John MaverickMcCain
... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former
foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution...
arrived in Kabul
...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title
Most Evil Man in the Worldand didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either....
on Saturday openly criticizing the Barack B.O. regime's handling of the U.S. withdraw from Afghanistan.
At a presser on Saturday, the senior Republican Senator said that President B.O. has a weak understanding of the timeframe set for U.S. forces to withdraw from Afghanistan. He criticized the idea of a "deadline" for troops to withdraw, echoing comments that have been made by independent analysts in the wake of the Iraq war and that country's subsequent deterioration.
"I think the most serious mistake that the United States could make - in a betrayal of the brave Americans who have served here and the brave Afghans who serve and have continued to sacrifice - would be to have a calendar based withdraw," Mr. McCain told news hounds on Saturday. "That would be a tragedy, and, in my view, a door opening for the Taliban to gain great success here in Afghanistan, and I don't believe that the people of Afghanistan want a return to Taliban governance," he added.
The American senator, who ran against Obama in the 2008 presidential election in the United States, said the withdraw of U.S. troops should be based on conditions on the ground and on the best advice of military commanders.
McCain also said that the American people would welcome the peaceful deployment of more troops in Afghanistan. "What I think is very important is for us to determine the objectives of our involvement in Afghanistan and then assess what the requirements are to achieve those objectives and develop a strategy rather than just setting a calendar based withdraw," he said.