McCain: Lying about the Draft?

BenBurch

Gatekeeper of The Left
BenBurch
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John McCain said last night during a campaign tele-conference that he would bring back a military draft in the United States only in the case of a 'World War III' scenario.
Reuters reported:
Many Americans are fearful the U.S. government will be forced to reinstitute the draft given the prolonged Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Asked about that possibility by a potential voter in Florida during a telephone "town hall meeting," McCain said: "I don't know what would make a draft happen unless we were in an all-out World War III." ...
McCain, a Vietnam veteran, said the draft during that conflict weighed most heavily on lower-income Americans, and that this should not be repeated.
​
But McCain may be more open to the draft than it seems. During a July 2006 interview on CNN, McCain was asked about the following statement by Newt Gingrich: "We're in the early stages of what I would describes as the Third World War and, frankly, our bureaucracies aren't responding fast enough." Asked whether he agreed, McCain said:"I do to some extent. I think it's important to recognize that we have terrorist organizations which -- who are dangerous by themselves, are now being supported by radical Islamic governments, i.e., the Iranians, which makes them incredibly more dangerous because they are trained, equipped, motivated and assisted in every way by the Iranians."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/25/mccain-world-war-iii-woul_n_109121.html
 
I think the "Secret Plan to Reinstate the Draft" is my favorite campaign time candidate smear. It's just so ludicrous. Maybe the Dems can introduce some draft legislation like they did in '03 and really ratchet up the scary?
 
BenBurch said:
John McCain said last night during a campaign tele-conference that he would bring back a military draft in the United States only in the case of a 'World War III' scenario.
Reuters reported:
Many Americans are fearful the U.S. government will be forced to reinstitute the draft given the prolonged Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Asked about that possibility by a potential voter in Florida during a telephone "town hall meeting," McCain said: "I don't know what would make a draft happen unless we were in an all-out World War III." ...
McCain, a Vietnam veteran, said the draft during that conflict weighed most heavily on lower-income Americans, and that this should not be repeated.
​
But McCain may be more open to the draft than it seems. During a July 2006 interview on CNN, McCain was asked about the following statement by Newt Gingrich: "We're in the early stages of what I would describes as the Third World War and, frankly, our bureaucracies aren't responding fast enough." Asked whether he agreed, McCain said:"I do to some extent. I think it's important to recognize that we have terrorist organizations which -- who are dangerous by themselves, are now being supported by radical Islamic governments, i.e., the Iranians, which makes them incredibly more dangerous because they are trained, equipped, motivated and assisted in every way by the Iranians."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/25/mccain-world-war-iii-woul_n_109121.html
Click to expand...

So if McCain is President, how does he, if your ghost story is to be believed, get the Draft Reinstated?

Step One: Goes to Congress to get authorization legislation passed.
(Absent World War III)
Step Two: Goes back to Oval Office after being laughed out of the Capitol Building.

I am dying to know, Ben, where you think the political will is, in America, for reinstating the draft, outside of the darkest phantasms within the brains of libertarians and those afflicted with BDS?

Charlie Rangel can't do it himself, as he so recently found out.

DR
 
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Scarcely matters to me how he thinks he might be able to do it.

The thing I find interesting is that he is obviously obscuring his real opinion on a matter of public importance to keep from scaring away voters, and it makes me wonder how honest he has been about any of his other positions on the issues.
 
BenBurch said:
The thing I find interesting is that he is obviously obscuring his real opinion on a matter of public importance to keep from scaring away voters, and it makes me wonder how honest he has been about any of his other positions on the issues.
Click to expand...

How can you say he is "obscuring his real opinion"? The entire article, the entire attack against him, hinges on the fact that he is being honest, i.e. not obscuring his opinion, on the issue of re-instituting the draft.

His "real opinion" is that he'll bring back the draft come WW3. If he were misleading the public in this instance it would mean that he doesn't want to bring back the draft.
 
He hasn't a choice, rationally. We've exhausted the army we have and we'd better hope a whole lot that we don't need another one any time soon. :(
 
senorpogo said:
How can you say he is "obscuring his real opinion"? The entire article, the entire attack against him, hinges on the fact that he is being honest, i.e. not obscuring his opinion, on the issue of re-instituting the draft.

His "real opinion" is that he'll bring back the draft come WW3. If he were misleading the public in this instance it would mean that he doesn't want to bring back the draft.
Click to expand...


I agree with this. I don't really see any obscuring. From what was quoted, the 2006 interview didn't even mention the draft specifically. I don't see anything contradictory in what he's said though, and I'm an Obama supporter.
 
Pookster said:
I agree with this. I don't really see any obscuring. From what was quoted, the 2006 interview didn't even mention the draft specifically. I don't see anything contradictory in what he's said though, and I'm an Obama supporter.
Click to expand...

Sure it does. you just have to read between the lines, like so:
"I do to some extent. I think it's important to recognize that we have terrorist organizations which -- who are dangerous by themselves, are now being supported by radical Islamic governments, i.e., the Iranians, which makes them incredibly more dangerous because they are trained, equipped, motivated and assisted in every way by the Iranians."
Click to expand...
 
BenBurch said:
John McCain said last night during a campaign tele-conference that he would bring back a military draft in the United States only in the case of a 'World War III' scenario.
Reuters reported:
Many Americans are fearful the U.S. government will be forced to reinstitute the draft given the prolonged Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Asked about that possibility by a potential voter in Florida during a telephone "town hall meeting," McCain said: "I don't know what would make a draft happen unless we were in an all-out World War III." ...
McCain, a Vietnam veteran, said the draft during that conflict weighed most heavily on lower-income Americans, and that this should not be repeated.
​
But McCain may be more open to the draft than it seems. During a July 2006 interview on CNN, McCain was asked about the following statement by Newt Gingrich: "We're in the early stages of what I would describes as the Third World War and, frankly, our bureaucracies aren't responding fast enough." Asked whether he agreed, McCain said:"I do to some extent. I think it's important to recognize that we have terrorist organizations which -- who are dangerous by themselves, are now being supported by radical Islamic governments, i.e., the Iranians, which makes them incredibly more dangerous because they are trained, equipped, motivated and assisted in every way by the Iranians."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/25/mccain-world-war-iii-woul_n_109121.html
Click to expand...
It took me several reads through to see what the "gotcha" was meant to be, and I think some of the posters still haven't got it. You need to remove more context.

Watch:

(1) McCain, a Vietnam veteran, said the draft [...] should not be repeated.

(NOTE: What he actually said was that the draft's disproportionate effect on lower income brackets should not be repeated.)

(2) McCain said: "I don't know what would make a draft happen unless we were in [...] World War III."

(NOTE: To this, we need to add the interpretation that statement (2) means that McCain himself is pledged to reinstitute the draft in the event of WWIII, rather than that he can imagine someone introducing it under such circumstances.)

(3) McCain was asked about the following statement by Newt Gingrich: "We're in [...] the Third World War [...]" Asked whether he agreed, McCain said:"I do [...]"

(NOTE: Again observe the power of the ellipsis.)

Got it? Supposedly he has said that the draft should not be repeated while also saying that under present circumstances it should be introduced. And if you read every third word, I guess he did.

Is it just me, or does the Huffington Post really really suck?
 
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The thing is that there's World War Three and then there's World War Three. The term basically is equivalent to saying "Some kind of crazy-ass war." If a candidate had said "I don't think we should start a draft unless we're in some kind of crazy-ass war" and then at a later date said "The war against terrorism is going to be some kind of crazy-ass war" you really can't assume that they're talking about the same level of crazy-assitude. Similarly, you can't assume that he means the same thing when he says World War Three.

(Not to be confused with a crazy ass-war.)
 
BenBurch said:
The thing I find interesting is that he is obviously obscuring his real opinion on a matter of public importance to keep from scaring away voters, and it makes me wonder how honest he has been about any of his other positions on the issues.
Click to expand...

I think you are smart enough to read between the lines and understand that in the case of him supporting the draft he was meaning in a "total war" situation.

Where was the the Newt Gingrich confirmation was obviously rhetorical talk just indicating is the the largest global conflict since ww2.

Don't play dumb Burch, we know you aren't.
 
The only people who want to see the draft reinstated are hard-core radicals who hope that it would kick-start the antiwar movement. It's an astoundingly cynical ploy.
 
Is it just me, or does the Huffington Post really really suck?
Click to expand...

Yes, it's sucks.
Arianna Huffington was a GOP activist until the GOP got disgusted with her attempts to play kingmaker behind the scenes, and kicked her out. She than suffered a Road To Damascus moment and became a Liberal. The general attitude of the GOP was happiness that now the Democrats would have to deal with her.
The California Democrats, who have had long experience with her, wish she would just vanish.
I am not surprised that she promotes this garbage, but I am saddened the Ben Burch is resorting to cheap tactics like this. He is coming off like a shill for the Democrats, to be frank.
 
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