"We have turned things around from a failed strategy of Rumsfeld, which I was the only one that spoke strongly against, to a new strategy, which I supported, which is succeeding."
That's Sen. John McCain in an interview with Charlie Rose, and there are two points worth making about the "straight talk" he was delivering.
First, as Think Progress has noted before, McCain didn't always "speak strongly" against former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's strategy in Iraq. In March 2004, he declared that the United States was "on the right course" in Iraq. And in December 2005, he predicted that, "a year from now, we will have made a fair amount of progress if we stay the course."
Second, to the extent that McCain did "speak strongly" against the Rumsfeld strategy, he was hardly "the only one." While McCain was campaigning for George W. Bush's reelection in 2004, for example, Bush's opponent was criticizing Rumsfeld's war strategy and calling on him to resign.
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