So, General Petraeus agrees with Barack Obama ...and not John McCain on the question of whether we should meet with hostile enemies? How many times has McCain invoked Patraeus' name, in saint-like gushes of admiration? McCain just can't get a break....because he is just plain "W"rong in almost everything he tries to thrust upon us. Notice that I didn't say that McCain is "W"rong in almost everything he believes....because what he believes is changeable every single day, depending on the weather!
Thanks to TPM:
In an interview that aired on CBS last night, John McCain, when asked which three living people he'd like to have dinner with most, promptly chose General Petraeus. McCain frequently hails Petraeus as an "American hero."
McCain, however, might not enjoy that dinner so much if he heard Petraeus' views on one of the leading foreign policy differences he has with Barack Obama.
In a case of comically awful timing, Petraeus yesterday gave a talk at the Heritage Foundation in which he more or less echoed Barack Obama's views on negotiating with hostile foreign leaders -- views that McCain has repeatedly subjected to criticism and ridicule.
Asked by a questioner specifically about the disagreement on this topic that McCain and Obama had at Tuesday night's debate, Petraeus demurred a bit, but said: "I do think you have to talk to enemies."
Video available here:
http://blog.heritage.org/...
QUESTION: One question, it came up in the debate last night, I know it has to do--
Petraeus: Oh, I'm not walking into minefields now [laughter from crowd). I try to go around --
QUESTION: It was a British general who said we must learn how to talk to our enemy. A british general -- not a U.S. Can you comment?
Petraeus: Well, all I would say -- I didn't actually see that, we were doing some other stuff last night -- look, I'm trying to go around minefields these days, not blunder into them. But I do think you have to talk to enemies.
I mean again, you've got to set things up, you've got to know who you're talking to, you've got to have your objectives straight, all the rest of this stuff. I mean, so I'm not trying to get into the middle of domestic politics. But I mean what we did do in Iraq ultimately was sit down with some of those that were shooting at us. What we tried to do was identify those who might be reconcilable.
It's very clear that the context specifically was the debate between Obama and McCain on this topic on Tuesday night, although General Patraeus says that he did not see the debate. I find that really hard to believe since one of these two men will be his boss in three months. During that exchange, the candidates clashed on whether to meet with the leaders of Iran, and the questioner at Heritage posed the subject about talking to enemies specifically in that light.
So, there you have it...General McKiernan cut the legs out from under Palin on Afghanistan and General Patraeus cut the legs out from under McCain on talking to enemies..what's left for McCain/Palin? Neither one of them is prepared to be president. Neither one of them should ever hold public office again. McCain/Palin are an embarrassment to all thinking Americans.