"Petraeus (Gently) Refutes McCain Assertion
Yochi J. Dreazen reports on the military.
For a military officer sometimes accused of being unduly close to the Republican Party, Gen. David Petraeus nevertheless appeared to rebut one of Sen. John McCain’s most controversial assertions about Iran.
On a recent trip through the Middle East, the Republican presidential candidate made waves when he accused the Iranians of bringing Sunni militants into Iran for training and then sending them back into Iraq to carry out attacks. After Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a McCain supporter, whispered into his ear, McCain corrected himself and said that he meant to say that Iran, as a Shiite country, was providing support to Shiite militants inside Iraq.
The comment became grist for late-night comedians and has become a standard part of Democratic accusations that McCain is out of touch about Iraq. A recent Democratic National Committee release cited the remarks as proof that McCain has “consistently gotten the basic facts on the ground wrong throughout this campaign.”
With Petraeus in town to talk about Iran and Iraq, reporters at a news conference Thursday morning tried to clarify the issue once and for all. Near the end of a 90-minute session at the brand-new Newseum in downtown Washington, a reporter asked the commander if he believed Iran was supporting Sunni militants inside Iraq or had any evidence establishing such a link.
“I’m not aware of – it doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened,” Petraeus replied, choosing his words carefully.
He said that some Sunni extremists had weapons that were made in Iran, but said that it was unclear if the weapons were provided by Tehran.
“It is a good bit more difficult to connect all the dots directly,” he said.
It wasn’t the first time this week Petraeus politely rebuffed a Republican. When Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma said on Tuesday that the Iraqi troops in Basra “performed very well,” Petraeus demurred. “Sir, I don’t want to overstate the performance,” he said." |
