McCain Adviser's Horrifying Iraq Track Record: Will the Press Notice?

[babylonsister]

McCain Adviser's Horrifying Iraq Track Record: Will the Press Notice?
By Zachary Roth - July 28, 2008, 5:08PM


Over the weekend, The New York Times noted that some of John McCain's foreign policy advisers from the "realist" camp are uneasy with the amount of influence enjoyed by neoconservatives like Randy Scheunemann, who's been serving as McCain's chief foreign policy aide and spokesman.

But it isn't only his internal rivals who have reason to worry about Scheunemann. Not only does he have McCain's ear, he also has a track record of being consistently wrong on the major foreign policy question of the day -- Iraq. Of all the hawkish Washington foreign-policy types pushing both before and after 9/11 for war with Iraq -- a war that an overwhelming majority of Americans now considers a mistake -- Scheunemann, though not a marquee name, was among the most energetic and influential. And in the invasion's aftermath, he consistently opposed steps that might have helped stabilize the country.

And yet, the political press has largely given McCain a pass on the fact that his top foreign policy adviser was at the center of perhaps the biggest strategic folly in our history.

Here, to refresh reporters' memories, is the rundown on Scheunemann's Iraq record:

* As a top aide to then-Senate GOP leader Trent Lott, Scheunemann helped draft -- and acted as a driving force behind -- the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act (ILA), which essentially made "regime change" the official Iraq policy of the US. The Act was cited as a key basis of support in the fateful 2002 Congressional resolution authorizing military force, and directly paved the way for President Bush's invasion.

* Scheunemann was a board member of Bill Kristol's Project for a New American Century, which played a major role in agitating for the war. Scheunemann signed Kristol's influential letter to President Bush, sent nine days after 9/11, which asserted that failing to respond to the Al Qaeda attack by going after Saddam would "constitute an early and perhaps decisive surrender in the war on international terrorism." Scheunemann also served as a "consultant" to Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon while it was planning the war. And in late 2002, Scheunemann, with administration approval, founded the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq (CLI), an advocacy group with the explicit goal of whipping up pro-war sentiment across the country.

more...

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/07/mccain_advisors_horrifying_ira.php

[Emit]

1. This is exactly the kind of info/news the press needs to be focusing on

Thanks for posting, babylonsister. I've got a few people I'm going to pass this on to. :hi:

[babylonsister]

2. I agree, Emit! We need this kind of info out there.

Also, have you seen these sites, set up specifically to question McCain and his policies? There's lots of useful info here:

http://progressiveaccountability.org/

http://mccainbs.com/bs/index.html

[Emit]

4. Thanks so much -- my 17 year-old asked me the other day to refer her to some info on McCain

She said, when she goes back to school this year, she wants to be prepared for discussion with some of her classmates who will be old enough to vote. She's received the occasional "Obama is a Muslim" email and various Youtube videos on her Myspace, which she's tended to ignore this summer. But, now, she wants to be better prepared to deal with this - and she wants the facts, policy issues, voting records, etc. Apparently, her high school is very into politics -- it's good to see the young kids interested.

Anyway, thanks, I'll pass on the info.

[babylonsister]

5. Here's one final link:

the "official" John McCain flip-flop list. The site is up to 71, all documented with links. For your daughter;):

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/flipflops

[depakid]

3. The press won't notice unless the campaign forces it to

Otherwise, they'll keep running cover for McCain et al.

[babylonsister]

6. I don't understand the silence myself. nt

[AtomicKitten]

7. Notice? Hell, they are covering up for him.

Late last night I saw on CNN a replay McBush's interview earlier in the day in which he flat-out denied he had used the word "timetable" in a prior comment. Ya know, the one where he used that word twice!!!! Well, CNN did an embarrassingly sloppy job of editing out that every important bit in the piece. Really, really sloppy editing, but more importantly it took out something damaging to McBush. Again.