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From the American Century to the America-in-Iraq Century
Speaking of the Iraq Forever Project, Sen. McCain protests a Democratic ad that quotes him saying that a U.S. stay in Iraq for 100 years is fine by him. He says he was talking about keeping our troops in Iraq for 100 years as peacekeepers (as in Germany and Japan), not as fighters, and therefore the ad misrepresents his position. In fact the Dems are speaking the truth, and McCain is engaged in a falsehood. His 100 year peaceful stay in Iraq is, by definition, premised on the prospect that all fighting in Iraq comes to an end. Does this mean that if fighting in Iraq does not come to an end in, say, 10 years or 20 years, he would support a withdrawal from Iraq, so as to avoid having U.S. troops fighting in Iraq indefinitely? Of course not, since, as he has said many times, we must stay there until the job is finished, no matter how long it takes. But of course there is not the slightest prospect of the job being finished. To the contrary, everything suggests that Iraq will be permanently rent by warring factions, and that the sectarian violence can only be kept down to “tolerable” levels by the presence of U.S. troops using force to suppress al Qaeda and other anti-government forces. So, according to the logic of McCain’s own statements plus the reality of the situation in Iraq, McCain supports our troops staying and fighting in Iraq for 10 years, 30 years, 50 years, 100 years.
And here, for once, is mainstream commentary (a blogger quoting Ron Brownstein at MSNBC) making the same point I’ve been making obsessively for four and a half years, about the Bushites’ and now the McCainites’ lie about “winning” in Iraq, when in reality they’re talking about keeping our troops in combat mode there forever.
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