As I’ve remarked twice, the McCain-Palin camp has launched specious attacks on Obama for allegedly impugning American troops in Afghanistan, when Obama was in fact calling for increased American troops in Afghanistan. Palin went so far as to call Obama’s comments on civilian casualties “untrue.” So it’s interesting to read John Burns’s account of Afghan war policy in today’s NY Times — in particular the view of General David McKiernan, whose name Palin got wrong during her debate with Joe Biden: “For Gen. David D. McKiernan … concern over civilian casualties, especially from aircraft-launched bombs and missiles, has become the issue of the moment.”
McKiernan, in other words, backs Obama’s argument unequivocally.
Furthermore, new NATO directives, according to Burns, “call for accurately chronicling — and promptly admitting — when civilians are killed.” Palin, by contrast, would like us to believe that accounts of civilian casualties are “untrue.”
So Governor Palin, who could potentially be commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces, is demonizing Obama for holding exactly the same views as the NATO high command and the U.S. military’s senior officers in the field. This is John McCain’s idea of a qualified candidate in a time of war. [PS — I should note that it’s not just Palin; McCain’s TV ads have leveled the same smear.]
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