PHOENIX – John McCain blasted Barack Obama today for equating the US “liberation” of Iraq from tyrant Saddam Hussein with Russia’s invasion of “democratic” Georgia.
McCain – appearing before the national convention of veterans of the American Legion – noted that Obama complained that Russia “can’t charge into other countries” but added, “of course, it helps if we are leading by example on that point.”
McCain said Obama was clearly referring to America’s invasion of Iraq, which toppled Hussein.
“If he really thinks that, by liberating Iraq from a dangerous tyrant, American somehow set a bad example that invited Russia to invade a small, peaceful and democratic nation, then he should state it outright – because that’s a debate I welcome,” McCain said to applause.
McCain – a former navy pilot and Vietnam POW – also rapped Obama for giving what he considers a naive speech in Berlin in which he said the Cold War was won because the world stood “as one.”
Wrong, McCain said. He said the Cold War ended because democratic countries stood together and defeated evil.
“Now, I missed a few years of the Cold War, as the guest of one of our adversaries,” McCain said, referring to his five years in a North Vietnam prison camp. “I recall the world was deeply divided during the Cold War between the side of freedom and the side of tyranny.”