In his gazillionth appearance on one of these Sunday bobble head shows, Sen. John McCain was once again about as predictable as the sun coming up in the morning, and continued the attacks on President Obama that started over the weekend, where he called the airstrikes in northern Iraq a "pinprick", "meaningless" and "almost worse than nothing."
He also criticized the president for honoring Bush's status of forces agreement and pulling our troops out of Iraq, as though that would have done anything other than delay the inevitable once we went in there and blew the whole country apart and turned it into a powder keg.
And somehow Crowley forgot to ask John McCain about this:
It seems McCain was for removing the troops from Iraq before he was against it.
He did get plenty of time to go after President Obama, brush off any criticisms that we ought to be careful about who we're arming, and to answer a question about why he just reflexively attacks anything President Obama does with more reflexive attacks on President Obama.
McCain Slams Obama: We Should Have Stayed In Iraq:
On CNN's "State of the Union," McCain blamed the deteriorating situation in Iraq on America's failure to leave forces behind in Iraq.
The senator said Obama's targeted strikes in Iraq aren't enough.
“That’s not a strategy. That’s not a policy," McCain said. “That is simply a very narrow and focused approach to a problem, which is metastasizing as we speak.”
McCain called for airstrikes in Syria and for the U.S. to give weapons and supplies to the Kurds in order to fight ISIS.
“There’s a vacuum of American leadership all throughout the Middle East," he said.
CNN host Candy Crowley asked McCain to respond to the widely-held belief that he opposes everything Obama does when it comes to foreign policy.
“I predicted what was going to happen in Iraq," he said. "And I’m predicting to you now, that if we pull everybody out of Afghanistan, not based on conditions, you’ll see that same movie again in Afghanistan."
McCain: Iraq airstrikes 'clearly ineffective':
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Sunday blasted President Obama's strategy for limited airstrikes in Iraq, calling it "very, very ineffective."
"Launching three strikes around a place where horrible humanitarian crisis is taking place, meanwhile [the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)] continues to make gains everywhere, yes is clearly very, very ineffective, to say the least," McCain said on CNN's "State of the Union."
ISIS is making gains in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, McCain said.
McCain said the president's decision to approve targeted airstrikes and drop humanitarian aid to refugees under siege in northern Iraq was "far from sufficient to meet the growing threat that ISIS poses."
"This is turning into, as we predicted for a long time a regional conflict which does pose a threat to the United States security," McCain added.
McCain blasted the lack of what he thinks of as a more comprehensive strategy.
When asked about the humanitarian drops and coordination with local Iraqi security forces, McCain said, "That's not a strategy. That's not a policy. That is simply a very narrow and focused approach to a problem that is metastasizing as we speak."
He also said the U.S. is paying for not leaving a residual force and announcing a withdrawal, thereby leaving a "vacuum of leadership" in the country.
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