Do you remember the story of Lex? The Gathering of Eagles wrote about him a few months ago. He is a retired U.S. Marine. He was the faithful companion of Marine Cpl. Dustin Jerome Lee until Lee was killed in action in Iraq. Cpl. Lee’s family brought Lex to live with them in Mississippi.

Cpl. Lee’s mother brought Lex to meet Senator McCain today in Meridian, Mississippi. They even got to right on the Straight Talk Express. I’m sure that McCain and his family were honored to be in the company of a renowned warrior like Lex!!!

Read more about Lex at the Gathering of Eagles blog and more about his meeting with McCain here.

crossposted at Blue Star Chronicles

John McCain has been touring the country as part of his Service to America Tour. Today he was at Hope Village which is a home for children who have had to be removed from the homes of their primary caretakers. It is a place of safety and … well … hope. A place where the children can grow and learn in safety when other alternatives are not available to them. The home was started in 2000 by actress Sela Ward.

John McCain speaks at Hope Village about the importance of public service

Actress Sela Ward listens

In this one, Sen. McCain is cracking, “c’mon, granny” to which Mrs. McCain cracked back,
“I’m fine, it’s the girls who are slowing me down”

crossposted at Blue Star Chronicles

I listened in on the blogger conference call today and was glad to hear Hugh Hewitt ask about a statement that had been made about an upcoming announcement from John McCain that there will be ‘a significant increase in the Army and Marine Corps’ under his administration. I was so happy to hear that he would build our military back up that I didn’t make the connection that he didn’t mention the Navy. I guess I just made the assumption he meant the military as a whole.

Hugh Hewitt, on the other hand, did make that connection and asked what McCain’s intentions are in terms of the Navy’s involvement in that military increase. I thought the response to that question was interesting.

In the blogger conference call today, McCain Senior Advisor Steve Schmidt outlined next week’s “Service to America” tour. Senator McCain will be making speeches from McCain Field in Mississippi, Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia, Annapolis, Maryland, Jacksonville and Pensacola, Florida. Each stop will underscore some aspect of the senator’s life story, as well as the McCain family’s many-generation commitment to the country’s safety.

At the Jacksonville stop, the GOP nominee will call for a significant increase in the size of the Army and Marine Corps. I asked if the Navy would be part of the call for an expanded military, and Schmidt demurred until the senator speaks next week. It seems to me that a naval power needs more than the 280 ship Navy we are headed for.

Expansion of the military is a crucial issue for the fall campaign. The Jacksonville speech will thus be a very significant milestone in Campaign 2008.

I will look forward to hearing McCain speak on this next week. With his legacy of connections with the Navy I suspect there will be a significant increase in the strength of our military … Navy included. I certainly hope so.

On Monday John McCain will embark on his Service to America Tour. This tour is an opportunity for McCain to introduce himself to Americans through stops, speeches and interactions throughout America. His speeches will be on a more personal level than we have ever heard from him before.

…. he will introduce himself to the nation through a series of speeches and visits that trace the life of a man indebted to his nation, humbled by the opportunity to serve his country, honored by his family’s love and deeply moved by his fellow Americans’ courage and sacrifice. The tour will highlight the events and figures that shaped his views of right and wrong, forgiveness and grace and the tradition of service and sacrifice ingrained in him from generations of McCains. This “Service to America” tour will fundamentally be about the future of America and the change John McCain will bring as president, informed by the values that have guided his life.

John McCain is scheduled to speak on foreign policy later today in Los Angeles. In his speech he will address his feelings regarding war.

“When I was five years old, a car pulled up in front of our house in New London, Connecticut, and a Navy officer rolled down the window, and shouted at my father that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. My father immediately left for the submarine base where he was stationed. I rarely saw him again for four years.

My grandfather, who commanded the fast carrier task force under Admiral Halsey, came home from the war exhausted from the burdens he had borne, and died the next day.

In Vietnam, where I formed the closest friendships of my life, some of those friends never came home to the country they loved so well.

I detest war. It might not be the worst thing to befall human beings, but it is wretched beyond all description. When nations seek to resolve their differences by force of arms, a million tragedies ensue. The lives of a nation’s finest patriots are sacrificed. Innocent people suffer and die. Commerce is disrupted; economies are damaged; strategic interests shielded by years of patient statecraft are endangered as the exigencies of war and diplomacy conflict.

Not the valor with which it is fought nor the nobility of the cause it serves, can glorify war. Whatever gains are secured, it is loss the veteran remembers most keenly. Only a fool or a fraud sentimentalizes the merciless reality of war. However heady the appeal of a call to arms, however just the cause, we should still shed a tear for all that is lost when war claims its wages from us.”

The men in my life have been familiar with war. My father was a veteran of World War II, my husband is a Vietnam Veteran and now my son is a veteran of the Global War on Terror. I have never heard one of them talk about loving war. I have heard my husband say that no man who has been to war would ever want there to be a war. None of them are the ‘war mongers’ as they are categorized by the left. They simply understand the awful necessity of war. They understand history and the nature of the world. They know that appeasement is not the answer to the aggression of our enemies and they have the courage to face the harsh realities that we are faced with in this world.

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crossposted at Blue Star Chronicles

Senator Lindsey Graham was on Hannity and Colmes last night and responded to the dems repeatedly distorting John McCain’s statement that the United States will have a presence in Iraq for up to 100 years.

The liberals are very good at sound byte politics. They knowingly distort and take statements out of context, repeat their sound byte repeatedly until many in the public start believing that their version of events is true. If you don’t keep close tabs on politics and depend on the old media for your information there is no reason that you wouldn’t believe that John McCain expected our troops to be fighting the Battle of Iraq for another 100 years. In reality, we need to remember that we’ve had troops all over the world for many years. Troops have been in Japan and Germany since World War II (over 60 years) an no one seems concerned about that in the least.

One of John McCain’s strengths is his strong grasp on the conflicts that our country is currently faced with and his understanding of how to deal with conflict. He certainly knows that pretending conflict is not there doesn’t make it go away.

While John McCain has been touring the Middle East this week he has visited King Abdullah II of Jordan and Israel. He has voiced his support of Israel as well as hope for peace in the Middle East as a whole.

The Jerusalem Post

“If Hamas/Hizbullah succeeds here, they are going to succeed everywhere, not only in the Middle East, but everywhere. Israel isn’t the only enemy,” Arizona Sen. McCain said, in the only interview he is giving to the Israeli media during his visit here.

“They are dedicated to the extinction of everything that the US, Israel and the West believe and stand for. So America does have an interest in what happens here, far above and beyond our alliance with the State of Israel.”

McCain calls Israel a partner, not a client. He says as partners it is not our place to tell Israel how to handle the conflicts they have with their neighbors. While he would not recommend that Israel not talk to Hamas he said that he is personally against it.

“Someone is going to have to answer me the question of how you are going to negotiate with an organization that is dedicated to your extinction,” McCain said in a lounge in Jerusalem’s David Citadel Hotel, as Lieberman and Graham listened.

~ clip ~

“I really think that we should understand that the US and Israel are partners. Israel is not a client of the United States,” he said. “If you are partners, then you don’t dictate what you think the terms of the survival of a nation should be.”

Asked whether Israel was using the right tactics in trying to quell the rocket fire on Sderot and the western Negev, McCain praised Defense Minister Ehud Barak - terming him “one of the great military people” he has met - and added, “I can’t give you a good answer as to how you respond to these rocket attacks.”

But, he then said dryly, “I can tell you that I believe that if rocket attacks came across the border of the United States of America, that the American people would probably demand pretty vigorous actions in response. I think I know my constituency in the state of Arizona, and they would be pretty exercised if rockets came across our southern border.”

And what did he have to say about Iran ….

“I think Iran is a threat to the region,” McCain said, adding that not only were the Iranians “obviously pursuing nuclear weapons,” they were also arming and training extremists to send into Iraq, supporting Hizbullah and influencing Syria.

“At the end of the day, we can still not afford to have Iran with nuclear weapons,” he said. “We know they have ambitions that are not just aimed at the State of Israel.”

These ambitions included “destabilization of the entire region upon which the United States’ national security interests rest,” he said.

McCain is in the region with his close friends, fellow Senators, Joe Lieberman and Lesley Graham. Here are some photos from their trip. You can click on the photos to make them larger.

John McCain has consistently been an ardent supporter of Israel. He has reiterated his support of Israel during his current trip to the Middle East by verbalizing his support of Israel’s claim to Jerusalem as the Capital of the Jewish State.

Haaretz

Before his arrival in Israel on Tuesday, McCain said he supports Israel’s claim to Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state. He told reporters in Jordan: “I support Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.”

Later, speaking at a meeting with President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem, McCain said he was concerned by Iran’s negative influence on the region - namely, the fact that it trains, finances and otherwise assists radical groups - and that his concern had merely been heightened by his current tour of the region.

Of course, the Arab News took exception to McCain’s stance. They emphasize the importance of McCain continuing work on the Middle East peace process. However, it appears from their view the only cause of conflict there is because of the Jews and that they only resolution has to do with the Jewish community giving in the every demand made by the Palestinians.

Hillary Clinton spent the St. Patrick’s Day weekend working the crowds at parades and giving speeches wearing a green scarf adorned with Irish clovers. Barack Obama spent the weekend with weak attempts to find the right set of words to get himself out of the corner he’s painted himself into by running as the candidate who transcends race while having spent the last twenty years attending a church that is astonishingly racist. I also imagine that he spent a large part of the weekend with spin doctors working on a speech he is to give tomorrow that is supposed to fix this entire situation for him. Words. Its all about words.

While the democrats were busily working on their respective campaigns, McCain made a surprise visit to Iraq. It is his eight trip there since the beginning of the war (did you know he’d been that many time? Right. I didn’t think so). He was traveling with fellow Senators Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.). While McCain visited Iraq and met with official there he stayed largely out of view. That doesn’t stop the leftists blogs from declaring that he was there for photo-ops and political gain.

The only political gain involved in his trip to Iraq had to do with progress in relations with the government of Iraq.

The visit included a briefing by senior U.S. military officials in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, according to a U.S. military official familiar with McCain’s schedule. The city has emerged as one of the last major urban strongholds of the Sunni insurgency. McCain then flew to Haditha, the western Iraqi town where, in November 2005, U.S. Marines gunned down as many as 24 Iraqi civilians. He walked through a market.

McCain was scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, according to Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih. While Salih did not see McCain on Sunday, he said McCain’s “message has been consistent in the past saying Iraqis have to take responsibility and deliver on political progress.”

Salih said it was important for Iraqi politicians not to get involved in U.S. domestic politics but that his colleagues were “keenly aware of the debate in the United States.” Most important, he said, was a “solid long-term partnership” with the United States and a commitment that the American government “continue to look at Iraq as an important mission that cannot be allowed to fail.”

“Abandoning Iraq is not an option,” he said.

In an interview with CNN, McCain discussed the enormous stakes involved in the decisions that are being made in regards to Iraq.

Again he states the facts are on his side, that withdrawing troops too fast would undermine the security gains and create a climate where political reforms were even more unlikely.
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“We are succeeding. And we can succeed and American casualties overall are way down. That is in direct contradiction to the predictions made by the Democrats and particularly Sen. [Barack] Obama and Sen. [Hillary] Clinton.

“I will be glad to stake my campaign on the fact that this has succeeded and the American people appreciate it. Now will we be able to succeed fast enough? Will they be able to — al Qaeda be able to come back? That is a tough question. They are on the run, but they are not defeated.”

Crossposted at Blue Star Chronicles

One of the reasons I feel so strongly that John McCain has the potential to be one of our great Presidents is that he has consistently throughout his career taken stands on principle regardless of the political consequences to himself. He is very different from many politicians in that he appears to be completely unwilling to throw aside his convictions for personal or political gain. He is a man of integrity and character.

He will also stand his ground when all others stand against him. He hasn’t won a lot of friends in the Senate for those stances, but he has won the respect of most. When he is wrong, he owns up to it. When he is right, he won’t bend his principles to the pressure from his peers.

I was looking for something completely different when I ran across this article from a couple of years ago.

December 8, 2006 — WASHINGTON - Sen. John McCain yesterday slammed the report by the Iraq Study Group, warning the recommendations would lead the United States to a historic failure and endanger thousands of American troops.

“There’s only one thing worse than an overstressed Army and Marine Corps, and that’s a defeated Army and Marine Corps,” said McCain, a Vietnam POW for five years and a likely GOP candidate for the White House.

“I believe this is a recipe that will lead to our defeat sooner or later in Iraq,” said the Arizona senator, a former Navy fighter pilot whose father and grandfather were both four-star admirals.

The study’s chief authors - former Secretary of State James Baker and former Rep. Lee Hamilton (R-Ind.) - could only listen as McCain eviscerated their plan at a packed Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

McCain, who favors sending more troops to Iraq to crush the insurgents, ridiculed one of the panel’s key suggestions - that thousands of American troops withdraw and instead “embed” forces within retrained Iraqi units.

He said the idea would “put at risk a large number of American advisers.”

Only a fraction of Iraqi units are now considered reliable.

Hamilton immediately acknowledged that McCain had a point on embedding troops.

“You’re absolutely right about that,” he said. “There is no blinking the fact that that’s a risky mission and a difficult mission, and we should not slide over it, as you have not in your comments,” Hamilton told McCain.

But Hamilton said the United States would have enough combat forces there to protect its embedded troops.

McCain also mocked the commission’s idea of seeking peace talks with terrorist states Iran and Syria, saying, “I don’t believe that a peace conference with people who are dedicated to your extinction has much short-term gain.”

Another thing that has resulted in my enthusiastic support of John McCain for President is that he will unequivocally support our Troops. He will not put them in untenable situations (embedded with Iraqi Troops!) without the proper support needed to minimize American casualties and to ensure American victory.

I believe that John McCain will not settle for anything less than victory in any conflict we have with our enemies foreign and domestic. He obviously has an abiding respect for our Troops and will do whatever is necessary to protect them from becoming political pawns. He obviously loves America and will do whatever is necessary to see that we are not humiliated by defeat in order to further someone’s political career or a political party’s agenda. He obviously understands how incredibly high the stakes are for the United States in the Battle of Iraq. He obviously doesn’t have a problem swimming against the tide to see that we do not leave Iraq until our Troops can leave there victorious and with their heads held high.

A precipitous withdrawal from the Battle of Iraq would have consequences that we can barely even imagine.

Crossposted at Blue Star Chronicles