c Cain - Mayor Rudy Giuliani On NBC's "Today"

"So I think it either indicates that Senator Obama is not on a fact-finding mission, because the facts don't seem to affect him or Senator Obama has a stubbornness of wanting to stick to his political position which now turns out to be incorrect. The position he took a year ago to oppose the surge would have left us with a great loss and a Middle East in chaos right now. The position that was the correct one, that turned out historically to be correct, is the position that we should have done the surge." -- Rudy Giuliani

Rudy Giuliani
NBC's "Today"
July 22, 2008

NBC's David Gregory: "Let me turn to Iraq this morning. A lot of news, Senator Obama's trip and he said late last night that if he had it to do again, he would not support the support troop surge in Iraq. McCain has already been critical about that, what do you think that should say to voters about his view of the war and his judgment?"

Rudy Giuliani: "I don't understand what Senator Obama is saying. He goes to Iraq to go on a fact-finding mission and the facts that he finds are that violence is down 70 to 80%. That everyone believes, particularly the military commanders he's talking to, that it was a great success. The only reason al-Maliki is talking about a possible withdrawal in 2010 is because the surge has worked -- couldn't possibly be talking about something like that and we don't know if it will happen or not depending on the facts on the ground. So I think it either indicates that Senator Obama is not on a fact-finding mission, because the facts don't seem to affect him or Senator Obama has a stubbornness of wanting to stick to his political position which now turns out to be incorrect. The position he took a year ago to oppose the surge would have left us with a great loss and a Middle East in chaos right now. The position that was the correct one, that turned out historically to be correct, is the position that we should have done the surge."

Gregory: "But let's take on this argument a little bit, because Mr. Mayor, as you know, Senator McCain has effectively chalked up Obama's position on Iraq to naivete. That he has effectively called for surrender, and yet by sticking to the idea of a 16-month phased withdrawal from Iraq that has ultimately been validated by the Iraqi Prime Minister, hasn't that effectively refuted that argument?"

Giuliani: "Of course not. You wouldn't be there if the surge didn't work -- unless, he wanted to pull out the troops in the midst of chaos. Unless, you wanted to create civil war in Iraq. These are the facts that Senator Obama ignored a year ago. It now turns out that had you not had the surge, either we would be in a much worse situation in Iraq or as the Democrats and Harry Reid and Obama wanted to do, we would have declared we lost and pulled out."

Watch Rudy Giuliani.

BIDEN: MR. PRESIDENT, WHAT ABOUT THE TROOPS?

Sen. Joe Biden issued a statement following President Bush’s veto yesterday of the Defense Authorization Conference Report:

“It is shocking that this White House thinks it’s more important to shield the Iraqi Government from lawsuits than to meet the needs of our troops. President Bush has said for months that Congress must immediately support our troops and that any delay was unacceptable. Now he's vetoed legislation that provides a pay increase to our troops and reforms the health care system for our veterans in the wake of the Walter Reed scandal. Why? Because it doesn't do enough to protect the Iraqi government.

“This president’s priorities are exactly backwards. Our troops must come first. The men and women on our front lines and our wounded warriors back home will have a hard time understanding what the President has done. And they’re right – this is outrageous. The most important promise a president must keep is to our troops. This president has broken that promise."

Bush said Defense Authorization is “A Promise to Fund our Troops in Combat.” In a radio address, Bush said, “This week, Congress considered a defense authorization bill. An authorization bill is a pledge to spend money. Under such a bill, Congress will make a promise to fund our troops in combat.” [Bush Radio Address, 12/15/07]

Bush: Funding the Troops is the “First Priority.” In a radio address, Bush said, “Congress's first priority should be to provide the funds and flexibility to keep our troops safe and help them protect our Nation.” [Bush Radio Address, 12/1/07]