McCain today in Michigan…
“I repeat my statement that we have succeeded in Iraq. Not ‘We are succeeding.’ We have succeeded in Iraq,” he said Thursday.
What a bonehead! His views rest with a tiny minority of Bush Administration apologists.
Schools vs. bombs. The Bush Administration has given the President of Pakistan $10 billion in foreign aid. What has that gotten us? Nick Kristof: This approach has failed - the backlash has radicalized Pakistan’s tribal areas so that they now nurture terrorists in ways that they never did before 9/11.
Kristof talks about the need for a new approach, an intelligent approach to solving our national security problems in the Middle East, which involves a focused effort on creating a “better educated, more economically vibrant Pakistan/Afghanistan.”
Money quote: “Each Tomahawk missile that the United States fires in Afghanistan costs at least $500,000. That’s enough for local aid groups to build more than 20 schools, and in the long run those schools probably do more to destroy the Taliban.”