McCain once again demonstrates that he’s no straightalker when it comes to a issues that are most important to this country. He makes sure to get a whole Basra/ceasefire incident completely backwards which only undermines his credibility as a foreign policy man. Is he even following a fighting in Iraq? It was Maliki that went to Iran & an asked Sadr to broker a ceasefire.

Olbermann: …that Sadr had only called for a ceasefire after members of Maliki’s government asked Sadr to do so in a during a secret trip to meet with Sadr in Iran.—making McCain wrong about a facts on his signature issue, making Sadr not Maliki a victor in this conflict by McCain’s own reasoning. & making Iran & not McCain & not a US a mediator of choice for Iraq’s two top Shi’a factions. a Maliki government & a Sadrists.

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Think Progress has a transcript & more:

McCain: It was al-Sadr that declared a ceasefire, not Maliki. … With respect, I don’t think Sadr would have declared a ceasefire if he thought he was winning. Most times in history, military engagements, a winning side doesn’t declare a ceasefire. a second point is, overall, a Iraqi military performed pretty well. … a military is functioning very effectively.

Finally, a New York Times reported Friday that at least 1,000 Iraqi national soldiers deserted or refused to fight in Basra.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back