By Josh Pasek
John McCain went to AIPAC this week in another attempt to distort Barack Obama’s record on Iran. In typical RJC style, McCain was careful to conveniently ignore certain facts about the Middle East and Obama’s policy. We outline a number of these misleading statements below:
- “We must apply the full force of law to prevent business dealings with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. I was pleased to join Senators Lieberman and Kyl in backing an amendment calling for the designation of the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization responsible for killing American troops in Iraq. Over three quarters of the Senate supported this obvious step, but not Senator Obama.” [1]
Actually, Obama signed on as a co-sponsor to the Iran Counter-Proliferation Act of 2007 (S.970), which had the exact language that McCain claimed Obama had objected to (“The Secretary of State should designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as a Foreign Terrorist Organization under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act”). What was the difference? A section of the Kyl-Lieberman amendment referred to by McCain (S.AMDT.3017) also suggests that a continued US presence in Iraq is necessary to counterbalance Iran, a proposition that Obama has actively rejected [2].
- We should privatize the sanctions against Iran by launching a worldwide divestment campaign [3].
McCain again fails to note that Obama sponsored the Iran
Sanctions Enabling Act (S.1430) and that AIPAC supported the bill as one of its major efforts in 2007. Perhaps this omission stems from the fact that his name remains completely unconnected with the legislation [4].
McCain also criticized Obama by stating that talking to our enemies is a bad idea. While we agree with McCain that Khamenei and Ahmadinejad are extremely unlikely to come around, that does not mean all dialogue in the Middle East is wrong. Indeed, Israel mus
t believe the same thing as it recently publicized its peace talks with Syria [5]. We at RJCWatch are still waiting for the RJC and McCain to call Israel out for that move.
July 31, 2008 at 7:55 pm |
[...] Less than a week after new polling data shows that Israelis prefer Barack Obama by 37-28% (with 35% of Israelis undecided) [1], the RJC reposted an interview where one commentator said that Obama doesn’t have “what Israelis look for in a U.S. President” [2]. Sounds like that commentator is a little off on whether Obama has what Israelis want. Indeed, Obama showed during his trip that he understands “the real security threats facing Israel and the United States” [2]. The bigger question may be whether McCain realizes that Iran is a much bigger threat than Iraq. As we have previously mentioned, he has failed to press for serious sanctions in the past [3][4]. [...]