Shorter Feingold-Don't you think that after 2 1/2 years and two elections these 300,000 Iraqi troops should be able to patrol their own streets and fight an insurgency that's estimated to be 30,000 fighters? How much boot camp do these Iraqis need? And how long exactly is it going to take for this newly elected government to actually meet?
Shorter McCain-What's $300 million a day with a national debt of $8.3 trillion? And besides, I've been saying this all along-I need my base. You were against the war, Russ...so of course you want out....you didn't fall for it and didn't want to go in there in the first place, so quit trying to upstage me!
Hmmm...I wonder which of these two deserves your vote....?
Senators, in Iraq, quarrel over war
"Senators John McCain, Republican of Arizona, a longtime supporter of the Bush administration's Iraq policy, and Russell Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, who voted against the invasion and has spoken out against the war ever since, said they had come not to air their divergent views, but to urge Iraqi politicians to speed up the process of forming a government. But during questions from reporters, they argued -- cordially and pointedly -- over such issues as the timing of any withdrawal of US troops and whether their presence is doing more harm than good. Feingold said he believed ''a large troop presence has a tendency to fuel the insurgency because they can make the incorrect and unfair claim that the US is here to occupy the country." ''I think that it's very possible that the sectarian differences are inflamed by the fact that US troops are here," he continued, adding that their long-term presence ''may well be destabilizing, not stabilizing." Asked a question on a different topic, McCain quickly responded, ''I believe that premature troop withdrawal is not in consonance with what's going on on the ground."Boston Globe
