemann’s remarks, a senior foreign policy adviser to Senator Obama, Susan Rice, yesterday told the Sun, “It’s very bizarre.” She noted 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?”
Ms. Rice stipulated in the interview that she was not saying Iran and Al Qaeda have never worked together, but that “there is no body of evidence to suggest Iran is aiding Al Qaeda in Iraq.”
Oh, evidence, schmevidence, McCain has a campaign to run. He’s one of those “experts” who doesn’t really understand his area of expertise. He certainly can’t be bothered with the details.
Just as entertaining, as part of the full-scale reversal, the McCain campaign has taken to creative editing to help make the senator’s mistake look less embarrassing.
The McCain camp vehemently denies that the presumptive Republican nominee is at all confused about Iraqi ethnic politics. The senator’s foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, says that there is ample evidence to show that Iran has assisted Sunni extremist groups in the past, including the Palestinian group Hamas and the Taliban in Afghanistan. (Hamas has always denied receiving financial support from Iran.)
Scheunemann also cited statements by a top American general in Iraq, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, tracing weapons used by Sunni insurgents with ties to Al Qaeda back to Iran. Speaking at a Baghdad press conference in June 2007, Lynch said that some “explosively formed projectiles” used by Sunni insurgents had “Iranian markings.”
The number 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, Lieut. Gen. Ray Odierno, was asked directly about the Iran-al Qaeda connection at a July 19, 2007 Baghdad press conference. Here is his reply in full:
“We don’t see any evidence, significant evidence, that shows that [the Iranian-controlled] groups that are funding and providing arms to Shi’a extremists are directly related to al Qaeda. [Fact Checker’s Italics.] Now, we all know that al Qaeda uses Iran and they do in some cases traffic some of their individuals through Iran to Iraq, but it’s a very small number of people and it’s mostly through the Kurdish regions up north, where you have the old Ansar al-Sunna connections. But beyond that, there is no specific connection between the Shi’a extremists — excuse me — the [Iranian] Quds Force operations and supporting the Shi’a extremists and that of al Qaeda, and supporting al Qaeda.”
A Fact Check sheet distributed by the McCain campaign leaves out the disclaimer in the first sentence that I have placed in italics.
The WaPo’s Michael Dobbs concluded, “[T]he evidence that the McCain camp has produced to back up the senator’s claims for Iranian support for al Qaeda in Iraq is ambiguous and inconclusive. At the very least, McCain is guilty of gross over-simplification on an extremely sensitive national security matter.”
True, and I’d just add that they also apparently can’t make up their minds as to whether this “gross over-simplification” is right or wrong.
Remember, foreign policy, national security, and Iraq policy are supposed to be these guys’ strength. Imagine how they handle their weaknesses.