McCain, Graham to Congress: 'Stay the course'

John McCain and Lindsey Graham have a message for the rest of Congress: Stay the course in Afghanistan.

The comments from the Republican U.S. senators from Arizona and South Carolina, respectively, came Friday after they arrived in Myrtle Beach to take part in Memorial Day weekend festivities along the Grand Strand.

McCain said he was "especially disturbed" by the 26 Republicans who joined 178 Democrats in supporting a measure which would have required President Obama to begin planning for a stepped-up withdrawal of military forces from Afghanistan.

It was defeated by a 204-215 vote. Last summer, a similar measure got 162 votes.

The debate comes less than four months before the U.S. commemorates the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

"How could they forget that the attacks on the United States of America of Sept. 11 originated in Afghanistan?" McCain said about the GOP backers of the proposal. "And if we leave Afghanistan in an unstable situation, then it will obviously return to being a base for al-Qaida, the Taliban and other elements which will then eventually pose a threat to the security of the United States of America.

"They've either got amnesia, or they've got a lot to learn."

Reuters reported that Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., said after backing the war in Afghanistan for 10 years, he now supports requiring Obama to begin planning for withdrawal.

"The American people have grown weary of open-ended military conflicts that place our troops in harm's way and add billions to our national debt," Conyers said.

McCain said Friday he and Graham "have seen this movie before," referencing past proposals that would have called for a timetable for leaving Iraq.

He credited former President George W. Bush, Gen. David Petraeus - presently commanding U.S. forces in Afghanistan - and the 2007 surge of 20,000 additional U.S. troops for success in Iraq.

Graham said people have to ask themselves why members of a volunteer army sign up for multiple tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He wished members of Congress would spend time talking to these men and women who have gone on tours four or five times.

"The reason they go is they see the face of the enemy," Graham said. "They understand that if we leave Afghanistan, without the job being done, it will go back into the darkness.

"When the Russians left, everybody thought the job was done and the Taliban filled in the vacuum. They invited [Osama] bin Laden in as an honored guest, and the rest is history."

Their comments came less than one month following the death of bin Laden, who died at the hands of a U.S. Navy SEALS team in Pakistan.

Still, both men reiterated that it's important for the U.S. to stay the course in Afghanistan.

Graham said he supports Obama's decision to put troops in the country and seeing it through.

"If President Obama sticks with it, and I believe he will, we can come home from Afghanistan and transition in 2014, with honor and security," he said.

A nod for Palin?

During the comments, talk turned briefly to whether McCain would support former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin - his running mate during the 2008 presidential election - in a bid for the White House in 2012.

McCain said it is all hypothetical at this point, as Palin has not officially announced her intention to seek the Republican nomination.

"I'm proud of Sarah Palin. I'm proud of the campaign that she ran and she invigorated our campaign," McCain said. "I think she will be a very formidable candidate if she decides to seek the nomination of the Republican Party."

The New York Daily News reports that Palin will begin her "One Nation" bus tour this weekend, an event that organizers are keeping cloaked in mystery.

Her political action committee is only revealing that she'll start in Washington and go up through New England to "educate and energize Americans about our nation's founding principles."

There is no mention on whether an announcement will be made on the tour.

"If she were the nominee of the Republican Party, I think she'd do what I didn't do, and that's beat Barack Obama," McCain said.