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

[massive]

I guess the good thing about being as old as John McBush is that you simply can't remember what you said yesterday.

That said, nobody should trust this Bush wannabe. He loves war. He loves bloodshed. He loves lowering taxes on the rich and hiking them on the poor. He's George Bush all over again. War without end, amen.

[jcc173]

What about our economy John while you are taking care of the rest of the world..Hav­e we bankrupt the Nation? Has China and Japan called in their loans or worse yet stoped the money train?

What a goddamn idiot, wasn't Bush enough?

[Viper]

Well next week McCain will be against the tax cuts he was fore after he was against them.

So the following week he will be against NAFTA. But as long as he supports the Repug plank where a father can rape his 12 YR Old daughter and she must carry the child... He is still a Repug and a family values kind of a guy who was having an affair with his curent wife when he was still married!

Regards

[LarsGruber]

"a guy who was having an affair with his curent wife when he was still married!"

and he's proud of it

[TN60]

Don't forget that the first wife was sick and I believe she was in a wheelchair. He dumped her and got himself a trophy wife with millions. He's a pip !!

Don't forget that the fly boy crashed 4 or 5 jets while he was having a good time and that his Admiral father had to clean up his messes just as the old man Bush cleaned up this idiot Bush's messes.

I've heard all I want of this "great American hero" while there are millions of heros from all the wars. The rest of the Vietnam heros came home to be spat on. He can take his lobbyist friends and his hero crap and go right straight to hell !!

[MrKINOKO]

Is that a "flip-flop" hat I see Mr. Magoo wearing? Does he have on Flip-Flop slippers too? I know it gets hot in the deserts of Ira...I mean Ira...wait­, I mean Arizona.
2013? That's....­5 years from now? I could swear I heard President-elect Obama say 16 months, with a contingent of 50k volunteers to stay for a few years more. Sounds like a way more realistic, and fair to the troops strategy to me. I know from being in the US Army myself that 50k soldiers would stay the course in Iraq just to get on the fast-track to a promotion.­...so that's ok.
Or did McCain just mean it will take us until 2013 to come up with enough reasons to invade Iran and Syria too? Maybe stage a 21st century 'Gulf of Tonkin' incident? Get some smokin' intel on those WMD's (weapons of mediocre destruction)? I mean seriously GOP...what is your guy REALLY talking about here? Does he recall what just happened to the British Army's "Small contingent of troops" in Basra? They barely made it out alive. Maybe McCain wants another Saigon spectacle, with Huey's landing on top of Magic Mountain at the new Disney land Halliburton is building in Baghdad, and sweeping up the last of our "Diplomats", spooks, Marines, and Blackwater mercs? Between this and GWB's deplorable recent comments in Israel, my move to Iceland is looking more and more necessary by the day....

OBAMA 2008/2012.

[ConnieB]

Yeah, right!

[Spincast]

"Giving every [person] a vote [or a purple finger] has no more made [people] wise and free as [Religion] has made them good." - H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

Democracy doesn't work as a "Fake-It-'­Til-You-Ma­ke-It" policy...

Gene Roddenberry's "Prime Directive" is not just for the future... It was and still is a poorly learned lesson from the past.

[CranialRectalLoopback]

Excellent! I can't believe I hadn't thought of applying the prime directive to here on earth. Again I say excellent!

[dadw5boys]

I will end the war in 4 years and then 4 years later end it again if you re-elect me--Mc CXain

SOUNDS JUST LIKE RICHARD NIXION AND THE VIETNAM WAR!!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!

[gevan]

TIMETABLES! Closely akin to treason, ain't it? This is nearly as bad as when he defected to North VietNam back in '67. But John, why isn't BinLaden dead yet? October surprise?

[Hallucinocynic]

It is obvious that Crash is going to alter his campaign talking points to meet the expectations of the electorate. Hence, his adoption of green policies after having been a lifelong nonadvocate; now, he is 'revising' his stance on the war since his previous positions have become all too attack-worthy.

Crash will say what he thinks the voters want to hear and, if by a miracle, he were to win the office he would turn a deaf ear to the public and focus on the desires of his close, long-time allies and friends in the MIC. He is a pathological liar with a limited understanding of global politics and an even lesser grasp of economics or demographics. The most descriptive word to be applied to Crash would be

disastrous.

[Tabasco]

McCain Sets Timetable For Getting Out Of Iraq

You see? This isn't a flip-flop at all! John McCain is a Republican, so his 'flip-flop' is actually called a 'lateral move of compassion and strength'. And if a Democrat even wrinkles his or her nose when talking about an issue they support, it is correctly called a 'flip-flop' or a 'cut-n-run'

Just wanted to clear that up for us all.

[eggman]

McCain is saying we'll be done by 2013 because we will have beaten al-Qaida by then. Some questions:

1) Does McCain think al-Qaida is the problem in Baghdad? Does he not understand the problem is about 1% al-Qaida and about 99% sectarian violence?
2) What does "winning" mean? Does it mean the violence will come to an end?
3) What if we DON'T "win" on time? Will McCain pull out before the job is done?
4) Hasn't McCain spent the last five years saying that setting a deadline merely emboldens our enemies and demoralizes our troops? How is this plan not an utterly hypocritical flip-flop born out of desperation?

[LarsGruber]

This is the guy that after all this time STILL doesn't know the difference between Sunnis and Shiites.

[NotPC]

Have any of you folks taken the time to actually listen to McCain's "entire" speech, or to read the "entire" text of the speech? I didn't think so........­.......

[gonavy]

Of coarse not, that is not the HuffPost way. They take a statement, twist it, turn it, stomp on it, and spit on it, and only then post it as a breaking news headline.

[monac58]

Why waste your time reading it then? Go find something worthy of a Repug-lican and read that!

[chinacatsunflower]

which is why they provided a link to the original story where we could read the entire speech?

[NewtC]

I read it. His advisors are telling him what to say to buy votes from low information voters.

Now if he can just remember his speech next time he's asked a question live...

[NCRESIDENT]

Wow! that's the same thing I said about Rev. Wright. Did anyone take the time to listen to the entire sermon. Now when someone attacks mccain on what he says you want us to listen to his whole speech. Do I smell a little hypocrisy here.

[Pamela1961]

Rev. Wright seemed to actually confirm what he said by going speaking to the National Press Club and other inteviews. No the clips didn't put it all into context, but then he went out and basically backed his views. He has a right to his opinions if we agree with them or not.

[Galt907]

I read his entire speech . . .I remember hearing similar ramblings from people delusonal from LSD ingestion. There was not one specific about how he would achieve these prognostications, just that they would happen . .. POOF . .. McCain's magic wand is his plan? Sort of a rerecording of Louis Armstrong's "Wonderful World" without the benefit of music or. McCain is 4 more year of lies, deceit and U.S. backed murder and terrorism, plus a lot less of the Constitutional rights we were guaranteed.

P.C. if you can not read the writing on the wall, perhaps it is time to either:

1.) take off the "Bush Blindfold" you are wearing; or,

2.) learn how to read.

[MaureenSharkey]

Those Republicans sure are smart.

With this oil crisis mounting, voters will see the importance of having a military base in the Middle East.

A non-combative area for our troops, protecting oil, the lifeblood of our nation.

Barack, what do you say to that?

We lose.

[papla]

i love huffington­post..its amazing where they gets all this McSame pictures..­ha ha

[Galt907]

Oil is not the "lifeblood" of this country . . .it is the poison to which we are addicted . . .and your answer is to kill more people for it? If your moral values get any lower, they won't trip you when you walk over them.

[MaureenSharkey]

Look, Blindy,

Oil IS the lifeblood of this nation. You are lofty and naive. You must be an Obama supporter.

Also, you're literally blind as well. I said, "A non-combative area for our troops..."

[RacePace7]

Having a military base in the Middle East protects us against an oil crisis? On 9/11, oil was around $28 a barrel. It's now $106 a barrel. It costs us $12 billion a month to keep our troops in Iraq. At that rate, keeping troops in a non-combative area in one of the oil-producing Middle East countries is a sure-fire way to add another $1 trillion to our debt.

The only real cost-effective long-term solution is to wean our country OFF oil, To simply say we're addicted to oil and there's nothing we can do about it doesn't say much for our ability to control our own future. Fact check: The world only has a finite supply of oil. Why should we wait until it runs out before we start thinking about what to next?

This voter sees the importance of finding real long-term solutions, not the usual band-aid approaches favored during election campaigns.

[zeiben]

To quote Sue Simmons ( who I'm sure will be quoted frequently and liberally during this campaign), "What the F*CK are you doing!"

[papla]

McSame
McBush
McPain
McWar
McFlipper
McOld
McLiar

ADD TO THE LIST PLEASE

[texastornado]

How about McAnus?

[frappe]

McFlopper

[frappe]

McAncient
McRelic

[segsig]

McCain can make no plan for Iraq until he learns who the heck we're involved with over there! There is no obtainable objective, so how can he have a plan? However, this is the nicest he has acted in regards to the troops in ages...too bad he won't give them any support once they do come home.

At this point he should focus on his other problems: denouncing Boehner's statements; stop lieing about voting for Bush, because then the public might respect you; stop embracing the insane priests; and firing 122 lobbyists on his staff. Then maybe we'll care about his moronic plans.