McCain - John McCain On NBC's "Today"

"I'm glad that Senator Obama is going to get a chance for the first time to sit down with General David Petraeus and understand what the surge was all about. Why it succeeded. And why we are winning the war and that is because we carried out a strategy which has succeeded and Senator Obama rallied against, voted against, and used his opposition to the surge as a way of gaining the nomination of his party." -- John McCain

John McCain
NBC's "Today"
July 21, 2008

NBC's Meredith Vieira: "You have been tough on Senator Obama. You have questioned his judgment on foreign policy, called him naive and his trip little more than a campaign rally overseas. So, given what you have seen and heard over the past few days, do you still hold to that assessment?"

John McCain: "I'm glad that Senator Obama is going to get a chance for the first time to sit down with General David Petraeus and understand what the surge was all about. Why it succeeded. And why we are winning the war and that is because we carried out a strategy which has succeeded and Senator Obama rallied against, voted against, and used his opposition to the surge as a way of gaining the nomination of his party. I hope he will have a chance to admit that he badly misjudged the situation, and he was wrong when he said that the surge wouldn't work. It has succeeded and we're winning the war. I think it's important that the American people know that that is the situation. I have mentioned general Petraeus, yes."

Vieira: "I'm bringing him up because he told the AP on Saturday that al-Qaeda may be shifting its base back to Afghanistan and then on Sunday Barack Obama reiterated his belief that Afghanistan is the central front in the war on terrorism. Do you agree with that?"

John McCain: "I agree with General Petraeus when he said Iraq was the central battleground in the war in the struggle against al-Qaeda and he said that repeatedly. And I agree with him when he said we will be able to withdraw troops as conditions on the ground dictate, not to do what Senator Obama wanted to do which was that we would be out by last March and never have had the surge and the success. And you can't choose to lose a war in Iraq in my view in order to win in Afghanistan. Of course we have problems in Afghanistan and as we succeed in Iraq there will be troops available to go to Afghanistan, but it's more than just troops. Senator Obama doesn't understand that it is a strategy, the same strategy that succeeded in Iraq, we will employ in Afghanistan, the one that he rejected and still does not accept the success of."

Vieira: "Senator Obama's timetable of removing U.S. troops from Iraq within that 16-month period seemed to be getting a thumbs up by the Iraqi prime minister when he called it 'the right timeframe for a withdrawal.' He has backed off that somewhat, but the Iraqis have not stopped using the word timetable, so if the Iraqi government were to say -- if you were President -- we want a timetable for troops being to removed, would you agree with that?"

John McCain: "I have been there too many times. I've met too many times with him, and I know what they want. They want it based on conditions and of course they would like to have us out, that's what happens when you win wars, you leave. We may have a residual presence there as even Senator Obama has admitted. But the fact is that it should be -- the agreement between Prime Minister Maliki, the Iraqi government and the United states is it will be based on conditions. This is a great success, but it's fragile, and could be reversed very easily. I think we should trust the word of General Petraeus who has orchestrated this dramatic turnaround. And by the way, we would have been out last march if Senator Obama's original wish would have been called for. Not 16 months from now, but last March. He was wrong on the surge, he was wrong today when he says it didn't succeed. And obviously we have challenges in Afghanistan which will require more troops and more NATO participation, but we can win. If we had lost in Iraq, we would have risked a much wider war that would have put enormous challenges and burdens on our military."

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