Tuesday, April 8, 2008 | 2:03 a.m.
A week ago Sen. John McCain got basic facts about the recent cease-fire in Iraq, his signature issue, dead wrong!
It was reported that a cease-fire was declared in Iraq between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s U.S.-trained forces and Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army. The two sides have been clashing since al-Maliki orchestrated an attack on al-Sadr’s stronghold in Basra, hoping to weaken his most powerful adversary.
McCain was apparently under the impression that al-Sadr asked for the cease-fire when, in fact, it was widely reported that Iraqi policymakers traveled to Iran to meet al-Sadr, along with Iranian officials, to persuade the cleric to rein in his army. In McCain’s make-believe version of events, al-Maliki’s U.S.-backed assault on Basra was a success, and the cease-fire was al-Sadr’s white flag.
But the truth is not so rosy. Al-Maliki’s U.S.-backed attack was a failure, and Iraqi officials had to turn to Iran to use its leverage which the United States doesn’t have to broker a cease-fire.
McCain is basing his presidential campaign on the supposed strength of his foreign policy chops, and this isn’t the first time he’s bungled his Iraq facts.
It’s impossible to overstate how important it is that this presidential candidate maintains an accurate grasp of the facts on the ground in Iraq, and not spread misinformation about the war. If he can’t get these facts straight when he is promoting all his “experience with the military” as his strong point for the presidential campaign, what can he do?
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