Is McCain Poised To 'Refine His Position' On Iraq?

[UPDATED, below.]

Don't look now, national political media, but it looks like Senator John McCain is about to flip-flop "refine his position" on Iraq troop withdrawal!

As you may have heard, Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki came out of the Independence Day holiday weekend feeling every bit as inspired as our own founders, publicly offering the suggestion that it was time for King George and his occupying forces to take it on the arches:

The current trend is to reach an agreement on a memorandum of understanding either for the departure of the forces or a memorandum of understanding to put a timetable on their withdrawal...In all cases, the basis for any agreement will be respect for the full sovereignty of Iraq.

Of course, as popular as withdrawal is with mainstream America, one might wonder if the current administration might just seize the opportunity, declare victory, and speed the withdrawal of troops, a move that would vastly enhance President Bush's legacy of malapropisms and lengthy vacations. It seems however, that the administration is content on pretending that al-Maliki never said what he said. As State Department spokeman Sean McCormick puts it:

Well, that's really the part - the point at which I would seek greater clarification in terms of remarks. I've seen the same press reports that you have. But I haven't yet had an opportunity to get greater clarity as to exactly to what Mr. Maliki was referring or if, in fact, that's an accurate reporting of what he said.

But! How would a potential John McCain White House address al-Maliki's request for a withdrawal timetable? As it turns out Adam Blickstein at Democracy Arsenal (h/t: Ackerman) has a long memory and a key quote from McCain:

...at the Council of Foreign Relations, the John McCain of 2004 gave us a pretty clear answer:

Question: "What would or should we do if, in the post-June 30th period, a so-called sovereign Iraqi government asks us to leave, even if we are unhappy about the security situation there?"

McCain's Answer: "Well, if that scenario evolves than I think it's obvious that we would have to leave because -- if it was an elected government of Iraq, and we've been asked to leave other places in the world. If it were an extremist government then I think we would have other challenges, but I don't see how we could stay when our whole emphasis and policy has been based on turning the Iraqi government over to the Iraqi people."

Well, it would appear that scenario has evolved! We look forward to Straight Talky McCain and His Principles to get right down to the task of "refining his position."

UPDATE: In response to al-Maliki talking up the need for an end to the U.S. occupation, McCain's foreign policy advisor said: "Senator McCain has always said that conditions on the ground -- including the security threats posed by extremists and terrorists, and the ability of Iraqi forces to meet those threats -- would be key determinants in U.S. force levels,"

In asserting that the "key determinant in U.S. force levels" would be tied to "conditions on the ground," it can now be argued that McCain has shifted in the direction of Senator Barack Obama's position on Iraq.

Also, on today's Morning Joe, McCain blithely begged off responding to al-Maliki by saying, "Prime Minister Maliki is a politician." Uhm, sure. And he's the leader of a sovereign Iraq, right?

Comments

[markusmarkus]

If being captured by the enemy, and being tortured for 5+ years makes McCain qualified to be the president, then there are more than 250 current and former Gitmo detainees who are just as qualified to be the next Afgan president.

[watcher269]

McFlipFlop is at it again - this goes to show he has no ideas of his own! He gets a new crew behind him and his ideas change - just who is running for president? It is not the REAL McCain that's for sure - I know - it all the lobbyists working him behind the scenes!

Get some original ideas John!

[LettuceB1]

What will McBushie do if he doesn't have Iraq withdrawal to hammer Obama over the head with...

Oh, No...maybe he'll have to.... *gasp* ...... debate the ISSUES!!!!

The horror!!!!

....or maybe McBush will do America a favor and LOSE! I'm VOTING for the later!

[MadJeffersonian]

The Repugnicants line of thinking, the one that they sold to the American public, is you don't change leaders during a war, and that leader needs extraordinary powers to conduct the war. The other line, one they don't mention yet everyone knows, is you can make a ton of money during war. Even though a sovereign nation requests our departure, why get out when you can have unlimited, unchecked power and make your buddies a lot of money?

[Xenopus]

Well, Obama got it right again.....and McCain, yup, still on the wrong side.

[neocon666]

McCain has already stated that like his mentor George W. Bush, he is a "military president".
Without a war, what else does he have to run on?

[ShamusNYC]

Guess we'll have to attack Iran...

[DRaymond]

Refine which position? 100 years? End of my first term? Victory will end the defecit?

[harriscrl3]

You know what boggles my mind I must be a coward because the first thing that I thought of when Malaki said this was yes we can finally get out of Iraq. This was McAins chance to GET out of war declare victory and leave and rather than jump at it. He pretty much said thanks but no thanks Malaki we are there to stay. Do we want wars. This is it. A soverign country is telling us to set a time table and git and we still refuse to leave. This is victory they are ready to determine the destiny of their country why can't we accept it.

Carol

[totaldisbelief]

McCain is like the weird old uncle that the family wishes was in someone else's family and never gets talked about.

[totaldisbelief]

Do you mean McCain is thinking about flip flopping..­......agai­n?

[shag11]

WTF! Ya mean we don't get to stay for a hundred years?

[rh654]

Let's not get to far ahead of the story.

While the Iraq War as a huge mistake - at this time Iraq is in negotiations with the United States on a Status of Forces Agreement.

The Iraqi's may or may not change their position as the talks continue.

Both candidates would be well advised to not change their talking points too much and watch the Iraqi position shift and then the candidate would be stuck.

[Bigeasy]

The Iraqi people want us out of Iraq, so if we don't leave as they suggest then Irag would be classified as an occupation instead of a war. Bush and McCain have both stated that if the Iraqi people wanted us out that we would leave, so from what I hear we are not leaving where does that leave our American soldiers. American people and the Iraqi people want us out of Iraq what do you think the moral of our soldiers would be knowing instead of in a war they were now transformed into an occupation.

[nk007]

Bigeasy,

I am sorry to say but the situation in Iraq has been an occupation ever since the Iraq government of Saddam was toppled. The United States illegally invaded a sovereign country and has been occupying it by force since March 19, 2003. Iraqi people, except for few puppets like Ahamd Chalabi, have always wanted the American occupation to end. That is why the launched the "insurgency" to free their country from foreign occupation. The tragedy is that even the critics of the invasion (war) have not been stressing enough that Iraq is an occupied country. McCain seems to have no problem perpetuating the occupation for along long time, of course with a client puppet regime in power as cover for the occupation. Please repeat: Iraq is an occupied country. It is not the Iraq war-which really was a one sided war, at least, that we should opposing. It is the Occupation of Iraq by the United States, by means of a war of aggression, that we should be opposing vigorously.

[ObamaLover]

so he is going to flip - flop on iraq like obama did?

so, let's see... obama wants to be in iraq 100 years, and mccain wants us to withdraw troops...

wow....

[jdenham]

If GWB and McCain declare victory fine the sooner we are out of Iraq the better. I am glad the Iraqis are standing up and telling GWB to leave. We can then turn our attention to the real problems we face.