Army Times is interested in finding out whether John McCain has renounced his longtime position that the Future Combat Systems should be scrapped. Last week he criticized Obama for wanting to slow down the program to pay for an expansion of the Armed Forces, but reporters covering his speech used the term generically, as though Obama wanted to slow military development in general. Army Times, provides an actual quote from McCain saying he wanted the whole project scrapped last July. (Last week, Mark Schmitt pointed out that ending FCS was part of McCain's plan for balancing the budget.)
The McCain campaign didn't respond to Army Times' request for a clarification. Loren Thompson, from the Lexington Institute, a military research group, called McCain's actions "deceitful."
“McCain’s interpretation of Obama’s position is typical of the way in which the Republicans have twisted Democratic views in order to undercut their opponents and at the same time obscure the past positions of the Republicans,” Thompson said. “Future Combat Systems is the centerpiece of Army modernization. However, McCain has been more critical of it than anyone else in the chamber. Obama has been much more detailed and thoughtful in his comments about future military investment than McCain’s very superficial statements.”
Once again, I'm not familiar enough with the merits of the FCS program to argue whether or not it should be scrapped. But both candidates felt the program was wasting money, until McCain wanted to accuse Obama of being a secret radical who wants to dismantle the military. The context of McCain's quote is relevant here.
“Of course, now he wants to increase it,” McCain told an audience in Lee’s Summit, Missouri Monday. “But during the primary he told a liberal advocacy group that he’d cut defense spending by tens of billions of dollars. He promised them he would, quote, ‘slow our development of future combat systems.’”
By "it" McCain is referring to Obama's promise to increase the size of the military, which he puts in conflict with Obama's position that funding for FCS should be cut. But those two things are only in conflict if you don't know what FCS is and you think the term "Future Combat Systems" refers to general military development. What is plainly odd is the use of a quotation there, if McCain wanted to say "Obama wants to slow FCS," he could have said that. But instead he uses the quote in a manner as to make the term ambiguous, and given the lack of capitalization in the CNN report he was successful.
The easiest way to find out what McCain meant is to ask him whether he still thinks FCS should be cut and, if so, why he was criticizing his rival for holding a similar position. Given that they fumbled the original story, you'd think CNN would be interested in doing that.
--A. Serwer
