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

[lennix]

filp flop filp flop

[americanwhocares]

John McBush is a truly pathetic person. But he is very much like his “buddy”, GW Bush. (Love the picture of McBush giving George “the idiot” Bush a bear hug (hope I do not offend any bears with that comment). Neither one cares to tell the truth, they just pander to the rich and laugh at the rest of America in their white, men’s only clubs. McBush long ago sold his soul to the republican devil and I am truly glad he is the republican nominee. It will be a cake walk for Obama in November 2008. Also many republican congressional clowns will lose their seats in congress (the trend has already started in the last three special elections). These bozo’s will then become lobbyist to "fill up the ole coffers". Unfortunately, with the huge turnover in favor of the Democratic Party in November 08, they will be reduced to lobbying for tax breaks for Wal-Mart and no one in the federal government will let them in their office. They will all cry like the delusional babies they are!

[fedup07]

McCain and the GOP will say anything to get elected. They are a pathetic bunch.

Check this out
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/#85497

why isn't this on the corporate media 24/7 like Rev Wright was???? Please someone please tell me how McCain's pastors Parsley and Hagee are any different -seems to me they are way, way, way worse than Rev Wright

[MikeDu]

"American troops will return home from Iraq by 2013"

How many deployment rotations would that make - 6? 8? If you think despairing troops are attempting suicide in record numbers now wait to see what happens when recall notice #7 arrives at their collective doorsteps. 5 years of war has cost this country a couple trillion dollars at least. Another five is liable to break the bank entirely, especially considering a Repub admin would keep cutting the taxes of that top elite 2% that has most of the nation's money now.

[wondernites]

Mccain has a beggers face!

"Please believe me as I feed you this BS" :-(

[DRaymond]

Don't you get it?

McCain has said that he very likely will only serve for one term (and if the war is still going full bore he knows he couldn't get re-elected) So his timetable is that 'victory' is going to come one year AFTER he leaves office.

So he is really doing just what Bush has been doing, pushing the eventual blame for the failure onto his successor! Bush wants to spin it as "The surge was working when I left office" and McCain wants to spin it as "We were on track to fully draw down next year when I left office".

If McCain really wanted to be the one who ended the conflict he would want to do it in his first (and likely only) term.

[Forester]

I said it before and I'll say it again...
This man is certifiably batshit crazy.

[rpahk]

2013 is a convenient target year as McBush, if elected, would be out of office by then. Kicking the can down the road....wh­at a great Republican tradition!

[lornejl]

My daughters high school history teacher asked the class if we should have dropped nukes on japan in ww2, she said it was almost a unanimous yes. We are a war mongering country , like it or not.

[PigsOnSoma]

That question needs to be rephrased.

If you were a Japanese school child in Hiroshima, and you know the nuke about to be dropped onto you will end the war, would you think it good that they drop the nuke?

It's the lack of empathy in this country. It's us and them. We have no concept of life elsewhere - of families shattered, of values, of even being human.

[loki]

I think some of this is because Americans do not travel abroad much and tend to live in a bubble. We really dont associate people in other worlds with being as real as people living next door to us. They are just a picture in a book, on the computer or on tv. Its kind of a surreal outlook on life. I doubt many who had visited Japan long enough to know the people a little bit would answer the same. Well, unless they come from a rethuglican family. Then I think they would. But that is a mental problem, not the same.

[izAriver]

What's that suppose to mean? Are you saying we're suppose to accept that just because propaganda works on our children. Talk to a rational educator about who supplies the curriculum, textbooks and other "information" foisted upon children.,

[Powderhound522]

Don't be ignorant. Bombing Japan was an ugly moment, but compared to the alternative option of invading the Japanese mainland, it was an easy decision. By most estimates, an invasion of the mainland would have cost over 100,000 American lives. Considering that in combat on the islands the casualty ratios were around 20:1, that figure would have meant at least 2 million Japanese deaths in our invasion.

[lornejl]

At least you admit it was an ugly moment, most righties wouldn't. There is hope for you yet.

[elmysterio]

So the murder of 100,000 people was 'an easy decision'? Wow. Callous and cold.

As well, the NUCLEAR bombing of Japan in WW2 was completely unnecessary as the Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender. In fact, Truman turned down their offer of surrender because they wanted to keep their emperor, but the US knew it would be way more humiliating for them if they were forced not to. Truman didn't want to just defeat them, he wanted to humiliate them. So, they were all ready to surrender BEFORE Hiroshima was nuked... they were even more ready to surrender after that, but Nagasaki was nuked anyways.

The SOLE reason for nuking Japan was to show Stalin that the US has these terrible weapons and not to push his luck when dividing up Europe among the allies.

What you are quoting as "invasion casualty figures" is part of the great lie that we had to nuke them to save lives. Propaganda at it's best my friend.

[MrKINOKO]

And the bombing of that "ZOG" stronghold in Oklahoma City was an easy decision for Tim McVeigh too. He thought he was "right", no matter how wrong he actually was.
As per Japan...Ev­er considered how well an embargo would have worked, considering Japan does not produce it's own oil? Or maybe the 1940's decision by the US of not trying to starve them off in the first place, thereby not forcing them to make the survival strategy decision to bomb Pearl Harbor? Amazing how Warpigs never see the root cause of why America gets into these pointless scraps, and how they get so offended when people like Rev. Wright, Ambassador Peck, Malcolm X, and numerous Nobel Peace Prize winners say our own hegemony and jingoism brought all of this terror on ourselves. Amazing. When will people like you ever take responsibility for your own actions? What do you base your figures on? And what in the hell would you do if someone invaded your country? Roll over? Call the GOP hotline? Ring up Hillary in Dubai for some help?

[watererbob]

Don't forget the fact that the horror of that bombing's aftermath splashed cold water on the entire idea of "winning" a nuclear War! The actual count of "lives saved" may be in the billions!

[TGCNY]

A big hat to hide that panociho nose. Waking and stop pandering to us like were stupid why dont yah

[frappe]

If McCain chooses Romney as his running mate, he can be "McFlip" and Romney can be "McFlop".

[widollar]

This old fool will be worse than Chimpy if he somehow manages to sneak into the oval office! Yes, they will again attempt to cook the books, and rig the electronic voting machines, that's a given. He is a dangerous old fool and god help us all if he becomes Commander In Chief! The NASCAR crowd would of course like to see this old war monger at the controls.

[TN60]

The Republicans will fight tooth and nail for this insane old coot for one basic reason:

To hide all the criminal activities of Bush/Cheney and their friends who have profited from this stupid war. The reason Bill/Hill have such a great relationship with poppy Bush is that Bill looked the other way on the criminal behavior of the Iran/Contra mess.

Does anyone not see how this works for all the insiders. Hillary voted for the Iraq War so her b**lls would look bigger for the election. She didn't care how many died. She is a Republican in a pants suit and she and Bill have gone along with the insiders for a huge money advantage.

Funny thing happened along the way for Hillary...­.A new type of polititian came along....O­bama...who is so fresh that he is not beholden to the insiders.

[Colmore]

Did he borrow his Mom's hat?? Does he know how ridiculous he looks in that?

[frappe]

He needs a big hat...or an umbrella to protect his skin from sunlight. His facial skin is very sensitive to sunlight. I believe he has some form of skin cancer and he has had several facial operations to deal with its consequences.

[dwillisno1]

As Dukakis proved headwear is important to the election process. Unattractive people are even more vulnerable. I think his candidacy will ultimately have more problems with sunlight shining on his policies, than his problem with sunshine on his skin problems. There are less silly hats to wear to protect your skin.

[mickyx65it]

McCain is lying. He wants war war and more war.

[Julie02]

Absolutely lying. How did he go from proposing a 100-year occupation to claiming that we will be out in four years? This man will say anything to get elected. He will undoubtedly steal talking points from the Democrats to make himself seem more moderate. America, do not trust what comes out of this man's mouth!!

[Donald Wolberg]

Mr. McCain did not propose a 100 year occupation. He noted that major powers have always had major responsibilities. We have been in Korea how long? Almost 58 years. In Japan, 63 years; in Germany, 63 years.

[Pamela1961]

I'm not a McCain supporter but the Press has misinterpreted a lot of what he has said. If you want to you can turn anything any of the candidates around if you don't take what they said into context. Like what questions were they asked? What was the full statement. McCain never said we would have a full scale war for 100 years, he just said we'd probably have a presense in Iraq for maybe that long, as we've had in Kosovo, Germany, Japan, etc...,

All of the news is just spin to rile people up. It is fueled by a bias press depending on who they support. There is no journalistic integrity or public trust with the media/press anymore. It's all editorials.

[CranialRectalLoopback]

I'm surprised you're not a McStain supporter since you are clearly ignorant of what he actually said.

[LarsGruber]

"McCain never said we would have a full scale war for 100 years,"

uh... yes he did. Unless he meant a 100 years of candy and flowers for the soldiers?

He also said, "bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran"

how should I interpret that?

[frappe]

but the point is that to him, if necessary, 100 years in Iraq is ok..."what­ever it takes", in other words. So it isn't that much of an exaggeration, really.