National Security

Today, we are again called to provide visionary leadership. This century's threats are at least as dangerous as, and in some ways more complex than, those we have confronted in the past. They come from weapons that can kill on a mass scale and from violent extremists who exploit alienation and perceived injustice to spread terror. They come from rogue states allied to terrorists and from rising powers that could challenge both America and the international foundation of liberal democracy. They come from weak states that cannot control their territory or provide for their people. They come from an addiction to oil that helps fund the extremism we must fight and empowers repressive regimes. And they come from a warming planet that will spur new diseases, spawn more devastating natural disasters, and catalyze deadly conflicts.

We will confront these threats head on while working with our allies and restoring our standing in the world. We will pursue a tough, smart, and principled national security strategy. It is a strategy that will end the war in Iraq responsibly and focus our efforts on the terrorists who did strike us. It is a strategy that recognizes that we have interests not just in Baghdad, but in Kandahar and Karachi, in Beijing, Berlin, Brasilia and Bamako. It is a strategy that contends with the many disparate forces shaping this century, including: the fundamentalist challenge to freedom; the emergence of new powers like China, India, Russia, and a united Europe; the spread of lethal weapons; uncertain supplies of energy, food, and water; the persistence of poverty and the growing gap between rich and poor; and extraordinary new technologies that send people, ideas, and money across the globe at ever faster speeds.

The Latest »

White House Endorsed CIA Tactics in Memos

October 15, 2008 - The Bush administration issued a pair of secret memos to the CIA in 2003 and 2004 that explicitly endorsed the agency's use of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding against al-Qaeda suspects -- documents prompted by worries among intelligence officials about a possible backlash if details of the program became public.
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Count the Lies #106: McCain's Afghanistan Ad Distorts the Record

October 5, 2008 - The Democratic National Committee today updated the Count the Lies counter after FactCheck.org said John McCain's latest campaign ad distorted Barack Obama's words and votes. The ad 'recycles a misleading, 14-month-old charge that Sen. Barack Obama disrespected U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan' and 'misrepresents' his votes.
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Fmr. U.S. Amb. to Pakistan Disputes McCain's ''Failed State'' Claim

October 1, 2008 - At the first Presidential debate last Friday, John McCain claimed Pakistan was a 'failed state' at the time of the coup that swept General Pervez Musharraf into power. William Milan, the former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan at the time of the coup disputed that claim in an e-mail to Matthew Yglesias.
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McCain Puts Venezuela in the Middle East

September 30, 2008 - First, John McCain says he will not meet with a NATO ally that he thinks is in Latin America, and now all of a sudden Venezuela is in the Middle East. When political pundits said this race could change the map, this is not what they had in mind.
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On John McCain's ''Suspended'' Campaign

September 25, 2008 - Senior adviser Brad Woodhouse appeared on MSNBC this afternoon and took John McCain to task for his political stunt. Numerous reports show that McCain's campaign offices across the nation are still operating as normal, and within hours of his 'suspension' announcement, McCain surrogates were on cable news programs attacking Senator Barack Obama.
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Sarah Palin Talks to Katie Couric

September 25, 2008 - Sarah Palin spoke to Katie Couric this week but if you visited the McCain Report blog, you never would have known the first part of the interviewed aired yesterday, and part two airs tonight. Howard Kurtz reports that Palin declared 'victory' in Iraq.
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Pentagon Says Strategy in Afghanistan Not Working

September 10, 2008 - In Afghanistan, the war that McCain conveniently forgot recently, the Pentagon admitted that the strategy to combat those who actually attacked us on 9/11 is not working. Navy Admiral Mike Mullen says he is not convinced we are winning in Afghanistan.
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First Major Conflict Since 9/11?

July 24, 2008 - In the now infamous interview between CBS' Katie Couric and John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee apparently believes the war in Afghanistan, where the 9/11 attacks originated, is not a "major conflict." Couric: Sen. Obama also told me, Sen. McCain,...
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McCain's Cheesy Denial

July 24, 2008 - Earlier this week, John McCain grossly misstated the timeline of the Anbar awakening as having taken place because of the surge, despite the fact that it started almost four months before the surge was even announced. Reporters peppered John McCain...
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MCCAIN WATCH: MCCAIN CAMPAIGN FLAGS AS INCOME INEQUALITY RISES

July 24, 2008 - Yesterday the McCain campaign hit a rough patch as they tried to escape the fallout over McCain's continued gaffes on foreign policy and ongoing coverage of his promise of four more years of failed Bush-McCain policies on Iraq, energy and the economy.
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