Sen. John McCain Endorses U.S. Talks With the Taliban: ‘Important to Have Talks Wherever You Can’
- Posted on February 19, 2012 at 10:56am by
Madeleine Morgenstern
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ABC
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Sunday said he supports talks between the U.S. and the Taliban in Afghanistan — a position endorsed by the Obama administration and opposed by McCain-backed GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
“I think it’s important to have talks wherever you can,” McCain said, speaking from Afghanistan on ABC’s “This Week.“ ”We have to have an outcome on the battlefield that would motivate a successful conclusion to those talks.”
McCain said it was particularly important to reach strategic agreement for a long-term U.S. presence in Afghanistan, and reiterated his opposition to Obama announcing a troop withdrawal.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai told the Wall Street Journal last week the Taliban has been holding secrets three-way talks with his government and the U.S., a claim the Taliban denied.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said “we believe that an end to the conflict in Afghanistan will come when there is a political reconciliation. We have supported an Afghan-led process of reconciliation,” USA Today reported.
But Romney, whose presidential bid has been endorsed by one-time opponent McCain, said during a recent GOP debate: “The right course for America is not to negotiate with the Taliban while the Taliban are killing our soldiers. The right course is to recognize they’re the enemy of the United States.”
McCain said on “This Week” he has not “had a conversation” with Romney about the issue, but did say Romney has a “realistic” approach to Afghanistan. He and the former Massachusetts governor are united in their opposition to announcing a U.S. troop withdrawal date.
Watch below, via ABC. Comments about Afghanistan begin at the 4:30 mark.



















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Comments (193)
SPOT_OF_TEA
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:55amI heard McCain on Hannity’s show bragging up the Muslim Brotherhood giving Obama credibility on that issue for independent voters….Now he’s giving Obama credibility with associating with the Taliban….I think McCain is sending us a message,telling us to support an establishment candidate or the Republican machine will make sure Obama is reelected.
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 12:06pmDo you think we could pay the Taliturds to take him prisoner ? I got fifty bucks to start it off…..
Report Post »rose-ellen
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 12:07pmA great american.A man with a conscience after all.This makes up for his massmurdering of villages in viet nam.Everyone is redeemable ,this shows. that he values human life and understands that this totalizing good vs. evil stuff is not the road to peace,freedom and justice.This shows that even right wingers can grow as moral human beings.God bless you mc cain-don’t let these brainwashed genocidists get to you.
Report Post »drago
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 12:45pm@rose-ellen aka encinom.
Please ask your mommy to look into private mental institutes for you, its obvious you can not be fixed…..
As for mc caint, hes nothing but a turn coat, and he surely is no hero, hes a commie progressive, and has been since the first day he entered politics, send his ass back to nam……..
Report Post »amos-moses
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 12:54pmMcCain, though not as reliable as Gore, is a wind sock.
Report Post »dz283
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 1:02pmRick santorum 2012
Report Post »disenlightened
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 1:15pmI’m beginning to think we should give McCain to the Taliban as a hostage. He’s got experience. He’d be a good one for them.
Report Post »EndTheFedNOW
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 1:28pmI bet the terrorist Mccain does endoruse that. The west OWNs the taliban. They have been working for the big banks since day one.
Report Post »Wilbur Longshank
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 1:36pmTalking did McCain real good while he was a prisoner in Vietnam. should have left him there.
Report Post »Ruler4You
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 2:03pmHe has been at the hands of radicals before. For YEARS. This “IS” a symptom of ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ manifest in the face of serious consequence in the form of a flashback, a sort of PTSD symptom, that is interfering with his ability to lead.
McCain, should be removed from office by his constituency by recall if necessary, before he compromises some thing ‘he’ doesn’t have to pay the price for.
Report Post »MYHEROISRON
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 2:19pmJohn McCain is the reason I got involved with the tea party! He means NOTHING to me. He is everything that is wrong with the federal government!
MY HERO IS RONALD REAGAN by the way, not Ron Paul!
Report Post »richard the lion-hearted
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 3:06pmI wonder if McCain thought the same when he was a prisoner of war, maybe that‘s why he’s such a hypocrite about national defense. I‘m starting to think they ’broke’ him in Vietnam…
Report Post »jonnyfontain
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 4:21pmHA! Check it out its the Progressive coming out in McCain. Proof that the NWO exists and that the prior election was loaded! Do America a favor and put Santorum in office because at least the “powers at be” don’t want him and that IS a GREAT STEP in the RIGHT DIRECTION for this Nation.
Report Post »2theADDLED
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 4:23pmThere is time for talk and there is also time for action.
Report Post »I think we have said enough.
Wolf
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 7:06pmThe friend of my enemy is not my friend. Nor is McCraitor a friend to America.
Report Post »jhaydeng
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 7:14pmWhat a jerk! Talk with people who want all of us dead! I’m second guessing his heroism!
Report Post »Gary S
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 8:02pmWho dug up that zombie. Guess we didn’t put enough dirt on him. This time tamp it down better.
Report Post »TROONORTH
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 9:23pm“Better -jaw, jaw, jaw than war, war, war.” – a certain well known British Prime Minister who knew a lot about both.
Report Post »artistskeptic
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 10:17pmHopefully the nation will tell RINO McCain and his ignorant fat daughter to please go away!!!
Report Post »jzs
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 10:42pmLook I know that Christ said “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” (Matthew 5:9) But that’s just stupid. That must have been a typo or something because we all know Jesus of Nazareth wasn’t an idiot. We have to kill these guys. All of them. I know that, you know that, and Jesus knew that.
That quote about “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God” is just wrong headed. If Jesus were alive today he, like you, would want all Muslims killed. Or if not all of them enough so that they rest would bow down before him as the true Prince of Peace.
Don’t take the Bible literally because their were lots of translation and transcription errors. The Bible is true, but the English version we have on our shelves is fraught with misquotes.
Report Post »Therightsofbilly
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:59pmHey JZS
Compliments to you on your implementation of Alinsky Rule #4
http://alinskydefeater.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/the-alinsky-tactics-rule-by-rule-%E2%80%93-rule-4/
Report Post »USAF2003
Posted on February 20, 2012 at 9:15amMcCain’t and his whore of a daughter should just go live with the Taliban.
Report Post »Raveler
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:55amMcCain, is the founder of the Defence Authorization Act, which declairs the United States a war zone whereby the the state can exsorcise arbitrary power, arresting and holding American Citizens without writ of Hebeas corpuse indefinitely, thus expunging the constitution and the bill of rights for all Americans. It seems to me McCain has perpetuated (here at home) the same totalitarian regime that imprisoned him in Viet nam so many years ago. This man is no patriot. He is a neo-con statist through and through.
Report Post »richard the lion-hearted
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 3:13pmYou got that right, a hollow shell of the man he once was, before his capture in Vietnam.
Report Post »Swamp B Gummer
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 9:34pmAhhh, good ole LUMP-JAW, you gave us Obama!!! go away puke
Report Post »Mil-Dot
Posted on February 20, 2012 at 7:05amIt was all of the crackly-voiced old crows in Arizona that put McCain back in office. “Hes a MMMAAAAVVVVVEEEERRRIIICCKKK”. One would think that the older folks would be able to spot a traitor and be more in tuned with freedom than they are. It is proof positive that a salamander will vote for a salamander, a dog would vote for a dog, an illegal alien would vote for a Latino, and a crow will vote for a crow-NO MATTER WHAT.
Report Post »gdfleo
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:54amDoesn’t having “talks” with the enemy usually mean giving them large sums of money?
Report Post »disenlightened
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 1:17pmAlmost every time.
Report Post »CleanUpAisle2013
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 2:19pmBut we’re already giving them large sums of money. It’s called Pakistan. Interesting that McCain, who was tortured in Vietnam and who has denounced water-boarding as ineffectual, wants to have talks with the enemy. Sure sounds like someone was brainwashed.
An enemy is an enemy is an enemy. The only talks we should have with the Taliban is when we yell, “Freeze!” … after we’ve already shot large holes in their heads and bodies. Following up with, “Oops!”, OR, “Say ‘hello’ to Allah the Pimp for me, wudcha?”, are optional.
Report Post »Kondratievwave
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:53amSo we should give the al-qaeda backed syrian rebels guns and talk with the taliban. JD Heyworth why did you do those free gov’t money comercials, why why
Report Post »rose-ellen
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 12:50pmof course we should-and will.you’re on the wrong side of history-with your brainwashed genocidal fantasies. not mccain.
Report Post »Lloyd Drako
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 2:57pmI’ll go a step step further and suggest that we should not only negotiate with the Taliban but even with Al-Qaeda, or rather, one by one, its various “franchises.”
The Taliban did not attack us, they merely sheltered those who did, a criminal deed if ever there was one, for which their country–I emphasize, their country–has paid with a third decade of war. Ah well.
Essentially, they represent the Pashtuns, who will be a majority in Afghanistan as long as there is an Afghanistan. Whoever controls Pashtun tribal loyalties will eventually control the country, a situation in which we have little or no say
As for Al-Qaeda,it’s now 10 years since 9/11, 13 years and counting since Osama Bin Laden “declared war” on us, Osama himself in a final message to his children begged them not to go down the jihadi road but rather to Europe or the US for a “good education,” presumably in business or finance. Even he knew the world has changed and enmities are not forever. The British negotiated with the IRA–and the North remains British. Nixon went to China, and the world did not end. The Israelis negotiate with the Palestinians over this and that all the time. They have to, they are neighbors.
Meanwhile, the war in Afghanistan and the one in Iraq have killed or wounded close to 10,000 Americans, increased the military-civilian divide at home, contributed enormously to our swelling national debt. . . . need I go on? Listen to your elders–yes, even John McCain!
Report Post »richard the lion-hearted
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 6:42pm@Lloyd Drako
Report Post »You are seeing only what ‘fits’ your ideology, you leave many facts out of your explanations and draw comparisons where there is no similarity. Essentially only narrow-minded ‘idealogs’ like yourself will ever agree with you. Maybe you should stick to the ‘left-wing nuts’ and their “news” sites, you’d fair much better there with your own kind in a glorious infestion of emotional psycho babble.
Lloyd Drako
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 7:35pm@Richard the Lion Hearted:
Report Post »There is nothing emotional about pointing out that even the bitterest of enemies can sit down and negotiate. Wars end that way more commonly than with total defeat or victory, which I suppose is what you want.
richard the lion-hearted
Posted on February 20, 2012 at 2:25pm@Lloyd Drako
Report Post »You only argued the ‘emotional’ angle huh? You reveal yourself. When your enemy unequivocally calls for your death and nation‘s destruction you’d have to be a fool not to understand what that means, so if the shoe fits…please wear it and walk yourself over to your leftist ‘follow ideology without question’ buddies.
The_Almighty_Creestof
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:51amThe man is a fool. Sure they will be happy to talk with us, and sure we’ll be happy to bribe them with money, supplies, land, economic and political concessions…maybe arms and even foreign aid. And all along they’ll be taking whatever thay can get while plotting to kill us in our sleep.
You can’t get anymore brain dead than this kind of fool.
Report Post »ICOSAHEDRON
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 8:36pmYup…!
Report Post »ICOSAHEDRON
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 9:01pmKill the enemy or the enemy will kill you… Plain and simple. With the PC Government idiots we have today, we couldn’t win WWII… Much less WWIII…
Report Post »flyoverbob
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:49amI didn’t even read the article,how can you be so foolish.
What the hell do you not understand? They want us dead,not friends,not slaves, DEAD.
You senile irrelevant old coot.And before you tell me what a hero he is I’m a Vietnam vet and saw my fellow veterans dis-respected for decades,and never heard a peep from McCain.
Someone explain to me how we negotiate with them,Do we agree to let them kill half of America? Do we let them impose sharia on half the country?
Report Post »Or do we just take their word for it that they wont harm anyone if we just give them some land and let them start a village?
Remember it only takes a village.
Come on Washington get some balls
horsehockey
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 12:12pm“I didn’t even read the article,how can you be so foolish.
What the hell do you not understand? They want us dead,not friends,not slaves, DEAD.
You senile irrelevant old coot.And before you tell me what a hero he is I’m a Vietnam vet and saw my fellow veterans dis-respected for decades,and never heard a peep from McCain.”
That paragraph, if it could be physically weighed, would be worth its weight in gold. As a VietVet, too, I think McCain’s service record is no longer an issue–he has done far more damage to the country than he ever did good for it with his service. Go ahead, Senator, let the Taliban sodomize you, but not me.
Report Post »Dismayed Veteran
Posted on February 20, 2012 at 12:14pmI had the unfortunate assignment as a POW debriefer. I respect all who served and those who became POW’s. That respect will never go away. But, that was then. Now we need to be a deliberate people and not deal with the enemy.
Report Post »omgfolks
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:47amOh sure John, thats what we need is more talk. Got to keep those politicians jaws a jacking so they can feel like they earned the hefty paychecks they get. How about no talk, unless tally throws in the flag. Just keep the pressure on HOT AND HEAVY until the last tally screams I quit. Then talk.
Report Post »HorseCrazy
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 12:43pmYes that’s all mccain is is talk. we have him and the RNC to thank for Obama’s first term. He has forgotten his warrior roots. Everyone but the politicians can see there is no talking to or negotiating with terrorists.
Report Post »LibertyUSA1
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:44am“Time…promotes you…or exposes you”. McCain has finally been outed. We all knew it…he has confirmed it. Time for Sarah to run for his or Kyles seat in Arizona. Awesome she had enough forthought to have purchased a home in Arizona. Run Sarah Run.
Report Post »Deckle
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:42amMcCain is loosing it! The Islams are taught to lie to all non Islams. You cannot negotiate with people that are determined to destroy you at all cost and take over the world! I think McCain has gone mad himself if he thinks you can negotiate with people like this. And McCain is supporting Romney?
Report Post »Lucy Larue
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 6:09pmDECKLE,
You are referring to the Muslim practice called Taqiyya. In the muslim world it is encouraged to lie to the Infidels.We are not muslim. We are Dhimmis.We count for nothing.
Iran is using Taqiyya in their latest “REACHING OUT” to talk. Hillary was thrilled at the outreach.
Oui…,our illustrious Secretary of State will show up at the talks in an appropriate somber pants suit(one that minimizes the hips…,Non?), along with other diplomatic muckamucks for the big talks.
My empathy for ALL Israelis grows by the minute.
This entire administration…,along with our Congress…, is aboard “The Ship of Fools”!
The game of CHESS originated in Persia(IRAN).
Newt Gingrich is the ONLY candidate who recognizes the threat. This is not a shout out for Newt. It’s just a fact.
Report Post »DeOppressoLiber
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:40amIt is very common in a counter insurgency to resolve it like this.
Report Post »Lucy Larue
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 6:40pmDEOPPRESSOLIBER,
Really?!
Here’s a wake up call! This is NOT a counterinsurgency. Got it?!
This is a war between GOOD and EVIL! Yes…,I know it sounds insane. It’s true.
You need to get your learn on!
What do you think happened on September 11, 2001?! What?!
Do you think it was the beginning of a counterinsurgency?!
“We have met the ENEMY and HE is US”! POGO
Report Post »Lloyd Drako
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 7:53pmDeoppressoliber (et aussi Lucy): Of course it’s common. It happens more often than not. Insurgencies that have gone on for decades have been ended by negotiation. It was not the Taliban that attacked us, and there is now absolutely no reason for another American life or another American dollar to be wasted in Afghanistan.
Report Post »richard the lion-hearted
Posted on February 20, 2012 at 2:32pm@Lloyd Drako
Report Post »Save it man, you are not going to change someone’s mind who is enlightened when YOU are in darkness, doesn’t work that way. You have to indoctrinate them from a young age through the liberal, leftist, communist, socialist, elitist, TREASONOUS garbage that you support, that have infected our public school system for 40+ years now. It’s too late to convince enlightened, common-sense adults with your lies.
Lloyd Drako
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 3:34pmI am neither a liberal, a leftist, a socialist, or a communist.
Richard the Lion Hearted:
Elitism? I confess I do feel superior to people who simply spew insults rather than addressing the issue, which is, should we negotiate with the Taliban or Al-Qaeda? On this question, Deoppressoliber is right.
In every war, there is a tendency to make the enemy the embodiment of evil and one’s own side the embodiment of virtue. History shows this is seldom the case, that most wars do in fact end with negotiation. Perhaps you’re not aware of this, because for you history ended in the 12th century?
Report Post »cookcountypatriot
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:39amgo lay down you old rino….turn the helm over to that half baked daughter of yours..
Report Post »PATTY HENRY
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:46amJohn McCain is a lying, sicko freak. He is a passive aggressive coward. He is everything I despise in a Politician. HE does NOT speak for me. THE ONLY way to deal with people who want to KILL ALL OF US is to make sure THEY know we are strong. THIS weasel. He brings out the very worst in me. GUTLESS, ANTI-AMERICAN slug. GO away McCain. I hope that the news programs know that MILLIONS OF US tune out whenever he is on. Nauseating man.
Report Post »Ella
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 1:59pmPatty Henry, well said. Sad, but true. To think I waited four hours in line to vote for Obama light. It was Ann Colter who said a vote for McCain was worse than Obama because Mccain would just be doing what Obama is doing, a little slower and a little less obvious. At least once they elected Obama we knew exactly what trouble we’re in and maybe we can undo our mess. I think Santorum is the best choice becasue this country needs, God, morals,and humility more than anything else. Once we have righted our path the economy etc. will be improved. God is watching us. We will get what we vote for.
Report Post »Jeff Bassett
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:38amWhenever Good compromised with Evil, there is only one direction that compromise will go, which is what Evil aspires to see.
McCain and many other politicos do not understand this, that there are times when you cannot always have a “win-win” negotiation. Its great that he wants peace, but they don’t understand that there are REALLY bad people out there that do not want such and want to chip away at a system they cannot over throw directly. If he really is a good negotiator, he and other need to study the other side, understand their theology and know that they cannot change some people such as the Taliban.
Since this is a basic premises of negotiation theory, I don’ know if they are:
A) So egocentric they don’t understand the other side and refuse to see their perspective because they think they are great enough to overcome all barriers.
B) Lazy and not properly prepping themselves with the background of those they are talking with.
C) Stupid, know what they are dealing with and still going to do something they know is wrong.
D) Have gotten into the ideology that satisficing is the normal thing to do.
E) They are happy to self reinforce their own incompetence.
People like this are the ones that are going to doom our society. The population at large needs to take a stand to such foolishness.
Report Post »I.Gaspar
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:38amTime to put this addlebrained rino in the old soldiers home…he has become an embarrassment and is erasing memories of his service to the U.S. back in the 60′s.
Report Post »Magyar
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:33amImagine if McCain had won—It wouldn’t be much better than the Obumler regime!
Report Post »RJJinGadsden
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:35amGlenn pointed that out on his Fox show when he was saying that McCain would have simply boiled the frog slower. Actually making him more dangerous.
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 12:15pmMagyar
Report Post »You’re right… That is almost frightening, who the so called establishment is nominating… I agree with you, and he mighta been worse, although im not sure thats possible !
CROCK-HANDLER
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:30amTalking to Iran, about blowing up their navy?
Report Post »Ghandi was a Republican
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:28amThe only talks we need with the Taliban is the one where we tell them that Islam will be wiped off the face of the Earth unless they give up their war!
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:26amMcCain was once a hero of the country; now he is still just a progressive turncoat as Obama is.
Report Post »CatB
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:37am@SNOW
Yes it seems that “a pair” are in short supply in Washington …and throughout the country!
Report Post »RJJinGadsden
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:49amI can respect and salute McCain for his service to our country and especially for enduring his time in captivity. But, just like my time in the military. I served with some strange characters. Honorable men, but people that I would never want to serve under again, nor see as even so much as a local politician. McCain needs to be put out to pasture by his constituency.
Report Post »RinkyDink34
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:26amJohn I think you should jump in your Piper J-3 and drop bags of flowers on the Taliban and see how much love you get in return. .
Report Post »bpodlesnik
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:20amJohn who?
Report Post »SoupSandwich
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:27amGod Bless him for his prior service. AZ put this dolt out to pasture please.
Report Post »RepubliCorp
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 6:51pmJohn Wasserman McDillweed
Report Post »progressiveslayer
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:16amThis fossil will never go away,the gift that keeps on giving,misery.Haven’t you done enough damage to our republic sir? He’ll never retire and never be fired,an ignorant progressive who insists on inflicting his progressivism on us.
Report Post »CatB
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:55amNo that is part of the problem with Washington D.C. they don’t “go away” until they are voted out or carried out feet first!
Sadly people are not voting these RINO’S and Marxists out!
Report Post »MikeinIdaho
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:13amThanks for your input John, and your service to our country. Now please go sit down and be quiet. I think your time in the Hanoi Hilton is coming back to haunt you.
Report Post »(Sure glad you didn’t win in 2008, just sorry that Obama did!)
chips1
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:11amI didn’t realize he had finished talks with Hanoi. Time sure flies!!
Report Post »UBETHECHANGE
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:11amRetire you blowhard RINO!
Report Post »momrules
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:06amHasn’t everyone figured out by now that McCain is an enemy of The United States of America?
Report Post »Another reason to think that the RNC put him up against Obama, they knew he would never win.
MBA
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:05amAnother embarrassment to this country. What an all time mistake to let this boob run for president–if he had won, we would probably be pretty close to where we are today. Financially and morally bankrupt being infiltrated by illegals and liberals. Sorry–even if you were a POW (which I respect) I don’t resoect your liberal interpretation of this country. We are the USA–right or wrong–we are what we are and we don’t need liberals to make us into Russia, France, or Germany (or Iran, Iraq, etc).
Report Post »Wakeup Maggie
Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:26amHis stance changes with the wind…time to hang it up McCain
Report Post »