McCain Says Foes Unready for War

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The New York Sun

A Republican presidential candidate, John McCain, said today that he is far better prepared than his rivals to prepare the country for the threat we face from our enemies in the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We don’t have time or opportunity for on-the-job training, and the other candidates for president, I don’t believe, have the qualifications that I do to hit the ground running,” the four-term senator from Arizona said during an engagement at a conservative think tank, the Hudson Institute.

Mr. McCain outlined several steps he said are needed to meet the challenges of American warfare: American forces must be expanded; new technology must be developed; and an advisory team comprised of both military and civilian experts should be created to study the fight against global terrorism, Mr. McCain said.

“We are in a long war, a war I’m afraid the U.S. government is not adequately prepared to fight,” he said.

The next commander in chief will need experience, political courage, and what he called “strategic clarity” to comprehend the threats and make sound and difficult decisions, he said.

“It is no less true today that it has been in the past. Defeatism will not buy peace in our time,” he said. “We must recognize that our enemies are in this fight to win, and so must we.”


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