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Monday, August 25, 2008

Cindy McCain Departs For War-Torn Georgia

(Cindy and John McCain)

During a fundraiser in Sacramento, California, John McCain told the crowd that his wife Cindy McCain is on her way to war-torn Georgia, where she will meet with officials, including Georgian President Mikheil Sakaasvili.
Cindy McCain is a philanthropist and has often not appeared by her husband's side during many campaign stops because she was visiting places like Kosovo in March, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia in June and Rwanda in July.

As reported by TIME, Cindy McCain serves on the boards of multiple organizations and has been trying to get to Georgia since the Russia-Georgia war started but only recently was able to work out the logistics of the trip.

McCain is traveling with the U.N.'s World Food Program, whose work she monitored in Southeast Asia and Africa this spring and summer. McCain planned to meet with Georgian President Mikheil Sakaasvili, and to visit with wounded Georgian soldiers. She would also visit representatives of the HALO Trust, which works to remove landmines and on whose board she serves.


Cindy McCain speaks of the situation in Georgia right now, saying, "There's a very serious landmine issue now, because there are landmines being laid as we speak. There's a whole bunch of things going on right now, and as we begin to move refugees from point A to point B or try to feed refugees who are stuck in pockets around the country, we're now running into the issue of the blowing up of humanitarian vehicles that are trying to get to the refugees. So it's a whole morass of problems now."

According to The Swamp, Cindy McCain has spent much of her life visiting war-zones and war-torn areas to provide humanitarian assistance.

McCain has spent her life visiting places ruined by war in order to provide humanitarian assistance. She founded a voluntary medical relief group, which provided aid to people following natural disasters, wars and other crises.

She currently sits on the boards of HALO Trust, the landmine group, CARE USA, which provides assistance to women and children in developing nations, and Operation Smile, which arranges for doctors to operate on children with birth defects such as cleft palates or other injuries.


Cindy McCain says that her husband, John McCain is very supportive of her work, continuing on to state, "As soon as he saw what was happening — he and I, we connect on many levels, I mean he knew immediately (that she would want to go). I've been to Georgia with him, I know the country."

Mrs. McCain's aides claim there was no direct correlation to the timing of her trip and the Democratic convention, but her aides are using the timing to point out, via McCain adviser Nicolle Wallace, "She's on the phone with the World Food Program, he's on the phone with Sakaashvili. It's like this great picture of what they'll be like in the White House."

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