Senator McCain made some important points today on CBS' Face the Nation. He pointed out that al Qaeda has recruited successfully over the years by highlighting its "successes" against the U.S., which is why "we need to prevail in Iraq." Indeed, in the 1990s bin Laden would claim that Mogadishu and other events showed that America was "a paper tiger" and "a weak horse." He and his followers would use such imagery as a recruiting tool for al Qaeda, "the strong horse" in bin Laden's words, throughout the decade. In fact, though little reported in the media, al Qaeda had recruited and trained thousands before September 11, 2001. Richard Clarke told PBS' Frontline that by the end of 2000 al Qaeda had a presence "in probably between 50-60 countries [and] that they had trained thousands, perhaps over 10,000 terrorists at the camps in Afghanistan." " McCain also called for a larger Army and Marine Corps, criticized the position of the ACLU and the New York Times on the recent terrorist interrogation deal, and said that Democrats should stop obstructing the confirmation of John Bolton as UN Ambassador - particularly after the "two-bit dictators" traveled to the UN in New York to trash the U.S. president. McCain… On Jihadist Recruitment and Winning in Iraq:
I think that it's obvious that the difficulties we've experienced in Iraq have certainly emboldened [them]. Lack of success always does that. But I would also argue that these people didn't need any motivation to attack us on September 11th. According to their history--and there's some validity to it--this begins with bombing of the--and killing the Marines in Beirut, and then Somalia, and now other, quote, "successes" of theirs. But I would--I think it would argue that we need to prevail in Iraq, and that if we fail, then our problems would be much more complicated. But if it wasn't Iraq, it'd be Afghanistan; if it wasn't Afghanistan, it would be others that they would use as a method of continuing their recruitment…. This town, as we all know, there's nothing secret in our nation's capital. All I can do is say I think the president recently has laid out our challenges very well in Iraq. We all know that things are not going as well as we want it to. The Marine intelligence report that was leaked about Anbar Province, and the difficulty--this is long and hard and tough. But the benefits of success are enormous, and the consequences of failure are enormous. So frankly it doesn't astound me that we would get an intelligence report that if we're not succeeding as well as we had hoped, that that would encourage the enemy. I think the tactics have been flawed, and that's been well documented and chronicled. We didn't have enough troops over there, the looting shouldn't have taken place, the difficulties in not anticipating the enormous challenges of bringing democracy and stability to a place that has been ruled by an absolute, terrible, repressive dictator for many years. That doesn't mean to me that, therefore, we should then plan on leaving. It means that we should fix the mistakes; it means that we have to make progress….
On the Need for a Bigger Army and Marine Corps (also see the current Weekly Standard editorial here):
We've got to expand, and should have five years ago, six years ago, expand the Army and the Marine Corps…. We live in a very dangerous world, and we not only need to have the equipment--which by the way, the Guard is having a problem with getting their equipment replaced--but we also need the personnel as well….
On the ACLU, NY Times:
Look, [the] ACLU and the New York Times don't like the agreement, but we think this will recognize, people will recognize that it defends both our values and our security. Some want the CIA not to be able to carry out this program. That was never our intent. And--but it was--it's very important that we have this tool to collect intelligence.
On the Democrats and John Bolton:
But I would--I would say that this is an argument to get John Bolton confirmed as our UN ambassador. He's smart, he's tough, he would respond to these guys. And he could talk back to these two-bit dictators who have the air fare to New York. And I hope my Democrat friends will stop holding up the nomination of John Bolton.