A month ago Obama dismissed any alliance with the Free Syrian Army as a "fantasy." Now they are Obama's new ally in the war (oops... sorry, can't call it a war even though we are bombing them) against ISIS. McCain had been closely following the situation for years and requesting we arm the rebels. Carney tries to put the old White House spin on it but he no longer has a lectern to hide behind and McCain just blasts him. McCain then proceeds to describe how all of Obama's bad decisions in Iraq have brought us to where we are today.
Well worth watching:
History has vindicated McCain's view of national security policy. With absolute certainty, I can say that if McCain had been elected in 2008 instead of the Community Organizer Iraq today, and the entire Middle East, would be a more peaceful place. None of this ISIS nonsense would be going on!
CARNEY: I think we have to agree to disagree on this.
McCAIN: No, facts are stubborn things, Mr. Carney, and that is his entire national security team, including the Secretary of State said we want to arm and train and equip these people and he made the unilateral decision to turn them down. The fact he didn't a residual force in Iraq, overruled all of his military advisers, is the reason why we're facing ISIS today.
So the facts are stubborn things in history and people ought to know them. And now the president is saying basically that we are going to take certain actions, which I would favor, but to say that America is safer, and that the situation is very much like Yemen and Somalia shows me that the president really doesn't have a grasp for how serious the threat of ISIS is.
CARNEY: Well, again, Senator, we're going to have to agree to disagree. And I think on the question of the residual force, there was another player in that which was the Iraqi government. A, and B, it was the fulfillment of the previous administration's withdrawal plan. And it was also the fulfillment of the president's promise to withdraw from Iraq and not maintain a true presence, in perpetuity, which is pretty consistent with what the American people wanted and believed it was the right approach.
McCAIN: Mr. Carney, you are again saying facts that are patently false. The fact is because [Senator] Lindsey Graham, [former Senator] Joe Lieberman and I, we were in Baghdad, they wanted a residual force. The president has never made a statement during that or after that he wanted a residual force left behind. The Iraqis were ready to go. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee that the number cascaded down to 3,500. That was not sufficient to do anything but to defend themselves. And you in your role as a spokesperson bragged about the fact that the last American combat troop had left Iraq. If we had left a residual force the situation would not be what it is today. And there would be a lot more...
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