McCain Sets Timetable For Getting Out Of Iraq

Senator McCain's speech today gives a timetable for when US troops will leave Iraq if he becomes President. McCain went after former GOP rival Mitt Romney during the Florida primary, claiming his mention of timetables was equivalent to putting defeat into the hands of terrorists. Now the Senator is changing his tune.

Sen. John McCain will pledge today that most American troops will return home from Iraq by 2013 if he is elected president, a position that closely resembles the promises made by both of his potential Democratic rivals.

In a speech here this morning, McCain will say that only a small contingent of troops would remain in Iraq in non-combat roles beyond that date. He predicts that the drawdown will be possible because al Qaeda in Iraq will be defeated and a democratic government will be able to thrive in the war-torn country.

Comments

[Garvagh]

That McCain still blathers on about "democracy" taking root in Iraq is really rather pathetic.

[3Ons]

It's embarrassing. But not for the reasons you may think..
See, all of my so-called 'equal-fellow-citizen-beloved-neighbors' are claiming 'land-of-equality' and 'land-of-celebrated-diversity' and 'land-of-freedom' while using 'slips-of-tongues' as excuses to ridicule, scorn and harrass everybody else, in the pathetic attempt at making themselves out to 'look' or 'feel' SUPERIOR, proving zero self-esteem, proving zero integrity, proving zero forgiveness, proving zero compassion, proving zero justice, which always proves zero EQUALITY, yet they demand it for themselves, hypocritically..
By these terrible double-standards which are killing us, a silent coup de etat' which is going ignored, our so-called 'shining-example' to kids and adults alike is that if you mis-word something, have a typo or spelling error, forget somebody's name, or some stupid detail of a topic, then you are 'demented' and having a 'senior moment,' as an excuse to ridicule, scorn, harrass and discriminate, while feverishly chanting you're not..
It's embarrassing..
You all are 'perfect' in your wordings, spellings, attitudes, so 'positive' you concoct any excuse to hate everybody else, as 'negative' to ruthlessly hammer against your merciless positive-cross-signs, using the points of your own hypocritical forked-tongues as NAILS, hammering-away night and day, nonstop ideological crucifiXtion, any excuse will do, a process called, "FigurativeCarpentry," the epitome of HATE..
Obviously, only myself and John McCain have the COURAGE to ADMIT IT, DISCUSS IT or even attempt to FIX it..
Kind Regards,
3Ons

[Jazzbeau]

And is there a point to this evidence and fact challenged rant?

[spyder03]

I thought fantasy island was cancelled years ago but John McCain brings it back.De plane , De plane. And now my friends watch me pull a rabbit out my hat. My assistant joe lieberman will help.

[allwrite]

Today he changes his tune. Tomorrow he changes his timetable. You can't believe anything he says. What a great guy.

[jaschrod]

Be kind, McCain is suffering from what many older people of his age suffer from, dementia. He can not remember from one week to the next what his stance was on the issues, but then neither could Bush, mainly because they do not have a legitimate stance on anything, only self serving.

[Jules36]

Just LOOK at the pictures of him -- his face is as craggy as Clint Eastwood's (who would probably make a great President!). A man this old and this worn out has no business running for the office of President of the United States, and anyone voting for him would be foolish to do so.

Remember Reagan and his much-reported mid-day naps?

McCain's comments attest to his feebleness of mind -- a complete lack of understanding of the Iraq war; under the constant illusion that his time as a POW (SHUT UP about it already! You're not the only one who spent time in a POW camp!) gives him the experience he needs to mandate our country's foreign policy agenda; and a mindset stuck in the '60s cold war/Vietnam/Bay of Pigs era.

Reminds me of iour local Chamber that keeps hauling local former businessmen out of retirement to run the Chamber. Nothing ever changes, no one is expected to do much because these old geezers are there only to collect a paycheck and let their almost-retired peers kiss their rings. Meantime, the Chamber flounders and membership dwindles because such pandering doesn't interest young business people.

Such would be the same scenario with McCain as our nation's President. He's too ingrained as a politician; what this country needs is a human being in that office, not another narrow-eyed, fast-talking, ass-kissing, cowboy politician who plays fast and loose with our nation's human and monetary resources.

[Bettysdad]

McCain did not say he would bring home "most." He said a "majority," which is 50% plus one soldier. He also said nothing about contractors, of which there are more of than GIs.

[Centaur]

So now he wants to "SURRENDER?"

[jaschrod]

Well, he surrendered once, or he never would have been taken as a prisoner.

[Bagger]

Flip-Flop.

[antirepublocrat]

Did anybody see that freakin' idiot Tucker Carlson on Hardball tonight? He's said that, yeah, McCain's the one to bring the troops home. He can do it because he has the credibility, being a military man and all. He compared McCain in 2008 to Nixon in 1968, and how Nixon brought the troops home after he was elected.

Right, that's what I thought in 1968, too. I figured we (the anti-war movement) had won. After all, wasn't Nixon gradually reducing the troop levels? What a fool I was.

Don't be fooled by McCain and his promises of Vietnamization. Oops, I meant Iraqification.

[THINKB4USPEAK]

I'll leave it to the moderators and posters to decide if this is off topic or not, but when I was a kid, being a military hero did not mean getting your plane shot out from under you, ala GHB, getting your PT boat torpedoed, ala JFK, or getting captured by the enemy and tossed into a POW camp, ala you know who. This is not a guy I want with his finger on the button and 30 seconds to decide whether or not to launch. Why is the debate over presidential candidates so intense? Because anyone with enough intelligence to DO the job is too smart to TAKE the job.

[jdmccl]

So the hero in your terms would be military personel kicking butt and not losing military hardware doing it? Washington was a hero I am hoping. Patton was also a hero but even Patton lost some tanks. The Red Baron was a German hero but also had his plane shot out from him. McCain is a hero not because getting shot down but surviving the torture ordeal and emerging with a shread of dignity. Kerry served and was a small hero because anybody who served in a cobat zone deserves that honorific but Kerry was a poor officer by most accounts of people he served with. He is a fine senator and statesman. Murtha served but has done things since 2000 that have been in my opinion detremental to our armed services.

[kappock750]

I've read ur last two postings - maybe I'm not getting ur take but what really is your point of view - not just about the above statement - but about your next. I'm missing something or just possibly ignorant - but I doubt that ..... When and what years were u a kid? What did and what now constitutes a military hero for you? Do u have another definition - because I grant u that that meaning is over used and at times over blown so it really looses its meaning. But a hero for me is someone that puts their body in harms way - period - regardless of who it is or what the outcome is. And what about the next blog u wrote re: "no political solution to our troubled evolution." First of all - that last sentance is ur lead thought - not ur closing. And the california reference is not clarified. Are u saying that californian's won't recognize what's going on in the world because they are "leftists, vente iced chia late drinkers" who won't recognize a growing world wide hardship until it effects their starbucks consumption .....? Ca. eventhough is bookended by S.F. and L.A. is a fairly conservative state.
Also, one of the reasons for the problem we are now facing is due to 48 or 50 or more years of poor diplomacy - but that doesn't mean that unraveling this disaster is impossible - it means that the thread to mend

[Bettysdad]

Yeah, Nixpn in 68 was the first thing I thought of. Surprised McCain didn't say he had a "secret plan."

[Kman2]

McWaffle

[PioneerKing]

What a great speech McCain gave today! I couldn't stop ROTFL; it looked and sounded as though someone was feeding McCain lines through an earpiece.
The republicans and the main stream media love to wax eloquently about how McCain's military service will make him a better candidate on national security and how McCain's 28 years in Washington provides McCain with the type of experience that will over shadow Obama's experience yet, McCain's speech today is evidence of what piss poor president McCain would make.
With McCain as their nominee the republican brand of dog food won't be moving off the shelf.

[ARBOC2]

Until a few days ago I thought Obama had no chance because of the basic resistance of the majority of our citizens to vote for a black person for president for at least for another couple of election cyicles. I was confident that McCain was to be our next president by default. However, watching and listening to him, among other inanities, accepting and repeating the idiocy of the president scares the hell out of me. I hope his wife has the ability of Nancy Reagan to be able to whisper the answer to reporter's questrions into his ear as he keeps degenerating mentally and physically before our eyes.

Obama, whom I consider to be an opportunistic conn artist, remains our only hope for the future. What a dilemma.

[MrKINOKO]

It was actually a Bluetooth device, attached to his Jitterbug (old folks) cell phone. When President McCain is tooling around the White House grounds in his Rascal, he will be able to bomb countries into submission with a quick call to Vice-President Karl Rove's Blackberry...from the comfort of his wheelchair !! Who could not want such an innovative leader? And since HRC will be his Czar of Propaganda and Misinformation, we can quickly put an end to all those silly uprisings in Mesopotamia, Venezuela, and anywhere else we need to drop a smidgen of Napalm and some Willy Peter or couple of bunker busters.
I'm sorry, but for anyone to say, with a straight face, and conviction, that 5 and a half years in the Hanoi Hilton didn't irreperably harm McCain must be crazy themselves. PTSD is GUARANTEED after 5 1/2 years of subsistence diets, brutal torture, broken limbs, and being forced to make unpatriotic videos. Has anyone polled America's noted Pshychiatrists on McCain's mental fitness and acuity to run this country? Has anyone suggested mandating a pshycological/aptitude test as a pre-requisite to becoming President of the United States? Why not? You give a psych exam to a candidate for dog catcher in any city in mainstream America...but not for the highest office in the land? I wonder if McCain would see "VC" in his rorschach test, as he focused his thousand yard stare on the ink on the paper?

[THINKB4USPEAK]

I'm just guessing that someone in California is worried about their rent going up. Don't worry, because it surely will, the same as gas, food, clothing, and anything else you need to survive. When population outstrips food supplies and other resources, a hungry world will go to war over that last, delicious grain of rice. It's already happening. There is no political solution to our troubled evolution.

[MenopausalMick]

McCain is bringing democracy to Iraq. Any idea how that's supposed to happen without separation of church and state?

Raise your hand if you think Iraqi women will have equal rights in McCain's democracy. I really really resent it when a word like "democracy" is used to describe a government that facilitates the oppression of half the population. SOMEBODY SOMEWHERE PLEASE call him on THIS crap. Democratic Honor Killings??? MSM refuses to talk about this.

It's the last party line talking point to get us to ignore the truth he let slip recently. We're there for the oilfields. But hey, "dying for oil" doesn't have the same sort of appeal that "bringing Democracy" has, now does it?

I got an email from the man today. He's describing the US in 2013 at the end of his FIRST term. I'm so glad Republicans have him for their main man. He's making it easier all the time with the obvious spinning of previous befuddled statements. Now, he says he'll have most of our troops home by then.
Okay...why then and not now???

How do these people sleep at night?

Menopausal Mick

[scouserinlondon]

Note the word "MOST".Falls in with political double talk like"no plans to....";"As far as I am aware".
The minute you read one of these qualifiers in a sentence you know the speaker is feeding you horse manure,they are just leaving themselves with the backdoor open for the future if they get called on it.An interviewer should pin him down and ask him"Most of the troops or ALL of the troops?" and not let him digress...nail him to the floor and get a definitive answer.Won't happen.
Anyway the bases are getting built all the time ,bigger and better.,as originally planned,and the USA have no intention of getting out ....they are there until the oil runs out....the excuse will be."The Iraq government has requested that we maintain a presence in Iraq".We were told this a few years ago by our some of our more pugnacious journalists and a few off message politicians.......Remember this when they state they are to "maintain a presence"All double talk.Whilst there is oil there will be USA troops ...bottom line......and whilst there are USA troops there will be trouble,.

[coloneblog]

After listening to McCain today, I figured out the Republican strategy for winning in November; pick the dumbest friggin candidate, to say the stupidest friggin things, to what they're hoping is a stupid friggin electorate. Think about it, the strategy worked twice; in 2000 and 2004.

[jaschrod]

Hey, he is appealing to stupid Americans, and there are plenty.

[columbuscharlie]

jashrod, unfortunately , I agree with you, this fact is reinforced every time I catch a glimpse of this buffoon in the Oval office( before I quickly change channels). And with approval ratings of 20 to 30%, I think bears this out; (how could it not be in the negative??) but couple ignorance with corrupt elections= DISASTER!!!!! He** , let's just give up golf and forget about it.

[evahartselftlanguages]

TO: Senator John McCain May 15, 2008

On June 3, 2008 here in California they will vote to do away with rent control or not. May I ask where you are Senator John McCain on this issue. As President you will represent all the people, yet I have not heard you defend tenants' Rights. The Constitution is not a dumb document for one cannot find a job if living in the gutter with no rent Rights. President James Madison,Father of the Constitution, eventually kept his promise to put in Bill of Rights to Constittuion because the States would not ratify the Constitution unless the Bill of Rights to protect all minorities was protected. Businesses in past had to fight for their Rights too and thus we all have Rights upon consideration. Not just one group or another. God's equality states,"Take money from no one group to suffer them to give to another".

Clearly, President Thomas Jefferson thought the Supreme Court had too much power in his day. In the Preamble to the Constitution it states, "Consider the Welfare of all the People." The job seeker and poor are people too. They are not pieces of wood to discard. Elliot Liebow,Jewish Anthropologist, in his 93 book states,"Capitalism has treated the poor badly and thus the Government should step in and take an active part in helping them for it is a Government of all Americans.

Eva Hart A Christian In Army 62-70 670 Eddy St. Sfc 94109

[evahartselftlanguages]

To: Senator John McCain May 15, 2008

You may ask what does rent control have to do with Iraq War? My point is that this Iraq War is suppose to be about protecting the people of America, yet the people of America are ignored and their Rights!

Furthermore, Rev. Thomas Hooker came over to America and started his Church. The men in the congregation could no longer find pasture for their cattle to support their families. Thus they went to Rev. Hooker to complain. Rev. Thomas Hooker said,"Let's go to Hartford,Connecticut and start a town where every man will have an equal chance and opportunity to survive."

Justice John Marshall who appeared disheveled in appearance went about caring for people. It would be contraire and opposite his intention to do away with rent control and then say on Supreme Court that they give to charity and care for people. You cannot have one without the other. Either you care for people or you don't.

As a Christian I have the Right to participate in political process. In Matthew 13 it states,"Jesus warns His disciples to not anticipate God's final judgment by an exclusion of sinners from the Kingdom. In its present stage it consists of the good and bad."

Eva Hart A Christian In Army 62-70 670 Eddy St. Sfc 94109

[evahartselftlanguages]

To: Senator John McCain May 17, 2008


We must also turn our attention to the real reasons for the cause of cancer and not just think of cigarettes are the cause by along with this inflicting much pain on people. We must care for American people, not just other nations.

Eva Hart A Christian In Army 62-70 670 Eddy St. Sfc 94109

[evahartselftlanguages]

TO: Senator John McCain May 17, 2008 Continued

Cancer has existed for centuries before tobacco was used for cigarettes, thus it is not cigarettes that cause cancer all the time.

A doctor who would not speak out against doubling up patients especially right after a major surgery in a hospital as they have not done here in San Francisco is not a doctor I would listen too. Could it be cigarettes is just another phony scam game? After all the patches are ridiculous to use to stop a person from smoking for it is a scam and does not solve stopping cigarette smoking. Also the Bible says ,"Smoke disappears . " Thus it does not travel into others' rooms. See how extreme and ridiculous people are getting with this smoking issue. One can set up separate rooms for smokers and not inflict endless pain.

Well mainly the article here is about the Iraq War and I made my point that if we really care for people in America then we must use our money and taxes to help people in America with compassion and in upholding Human Rights. Rent control is another cold,inhuman measure of doing away with American Rights. Greedy Landlords and crime must be considered in American Laws we make to protect Americans and the American Way of Life.

Eva Hart A Christian In Army from 62-70 670 Eddy St. Sfc 94109

[evahartselftlanguages]

TO: Senator John McCain May 16, 2008 Continued above and below

Rent control is to be voted on to do away with rent control or not. See below for my objections to this Rent Control if it should be voted in by ballot on June 3, 2008. We should vote No on Proposition 98. Rent Control ignores greedy landlords and crimes committed by other people. In fact "Crime committed by bad people" seems to be ignored in a lot of new Bills and Propositions being voted in now.

Eva Hart A Christian In Army from 62-70 670 Eddy St. Sfc 94109

[evahartselftlanguages]

TO: Senator John McCain May 16, 2008 Continued

Upon this subject of Human Rights for the American people and how we need money to build up our own security whether it be National Security,jobs, it is a fact people feel secure when they are in secure circumstances thus we always need to consider decent Human Rights for people. From For the Common Defense chapter by Vanza Devereaux in Government of a Free Nation,'63.

Another misery is that in throwing people onto the street with possible rent control being voted in on June 3, 2008 ballot here in California is the awful pain added with taking peoples' cigarettes from them. In past with my Report of scarce foods,jobs I mentioned we cannot add pain upon pain by plunging people into the pit of endless pain in taking peoples's cigarettes away from them. One can avoid pain by putting in separate places to smoke, separate rooms, etcs. One can seal rooms or set-up separate rooms to smoke. One does not need to inflict ENDLESS pain on top of unbearable pain as it is. Comforts is the compassionatel way and keeps one upholding the Right to Life,Liberty and the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS for all individuals.

Eva Hart A Christian In Army from 62-70 670 Eddy St. Sfc 94109

[spyder03]

Once again McCain doesn't have a clue,talk about flip flopping , i can't wait till he rides in on his Hoverround by the scooter store and tells America how well we are doing again in Iraq and with his butt buddy lieberman riding shotgun. How can anyone vote for a guy that doesn't seem to know whats going on in this country or in any country? Haven't we had 8 years of this already? Enuff is Enuff !

[AZLizard]

Just remember: when their lips are moving - they're lying!!!!!

[kesiac]

JOHN MCCAIN: "Stand up. We're Americans, we're Americans and we'll never surrender, they will."
Jerk. Wanting to win is one thing, but being political on an issue that has caused the lives of so many is an abomination. I agree with Bush, We must be firm in face of those who murder the innocent, don allow them to run our country.

[WhiteDude]

Yes our president is a terrorist and what is unbelieveable is that is been voted to run this Country..To all who voted for him I hope you have nightmares of children, woman and ederly been killed by Bush.

[Lane]

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times:

"We need our troops here, at home"!!!!!!!!!! We are ill equiped to handle any kind of invasion from another country. It's bad enough that China and India own our debt and Saudi Arabia owns most of the midwest.Bring opur troops home!!!!!!!!!!
We need to take our country back and get these oil whore, war mongers out of here!!!!!!
Please people, use your brains and vote Democratic this time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lvuback1]

That anyone would say there ever will be a democratic government in Iraq is enough to prove him too witless or too dishonest to be president of