The albatross of Iraq around McCain's neck

cross posted at TennesseeFree.com

He just doesn't get it.

First, look at the most recent polls (all Jan '08) - very consistent:

• LA Times/Bloomberg: 63% say bring the troops home within a year or right away, 31% say stay as longs it takes.


• CNN/Opinion Research: 63% oppose the war, 34% favor

• ABC News/Washington Post: 69% disapprove of the way Bush is handling Iraq, 30% favor

John McCain says it would be fine with him to stay in Iraq 100 years and that Clinton would surrender to al Qaeda. This is bogus and here's why:

Four major problems for McCain:

1. Al Qaeda, whose presence in Iraq didn't exist before Bush invaded, remains tiny and they are hated by Iraqi Sunnis and Shiites. Iraqis have vowed to fight al Qaeda to the death, and they hugely out number them. The Iraqis will eventually crush al Qaeda, and further, al Qaeda in Iraq remains no threat to the US.


2. McCain says we can sustain our presence in Iraq 100 years. Gen. Casey says the Army needs 3 or 4 years and substantial resources to recover from Iraq and that the “current demand for our forces exceeds the sustainable supply.”


3. The American people by a margin of 2 to 1 want the US out of Iraq.


4. Lastly, John McCain is a hypocrite. During Clinton's presidency, he argued vehemently to bring the troops home from Haiti and Somalia - regardless of the consequences.

1994 — “The right course of action is to make preparations as quickly as possible to bring our people home. It does not mean as soon as order is restored to Haiti, it doesn’t mean as soon as Democracy is flourishing in Haiti, it doesn’t mean as soon as we’ve established a viable nation in Haiti, as soon as possible means as soon as we can get out of Haiti without losing any American lives.”

1993 — “Date certain, Mr. President, are not the criteria here. What’s the criteria and what should be the criteria is our immediate, orderly withdrawal from Somalia. And if we don’t do that, and other Americans die, other Americans are wounded, other Americans are captured, because we stayed too long, longer than necessary, then I would say that the responsibilities for that lie with the Congress of the United States who did not exercise their authority under the Constitution of the United States and mandate that they be brought home as quickly and safely as possible. ... the argument that somehow the United States would suffer a loss to our prestige and our viability, as far as the No. 1 superpower in the world, I think, is baloney.”

These videos of McCain arguing to bring the troops home are going to be great for the Dems in the campaign if he gets the nomination.