I think it's pretty evident to anyone who's paying attention that John McCain is down to doing anything, short of literally dropping to his knees and becoming Monica Lewinsky to whatever Republican would have him, to get into the White House. He has switched positions on nearly every issue that could be said to be a onetime core belief: tax cuts for the rich in a time of war, immigration (he reversed his support for his own bill...) even torture (not to mention the whole "against the King holiday, for the King holiday thing...) So it should come as no surprise that McCain's views on a longterm occupation of Iraq might be, how shall we say, fluid, as well:
When it comes to getting U.S. troops out of Iraq, Sen. John McCain was for the idea before he was against it.
Three years before the Arizona Republican argued on the campaign trail that U.S. forces could be in Iraq for 100 years in the absence of violence, he decried the very concept of a long-term troop presence.
In fact, when asked specifically if he thought the U.S. military should set up shop in Iraq along the lines of what has been established in post-WWII Germany or Japan -- something McCain has repeatedly advocated during the campaign -- the senator offered nothing short of a categorical "no."
"I would hope that we could bring them all home," he said on MSNBC. "I would hope that we would probably leave some military advisers, as we have in other countries, to help them with their training and equipment and that kind of stuff."
Host Chris Matthews pressed McCain on the issue. "You've heard the ideological argument to keep U.S. forces in the Middle East. I've heard it from the hawks. They say, keep United States military presence in the Middle East, like we have with the 7th Fleet in Asia. We have the German...the South Korean component. Do you think we could get along without it?"
McCain held fast, rejecting the very policy he urges today. "I not only think we could get along without it, but I think one of our big problems has been the fact that many Iraqis resent American military presence," he responded. "And I don't pretend to know exactly Iraqi public opinion. But as soon as we can reduce our visibility as much as possible, the better I think it is going to be."
The January 2005 comments, which have not surfaced previously during the presidential campaign, represent a stunning contrast to McCain's current rhetoric.
They also run squarely against his image as having a steadfast, unwavering idea for U.S. policy in Iraq -- and provide further evidence to those, including some prominent GOP foreign policy figures in the "realist" camp, who believe McCain is increasingly adopting policies shared by neoconservatives. ...[Sam Stein, the Huffington Post] I'm a little dubious on that last bit, since McCain has been a neoconservative since before George W. Bush ever heard of such a thing (Robert Kagan, co-founder of the boogeyman Project for a New American Century is a prominent McCain adviser.) McCain has been hanging around Joe Lieberman so long, it was bound to rub off. (His lurking around Lieberman used to be endearing to Dems...)
And McCain may have been talking withdrawal, or something like it, in 2005, two years before that, in 2003, he was sounding much the same theme he's running on today:
"When our Secretary of Defense says that it is up to the Iraqi people to defeat the Baathists and terrorists, we send a message that America's exit from Iraq is ultimately more important than the achievement of American goals in Iraq. We send a signal to every Iraqi - ally, neutral and adversary - that the United States is more interested in leaving than we are in winning."
"The United States will fail in Iraq if our adversaries believe they can outlast us. If our troop deployment schedules are more important than our staying power, we embolden our enemies and make it harder for our friends to take risks on our behalf. When the United States announces a schedule for training and deploying Iraqi security officers, then announces the acceleration of that schedule, then accelerates it again, it sends a signal of desperation, not certitude…. When we do this as our forces are coming under increasing attack, we suggest to friends and allies alike that our ultimate goal in Iraq is leaving as soon as possible - not meeting our strategic objective of building a free and democratic country in the heart of the Arab world."
"There can be little political or economic progress in Iraq until the United States creates a stable and secure environment there. Prematurely placing the burden of security on Iraqis is not the answer. Hastily trained Iraqi security forces cannot be expected to accomplish what U.S. forces have not yet succeeded in doing: defeating the Baathists and international terrorists inside Iraq. It is irresponsible to suggest that it is up to Iraqis to win this war." In that same speech, which was praised by the PNAC crowd, McCain called for feeding more U.S. Marines and soldiers into the Iraqi grinder.
So while I like the idea of calling McCain on stuff like this, and think it will make great 527 fodder ... if we ever get an anti-McCain 527 ... the danger with McCain is not that he doesn't really mean it when he says 100 years, it's that he DOES.
| Labels: Iraq, John McCain scares me, neocons |
