“We have a lot of work to do and I’m afraid it’s a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq/Pakistan border.”

One problem. Iraq and Pakistan aren’t next to each other. Iran and Afghanistan are in between them. Either he doesn’t know the difference, or he keeps forgetting. Whatever it is, he ain’t as on top of things over there as he would have us believe.

Notice the past tense, succeeded, not succeeding. In what’s left of McCain’s mind, Iraq is a done deal. He seems to believe that all that’s left to do is start up the Iraq version of the Marshall Plan, and leave our troops there for 50, 100 years, living in peace and harmony with the Iraqis, like in Germany and South Korea.

“There are two problems with John McCain’s political attacks on Barack Obama’s foreign policy. First, on the biggest foreign policy questions of the last eight years, Barack Obama has made the right judgment and John McCain has sided with George Bush in making the wrong one. Second, the failure of the McCain-Bush foreign policy has forced John McCain to change his position, and to embrace the very same Obama approaches that he once attacked.

Just this week, Senator McCain has been forced by events to switch to Barack Obama’s position on two fundamental issues: more troops in Afghanistan, and more diplomacy with Iran. On both issues, Obama took stands that weren’t politically popular at the time – opposing the war in Iraq as a diversion from the critical mission in Afghanistan, and standing up for direct diplomacy with Iran – while John McCain lined up with George Bush. Time has proven Obama’s judgment right and McCain wrong.

The next shift appears to be Iraq. For months, Senator McCain has called any plan to redeploy our troops from Iraq “surrender” – even though we’d be leaving Iraq to a sovereign Iraqi government. Now, the Bush Administration is embracing the negotiation of troop withdrawals with the Iraqi government – a position that Senator Obama called for last September, and reiterated on Monday in the New York Times. And now, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki supports Barack Obama’s timeline, telling Der Speigel that, “Barack Obama is right when he talks about 16 months.””

Hope McCain doesn’t bruise easily, because that’s gonna leave a mark…

So, it’s ok to not want to disclose security details about your son, but he’s fine with letting it slip about Obama’s plans?

So, if he (God forbid) becomes president, is McCain gonna let the codes slip, or tell everyone about that cool new top secret gizmo? I’m becoming more & more convinced that McCain has some sort of dementia. Just because his Mom is in her 90s and sharp as a tack doesn’t mean he ain’t a few sandwiches short of a picnic.

The press doesn’t report on all of these changes, because they’re all hoping McCain will have them over for ribs again, or let them sit in the big seat on Cindy’s plane.

From Crooks & Liars…
“The key quote, of course, was pretty straightforward: “[O]ur commanders on the ground in Afghanistan say that they need at least three additional brigades. Thanks to the success of the surge, these forces are becoming available, and our commanders in Afghanistan must get them.”

What’s important to realize, though, is that while Obama has been arguing for a year that he wants to send additional troops to Afghanistan, McCain has always held the opposite position, opposing the deployment of more U.S. troops, and arguing that any additional troops come from NATO.

Yesterday, however, McCain reversed course, change his position, and embraced Obama’s policy as his own. As Josh Marshall explained, “So let’s all say it out loud: McCain is now copying Obama’s position on Afghanistan. And with troops that he doesn’t have since he’s against pulling any out of Iraq.”

But it gets worse. McCain has actually held multiple positions on Afghanistan in the last seven days.

Last Tuesday, McCain did not want to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.

By yesterday morning, McCain said he does want to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.

Almost immediately after giving his speech — literally just minutes after the event — McCain said he didn’t exactly mean what he’d said in his prepared remarks, and argued that the additional troops could come from NATO, not U.S. forces.

And then a few hours later, McCain refined his policy a little more, saying the additional troops would come from NATO and U.S. forces.

Remember, the premise of John McCain’s presidential campaign is a) his expertise on foreign policy and national security; and b) his consistency.”

And McCain is getting on Obama’s case for only going to one Senate hearing on Afghanistan. In the meantime, McCain has shown up for ZERO hearings on Afghanistan in the last two years, according to ABC News. This from the guy who only showed up to vote 38% of the time this session of Congress.

Frikkin’ hypocrite.