McCain's "White Flag of Surrender" Charge Demonizes Dems

While Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have distorted Senator John McCain's Iraq position (see previous post), McCain has for some time been smearing the Democrats on a number of issues. He charges, wrongly, that Dems want government to make our decisions for us. Far worse, on Iraq he demonizes his Democratic opponents and all war opponents by slanderously claiming that they want to "raise the white flag of surrender."

To see one particularly egregious example of McCain caught on camera making false charges like these look at his March 18, 2008 press interview in which he displays not only ignorance on what is going on in Iraq but a studied disregard for the position of his opponents--and for decency: "The Democratic formula--very clear," he charges, "--surrender to Al Qaeda and leave." Such distortion of war opponents' views and such willful confusion of the Iraq war and the war against the murderers who attacked New York and Washington are reprehensible. It is exactly this kind of demonization of opponents that freezes debate and makes the next Iraq-style debacle more likely--whoever wins the presidential election.

One example of his "white flag of surrender"commentaries: "Senator John McCain of Arizona, holding a "town hall'' assembly at the Palm Beach County Convention Center now, accused Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York of raising a "white flag'' of "surrender'' in the war in Iraq. . . " For more: White Flag.