McCain didn't make a gaff, he lied.
On March 18th, a day before the 5th anniversary of the war, Senator John McCain claimed in a press conference that al Qaeda was being trained in Iran.
It was only after Senator Joe Lieberman whispered in McCain's ear that McCain corrected himself and said that the Iranians were training "extremists not al Qaeda". Well it's good to know that al Qadea are not extremists.
Was McCain "misspeaking" when he claimed that Iran was arming and training al Qaeda fighters? Is he stupid? Or was he simply lying his ass off?
If McCain just "misspoke" he probably would not have made this claim twice during the press conference and earlier in the day on the Hugh Hewitt show (not surprisingly, the right wing radio host chose not question McCain's on this). I have even heard that McCain was making this same claim for weeks without being called on it by the media.
Chances are McCain was not having a senior moment and we at the Ronald Reagan Home for the Criminally Insane believe him when he says he knows the difference between Sunni and Shiite. McCain probably figured that the Bush Administration was able to scare us into a war with Iraq by claiming that Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda were in cahoots (they were actually sworn enemies) and that he would be able to get away with the same thing with Iran or at least scare us into voting for him. The idea is if you say something often enough it becomes as good as true.
Even if McCain meant to say Shiite extremists were being armed by Iran the Bush Administration has not been able to produce one shred of verifiable evidence to back this claim. Sixteen U.S. intelligence agencies have stated that Iran's influence "is not a major driver of violence in Iraq". And why isn't the media taking McCain and the Bush Administration to task over this?
The surge is working?
One year ago McCain scolded reporters because they weren't giving Americans the full picture of what's going on in Iraq. To demonstrate that the surge is working he and a few of his Senator buddies took a stroll through a Baghdad out door market (three minutes outside of the Green Zone) for a little rug shopping and declared that there are parts of Baghdad where people "could walk freely". An Iraqi journalist clearly amused by this assertion asked McCain "Yeah, which area would that be?". "Walking freely" for McCain meant wearing a flack jacket and being accompanied by 100 U.S. troops, three Blackhawk helicopters and two Apache gunships, but it sounds like they were able to get a few good deals on some rugs.
It is amazing that anyone can take this jackass seriously. On McCain and his senator buddies most recent trip to Baghdad they tried going back to the same market but it was too dangerous for Americans and his controlled by Moqtada al Sadr's Mahdi army. Oh Shiite!!!
Learn how the U.S. is paying Sunni militants (some times referred to as "terrorists") not to attack our troops and is arming both sides in a civil war.
Myth of Surge - Rolling Stone
Watch this amazing video clip called: Baghdad: City of walls
In the first of Ghaith Abdul-Ahad's extraordinary series of films to mark the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, he investigates the claims that the US military surge is bringing stability to Iraq. By traveling through the heart of Baghdad he exposes how, by enclosing the Sunni and Shia populations behind 12ft walls, the surge has left the city more divided and desperate than ever.
Also watch
Baghdad's Killing Fields
Iraq's Lost Generation