McCain Warns Obama Against “Half Measures" In Afghanistan

CZ

You write >>>,and attended the National War College at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. during 1973–1974. Having been rehabilitated, by late 1974, McCain had his flight status reinstated, and in 1976 he became commanding officer of a training squadron stationed in Florida. He improved the unit's flight readiness and safety records, and won the squadron its first-ever Meritorious Unit Commendation.

Here is the wikipedia biography for John McCain, word-for-word from the moment he recovered from his POW experience. The marital stuff is irrelevant. I just left it in to show that I didn't leave anything out:

"McCain's return to the United States reunited him with his family. His wife Carol had suffered her own crippling ordeal due to an automobile accident in December 1969. McCain became a celebrity of sorts, as a returned POW.

McCain underwent treatment for his injuries, including months of grueling physical therapy,and attended the National War College at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. during 1973–1974. Having been rehabilitated, by late 1974, McCain had his flight status reinstated, and in 1976 he became commanding officer of a training squadron stationed in Florida. He improved the unit's flight readiness and safety records, and won the squadron its first-ever Meritorious Unit Commendation. During this period in Florida, McCain had extramarital affairs, and the McCains' marriage began to falter, for which he later would accept blame.

McCain served as the Navy's liaison to the U.S. Senate beginning in 1977. In retrospect, he has said that this represented his "real entry into the world of politics and the beginning of my second career as a public servant." His key behind-the-scenes role gained congressional financing for a new supercarrier against the wishes of the Carter administration.

In April 1979, McCain met Cindy Lou Hensley, a teacher from Phoenix, Arizona, whose father had founded a large beer distributorship. They began dating, and he urged his wife Carol to grant him a divorce, which she did in February 1980, with the uncontested divorce taking effect in April 1980. The settlement included two houses, and financial support for her ongoing medical treatments due to her 1969 car accident; they would remain on good terms. McCain and Hensley were married on May 17, 1980, with Senators William Cohen and Gary Hart attending as groomsmen. McCain’s children did not attend, and several years would pass before they reconciled. John and Cindy McCain entered into a prenuptial agreement that kept most of her family's assets under her name; they would always keep their finances apart and file separate income tax returns.

McCain decided to leave the Navy."

My recollection is that the Vietnam War ended around 1974. McCain did not even get his flying status reinstated until after the war was over. I admit that I may be missing something, but I see him commanding a training squadron in Florida in '75 and '76...and that's it. From then until he left he was a Congressional liaison. You can't get much further away from operations than that.

As to Obama listening...I sat in on a lengthy discussion by Cokie Roberts the day before yesterday. Afghanistan is her primary focus at the moment. She said she was baffled by the criticism that Obama was not listening to General Chrystal or that some kind of Truman-McArthur relationship was developing. In her view, Obama decided that he needed a deeper understanding of exactly how we came to this point in Afghanistan from the beginning of the war rather than from where we were six months ago, so he took two nearly full days of briefings on the war as a whole as he assessed Chrystal's recommendation in that context.

Does every day count right now? Of course. But this war is already among the longest in American history. The odds that a few more days are going to make the difference between failure and success are almost infinitessimally small. I don't envy him the decision. I remember Johnson and Nixon during some of the worst periods of the Vietnam War, and they looked like somebody dragged them the wrong way throught a knothole (OK, so neither of them was ever going to win America's Top Model to begin with),

CZ,

You ignore his record after he was released. He has the very operational experience you are talking about. The beef from the military leadership is that the White House isn't listening. Who is it that you think they would listen to?

John McCain showed incredible courage and fortitude in surviving his long, harrowing experience as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam. When it comes to durability, the man has few peers. But after graduating at the bottom of his West Point class, McCain's military career consisted of being shot down before he had even warmed the seat of his jet and spending the rest of the war as a POW. Personally, I would be much more interested in hearing the views, recommendations and warnings of officers who have a little more operational experience and a significantly better track record for exercising good judgment.

Ummm.. I think these guys agree on this!! Where's the debate?