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Home Front: Politix
McCain Fears 'Tet Offensive' in Iraq
2007-02-13
Republican presidential hopeful John McCain said Monday he fears an offensive by Iraqi insurgents similar to the Tet offensive by the Viet Cong that sent U.S. casualties soaring in Vietnam nearly 40 years ago. McCain, a Vietnam war veteran who spent 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war, said in an interview with The Associated Press that it's not the U.S. presence in Iraq that upsets voters but rather the number of casualties and the possibility those numbers could rise. The U.S. death toll is more than 3,100 in the nearly four-year-old war.

In the GOP presidential field, McCain is one of the strongest proponents of President Bush's plan to increase the number of U.S. troops in Iraq by some 21,500. "By the way, a lot of us are also very concerned about the possibility of a, quote, 'Tet Offensive.' You know, some large-scale tact that could then switch American public opinion the way that the Tet Offensive did," the Arizona senator said. Last month, an Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that 62 percent said the United States made a mistake in going to war in Iraq.

McCain made his comment in explaining why he did not believe the Bush administration should set a date by which it should deem Bush's troop increase a success or a failure. "I think that it should be publicly open-ended because I think that if you set a date, that there's every possibility that the insurgents would just lay back and wait until we leave," McCain said.
Posted by:Fred

#21  McCain is even to big for his own ego.
Posted by: RD   2007-02-13 21:29  

#20  John's been watching too much Anne Nicole Smith Tit Offensive
Posted by: Captain America   2007-02-13 18:30  

#19  McCain had his own little Tet against us. McCain/Feingold campaign finance reform.
Reformed campaigning so the incumbent never loses.
This ass has done enough damage to America.
Fade out, John boy.
Posted by: wxjames   2007-02-13 18:10  

#18  Open borders McCain can kiss my ass. More than likely he just got off one of his drunken 3 day benders.

Tet John? The booze must have erased that memory.
Posted by: Icerigger   2007-02-13 16:02  

#17  ex-lib, not to argue with your sources but the stories I've heard had more to do with McCain and the wives of other fliers than with any kind of military betrayal.

Perhaps that's what you or your sources mean. It's a betrayal none-the-less if true but not treasonous the way 'betrayal' seems to implicate.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2007-02-13 15:48  

#16   McCain's reference to Tet proves his head is up his ass. This is 2007, Johnny.

It is you who have your heard on your ass. The Tet was a militaruy disater for the VC but thanks to their complices in the MSM it became a BIG victory where it mattered: the American pubklic opinion.

We can expect that in politically sensitive periods, say in the two months preceeding elections the Islamo-nazuis will launch a similar big offensive. For Al Quaeda it doesn't matter if it results in a military disaster annd the loss of thousands of useful idiots, as long as their complices in the MSM get a cut-and-run candidate elected.
Posted by: JFM   2007-02-13 15:02  

#15  McCain's reference to Tet proves his head is up his ass. This is 2007, Johnny.
Posted by: wxjames   2007-02-13 13:46  

#14  I'm with Dogsbody on that. There's PLENTY of reasons to not like/support McCain, but his POW terms are not one of them. He was a war hero. He's a pompous arrogant backstabbing ass now, but that's a prerequisite with the Senate, it seems
Posted by: Frank G   2007-02-13 11:30  

#13  I don't like McCain. I won't vote for McCain, but anyone who makes a argument denouncing him based on what he or anyone did or did not do under years of torture from the North Vietnamese deserves to be ignored. I do not approve of the post by ex-lib claiming 3ed, 4th or 5th hand information about McCain.

If keyboard heros want to criticize POW behavior, I think they better reflect on the issue some more. Lock themselves in a small, dark, hot closet and have someone beat the hell out of them every day for a year. This will give the critic a better understanding of the "moral ambiguities" involved.

Posted by: dogsbody   2007-02-13 11:16  

#12  "McCain, a Vietnam war veteran who spent 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war . . . "

Blah, blah, blah. He's been using that smokescreen crybaby label for too long. I have it on authority from the men who served with him in Nam that he betrayed many in his company to the enemy. They hate him and all spit when his name is mentioned--liked the old Southerners with their one-word moniker "damnYankee". That's a wee bit o' news he doesn't want to get out. Shades of John Kerry.

"McCain made his comment in explaining why he did not believe the Bush administration should set a date by which it should deem Bush's troop increase a success or a failure. "I think that it should be publicly open-ended because I think that if you set a date, that there's every possibility that the insurgents would just lay back and wait until we leave," McCain said."

Wasn't John Howard (Australia) saying the same thing and got blasted for it? There's a lot of sneakiness going on this election season.
Posted by: ex-lib   2007-02-13 09:47  

#11  Cronkite was in the ETO when the Germans launched their surprise attack in the Ardennes in Dec '44. He also covered Tet. If you look at the balance sheet of dead, destroyed units, failed intelligence, etc, if Tet was a victory as portrayed by the MSM, then the Bulge had to been an incredible success as well for the Germans. But you're right. It's not about facts. It's not about who's occupying the ground when the battle is over. It's all about an insidious cancer that masquerades as a profession and hawks fiction as fact to sell doom and disaster to make money. It's an AIDS virus to the republic.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2007-02-13 09:40  

#10  If we could convince the enemy to continue trying for military Tets, we'd be doing a lot better, if by "Tet" he means military-style attempts to convert insurgency to open-field surprise assaults. You know, like that affair last month outside of Najaf.

Personally, I'm more worried about those 600 missing Steyr sniper rigs. That's a lot of potential for pointless attrition right there.
Posted by: Mitch H.   2007-02-13 08:18  

#9   I think any massive terrorist offensive in Iraq is being held in readiness to respond to a US strike against Iran. This may explain US's hesitation in delivering some long-overdue negative feedback to the Mad Mullahs of Iran. The terrs certainly have a mountain of ordnance to support whatever they try to do.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2007-02-13 07:55  

#8  I think McCain is correct - though he used the word 'concerned', which the writer changed to 'fear'. Tet was a military disaster for the Viet Cong, but it was still quite costly to the US (see Hue, for example), and had we been more alert to the possibility of such an offensive we could have squashed it more easily. And had it been squashed more efficiently Cronkite et al could not have spun it into a US defeat and 'proof' we needed to run away home. So, be 'concerned', be prepared, and if in desperation AQ mounts a Tet-type offensive, exploit the opportunity to squash a whole bunch of them like cockroaches.
Posted by: Glenmore   2007-02-13 07:30  

#7  Does this mean we can we begin the Christmas Ramadan Bombing Campaign? Take a right at Basra and look for the lights of beautiful downtown Tehran.
Posted by: ed   2007-02-13 07:27  

#6   I think McCain's comments are of use, and critics of him on this are missing the mark. Much of the domestic criticism on Iraq is related to the daily losses of troops there aggravated by the widespread perception that US leadership isn't serious about using the forces available to it properly.
McCain's discussion of the problems associated with setting a date for withdrawal from Iraq is unfortunately poorly formulated. Of course the enemy will just lay back once a firm date is set. D'oh!
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2007-02-13 06:30  

#5  Most excellent!

Since Tet was a huge victory for the U.S., and since this time there are noncontiguous information streams wehich will prevent it from being spun as a loss, this can only bode well.

Keep wishing, John.
Posted by: no mo uro   2007-02-13 06:13  

#4  Radical Islam is attacking where the US-Brits, etc are NOT, and that is agz their fellow Muslims.
As said before, Many Netters years ago,including US servicemenbers, post-9-11 had no probs iff Dubya's strategy was to let Radical islam attack America where they would be destroyed on selective battleground of Amer's choosing. Dubya is being obscenely criticized, among other reasons, for NOT ENGAGING IN COSTS-PROHIBITIVE, WORLD-WIDE, MIL DIRECT INVASIONS OF ROGUE NATIONS OR NATIONS IN SUPPORT OF TERROR - you know, "America First", "NO WMDS IN IRAQ" Anti-War/Anything ISOLATIONISM.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2007-02-13 04:35  

#3  I can't believe I supported this turd back when he made a presidential run. McCain an ex-POW of all people should know to keep his mouth shut, he is helping the media savy enemy and our treason spewing media with ideas.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom   2007-02-13 03:22  

#2  We lost over 400,000 men in WW II; over 57,000 in Vietnam. We lost almost 7,000 Marines on Iwo Jima in just a few weeks. While I mourn the loss of every serviceman, we need to realize that our casualties after four years in Iraq are historically miniscule by comparison. Public opinion after Tet was turned by the traitors in the MSM, particularly Walter Cronkite, who personally managed to frame a battlefield victory as a strategic defeat. Of course they're trying to repeat their "triumph" in this war, and they appear to be succeeding. Thank God for Fred and Rantburg.
Posted by: PBMcL   2007-02-13 01:33  

#1  Charles got his ass kicked in Tet, Johnny.
Posted by: Ebbemp Elmerong2139   2007-02-13 00:46  

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