Kondracke: McCain is "truth-teller" on Iraq war

During the "All-Star Panel" segment on the June 6 edition of Fox News Special Report with Brit Hume, Roll Call executive editor Morton Kondracke asserted that during the GOP presidential debates, Sen. John McCain "was the truth-teller about the war in Iraq." Yet during the debates, McCain stated more than once that "they" -- Al Qaeda or other terrorists -- "will follow us home" if the United States withdraws from Iraq, an assertion that is widely challenged by security and terrorism experts. Outside the debates, McCain recently claimed that Americans "could walk through" some neighborhoods in Baghdad, to which CNN and Time magazine Baghdad correspondents responded, respectively, that the claim that "an American can walk freely [in Baghdad] is beyond ludicrous" and that McCain "needs a reality check."

During the May 3 GOP presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan presidential library, McCain was asked what he would need to win the war in Iraq. McCain responded, saying that "[w]e must win in Iraq. If we withdraw, there will be chaos; there will be genocide; and they will follow us home":

CHRIS MATTHEWS (moderator): Senator McCain, most of the public pessimism today has to do with Iraq. What would you need, as commander in chief, to win the war in Iraq?

McCAIN: I would need the support of the American people. I would need to be able to show them some success in Iraq, both on the battlefield as well as with the Maliki government. We have a new general; we have a new strategy. That strategy can succeed.

The young men and women who are serving are the best of America. I believe that if we bring about stability in the neighborhoods in Iraq and have the Maliki government govern, you are going to succeed.

My friends, when the majority leader of the United States Senate says we've lost the war, the men and women that are serving in Iraq reject that notion. And if we lost, then who win? Did Al Qaeda win? When on the floor of the House of Representatives they cheer -- they cheer -- when they pass a withdrawal motion that is a certain date for surrender, what were they cheering? Surrender? Defeat?

We must win in Iraq. If we withdraw, there will be chaos; there will be genocide; and they will follow us home.

McCain made a similar claim in the most recent GOP presidential debate in New Hampshire: "I am convinced that if we fail and we have to withdraw, they will follow us home. It will be a base for Al Qaeda."

Yet, as Media Matters for America has noted (here and here), numerous media outlets have reported assessments of a wide range of U.S. intelligence officials, security experts, and military analysts disagreeing with this view. For example:

• According to an April 6 McClatchy Newspapers article, as detailed by Media Matters, "[m]ilitary and diplomatic analysts" say that a similar claim President Bush has repeatedly made about the Iraq war -- that "this is a war in which, if we were to leave before the job is done, the enemy would follow us here" -- "exaggerate[s] the threat that the enemy forces in Iraq pose to the U.S. mainland." The article also reported: "U.S. military, intelligence and diplomatic experts in Bush's own government say the violence in Iraq is primarily a struggle for power between Shiite and Sunni Muslim Iraqis seeking to dominate their society, not a crusade by radical Sunni jihadists bent on carrying the battle to the United States."

• A March 18 Washington Post article reported that "U.S. intelligence officials and outside experts" have said that Al Qaeda in Iraq "poses little danger to the security of the U.S. homeland," as Media Matters also noted.
• In an April 30 report on National Public Radio's All Things Considered exploring Bush's claim that "[i]f we do not defeat the terrorists and extremists in Iraq, they ... will follow us to the United States of America," NPR correspondent David Welna cited several experts challenging this claim. He reported that retired Brig. Gen. John H. Johns considers that warning "propaganda" and that, according to Johns, "[i]t's actually leaving American forces in Iraq ... that increases the chances of a terrorist attack on the U.S." Welna also reported that retired Army Lt. Col. James Carafano, a research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, "calls asserting that terrorists will follow U.S. troops home naive and poor rhetoric." Welna also featured a clip of Carafano saying: "There's no national security analyst that's really credible who thinks that people are going to come from Iraq and attack the United States -- that that's a credible scenario."

Additionally, as Media Matters also noted, McCain recently told conservative radio host William Bennett that "[t]here are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods today. The U.S. is beginning to succeed in Iraq." On the March 27 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, host Wolf Blitzer asked McCain about his comments, he responded, "You know, that's where you ought to catch up on things, Wolf," adding that "General Petraeus goes out there almost every day in a non-armed Humvee. I think you ought to catch up."

Later in the program, Blitzer asked CNN Baghdad correspondent Michael Ware to reconcile McCain's comments. Ware told Blitzer that "[t]o suggest that there's any neighborhood in this city where an American can walk freely is beyond ludicrous," adding: "I'd love Senator McCain to tell me where that neighborhood is, and he and I can go for a stroll." Regarding McCain's claim that Gen. Petraeus travels "almost every day in a non-armed Humvee," Ware said that McCain "is way off base on this one." Ware also said that McCain's credibility on Iraq "is now being left out hanging to dry" and that he doesn't "know what part of Neverland Senator McCain is talking about when he says we can go strolling in Baghdad."

Responding to McCain's comments, Time magazine Baghdad correspondent Brian Bennett said: "Please, Senator, take me to these neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and Bill Bennett can walk around." Bennett also reported that there is one neighborhood that he could walk around with "a couple of our Iraqi bodyguards," but only "for about three blocks -- then we'd have to get back in the car before the cell phone calls to kidnappers caught up with us." Bennett further reported that kidnappings are a danger for Westerners and that strict security precautions are necessary for everyone walking in the highly fortified and defended "Green Zone" in central Baghdad, adding: "McCain needs a reality check."

Kondracke has also recently proclaimed that "John McCain was a war hero, and he's my idea of a political hero," explaining that McCain said in his April 11 speech to the Virginia Military Institute "that he'd rather lose a campaign than lose a war." Kondracke added: "And he said, 'If you think that the enemy wouldn't kill American kids, you're crazy.' And, you know -- and that is the lesson that Americans ought to take. They are going to come after us wherever we are, and they'll kill our kids as well." When asked by co-host and Weekly Standard executive editor Fred Barnes, "Is this going to help the McCain campaign?" Kondracke responded: "Boy, I hope so."

From the June 6 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume:

KONDRACKE: Look, the -- I don't see how you can look at these debates and not gain an admiration for John McCain. I mean, he was the truth-teller about the war in Iraq, and he said that the Bush policy was not working against what his own president -- he's backed up the Bush surge and now on immigration he is not giving -- he's not giving an inch. He believes in comprehensive -- solution, which I think is the only --

BRIT HUME (host): Sailing against the wind --

KONDRACKE: -- sailing against the wind.