McCain: We need a <Issue> Surge!

[SirNitram]

McCain loves him some Surge strategy. After repeatedly pimping it as his baby, he's moved on to suggesting it for, well, let's run down the list...

An adviser to the campaign told The New York Sun that, in a speech to be delivered in Albuquerque, N.M., the senator will call for an increase in combat troops and the creation of a special Afghanistan tsar to coordinate policy toward the country. "There will be a surge for Afghanistan. It will be moving combat troops in and applying the lessons from Iraq and the strategy that was successful in Iraq and taking that to Afghanistan," this official said.

Except the problem is that the Surge is basically clear, hold, build. Holding is a major issue in Afghanistan, IIRC.

Next, the problem of inner-city violence.

MCCAIN: And some of those tactics — you mention the war in Iraq — are like that we use in the military. You go into neighborhoods, you clamp down, you provide a secure environment for the people that live there, and you make sure that the known criminals are kept under control. And you provide them with a stable environment and then they cooperate with law enforcement, etc, etc.

Nevermind the RAND corporation has explicitly stated that policing is the sensible, effective way to fight terror. No doubt those commies at the Pentagon want us all to lose.

Of course, the biggest issue is the economy.

"What we need today is an Economic Surge to keep jobs here at home and create new ones. We need to reduce the tax burden on businesses that choose to make their home in the U.S. We need to open new markets to U.S. products. We need to reduce the cost of healthcare. And we need to end the out of control spending in Washington that is putting our debt on the backs of our children.

Reducing taxes, of course, shifts the debt burden onto the backs of our children. But McCain is still not quite smart enough to balance a checkbook, it seems.

McCain: If there's a problem, he'll deploy a Surge against it.

[Starglider]

Marketeers of all stripes have gotten pretty shameless about playing the word association game these days. 'Surge' has positive associations for conservative-leaning voters (since Fox news told them it solved everything) and that's all that counts. Witness Dell calling their latest underpowered-PC-in-a-shiny-box the 'Dell Hybrid', even though the term is meaningless in a computing context - all that matters is the associations that uninformed people use to make 'feels right' buying/voting decisions.

[White Haven]

McCain, after his website fails overnight: 'We had a Power Surge! ...oops.'

The irony woudl be beautiful.

[General Zod]

Someone should start making viral counter-ads associating a "surge" with explosive diarrhea.

[Wyrm]

So, "we need an {anti-X} surge" is the new "War on {X}", huh?

[Adrian Laguna]

Marketeers of all stripes have gotten pretty shameless about playing the word association game these days.

They all noticed how well it worked for Bush and his administration to repeat the words "Iraq" and "Saddam Hussein" in close proximity to 9/11 attack references.

[Ender]

McCain loves him some Surge strategy. After repeatedly pimping it as his baby, he's moved on to suggesting it for, well, let's run down the list...

An adviser to the campaign told The New York Sun that, in a speech to be delivered in Albuquerque, N.M., the senator will call for an increase in combat troops and the creation of a special Afghanistan tsar to coordinate policy toward the country. "There will be a surge for Afghanistan. It will be moving combat troops in and applying the lessons from Iraq and the strategy that was successful in Iraq and taking that to Afghanistan," this official said.

Except the problem is that the Surge is basically clear, hold, build. Holding is a major issue in Afghanistan, IIRC.

No, while that is what they did in Iraq, that isn't what a surge is. I surged to New Orleans, and we did practice surges a few times - one exercise in 04 had us surge out most of the fleet in something like 72 hours. A surge is just deploying more resources. In that frame, an Afghanistan surge is most definitely needed, the problem is getting us out of Iraq so we can do it, and putting us into Afghanistan when we go to do it.

[SirNitram]

McCain loves him some Surge strategy. After repeatedly pimping it as his baby, he's moved on to suggesting it for, well, let's run down the list...

An adviser to the campaign told The New York Sun that, in a speech to be delivered in Albuquerque, N.M., the senator will call for an increase in combat troops and the creation of a special Afghanistan tsar to coordinate policy toward the country. "There will be a surge for Afghanistan. It will be moving combat troops in and applying the lessons from Iraq and the strategy that was successful in Iraq and taking that to Afghanistan," this official said.

Except the problem is that the Surge is basically clear, hold, build. Holding is a major issue in Afghanistan, IIRC.

No, while that is what they did in Iraq, that isn't what a surge is. I surged to New Orleans, and we did practice surges a few times - one exercise in 04 had us surge out most of the fleet in something like 72 hours. A surge is just deploying more resources. In that frame, an Afghanistan surge is most definitely needed, the problem is getting us out of Iraq so we can do it, and putting us into Afghanistan when we go to do it.

Ah. I was confusing the strategy used during the Surge with the Surge.

Mind you, I do not necessarily believe McCain is smart enough not to make the same mistake.

[Lost Soal]

MCCAIN: And some of those tactics — you mention the war in Iraq — are like that we use in the military. You go into neighborhoods, you clamp down, you provide a secure environment for the people that live there, and you make sure that the known criminals are kept under control. And you provide them with a stable environment and then they cooperate with law enforcement, etc, etc.

Maybe its just a combination of mis-reading and assuming the worst, but does this sound to anyone else like he's suggesting deploying troops in US cities, i.e Martial Law?

[SirNitram]

MCCAIN: And some of those tactics — you mention the war in Iraq — are like that we use in the military. You go into neighborhoods, you clamp down, you provide a secure environment for the people that live there, and you make sure that the known criminals are kept under control. And you provide them with a stable environment and then they cooperate with law enforcement, etc, etc.

Maybe its just a combination of mis-reading and assuming the worst, but does this sound to anyone else like he's suggesting deploying troops in US cities, i.e Martial Law?

It's not actually suggesting that. However, the imagery is a result of his word choice: You talk about dealing with the inner cities the way you do with Baghdad, well, that's going to imply troops.

It's noisy, stupid rhetoric.

[Sriad]

We need a Surge Surge!

SUUUUUUUURGE!!!

Surge seems to be one of those words that looses its meaning rapidly when repeated. What would you call that quality?

[Siege]

You talk about dealing with the inner cities the way you do with Baghdad, well, that's going to imply troops.

Hey, if it works for Mr. Berlusconi's creepy far-too-right-wing government, surely it'll work for the US as well...