McCain: 'I Said We Would Have An Easy Victory' In Iraq And 'We Did'

Think Progress:

In late 2002 and early 2003, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was a fixture on cable television, assuring Americans that an invasion of Iraq would be "easy." "I believe that the success will be fairly easy," McCain told CNN in September 2002. "We will win this conflict. We will win it easily," he told MSNBC the following January.

Over the years, McCain has often claimed that he made never made rosy predictions, saying in 2006 that he "fully understood from the beginning" that Iraq "would be a very, very difficult undertaking." In January 2007, however, he wasn't sure what he believed. First, he said that he knew it was "going to be long and hard and tough," but six days later he claimed, "I said the military operation would be easy. It was easy."

Read the whole story: Think Progress

Comments

[MACS]

.
Five years after "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" and the troops are STILL not home. Some success!!!
.

[researcher]

only in america do the folks want success for an illegal war

imperialism at its best

even t he demos are imperialists

the end of american imperialism is near

economic and dollar decline will make it happen

the world will be safer for it

[mydogshakespeare]

Over at RedState.com, their "pundits" are all patting themselves on the back (not to mention each others' crotches) about our "easy victory in Iraq", as freshly revealed by Mr. McCain. Of course, they are unable to explain why we never left after such an "easy victory"; they just cancel your account if you ask, point out the absurdity of their position, or (gasp!) try to argue the point.

(Of course, they unabashedly will tell you they are "a private forum", and "free speech" doesn't apply. Hooray for RedState... and I thought the "Red" referred to "RightWing"; it apparently means some more akin to "Red Communist.")

[TNT2008]

Yeah right Mc Lostyourmind! Tell that to the families who lost loved ones you ingrate!

[Mattyhorn]

Yes, I'm sure it was easy for the families of the 500,000 Iraqi civilians who dies as a direct result of the U.S. invasion of Iraq...or the departed, for that matter.

[lvogt]

... and after the Iraqi army was defeated and Saddam was arrested, the war was over. We won.
Now the US has an army of occupation. You cant win an occupation. You can merely occupy or leave.
We are being attacked by Iraqi's who no longer wish to be occupied by an army with such grossly incompetent leaders in Washington. They attack us, They attack each other. Our occupation is now the source of the conflict. Someone else has to be the peacekeeper. We cannot.

[denlong]

WOW I'm so glad we won in Iraq! and hell, it was easy for me.. it may be hard for our kids to pay for it ???

[AfricanWahala]

If the victory was that EZ why is it so Hard to Withdraw?

[LORISNJ]

Mc*Cain has spun so fast he is now looking at his own backside. He is for what he is against all the while complaining that O*bama isn't for what he is for until he is against it. Or maybe he just forgot what he is for until O*bama says what he is for.

That's not confusing.

[LORISNJ]

Mc*Cain has spun so fast he is now looking at his own backside. He is for what he is against all the while complaining that Obama isn't for what he is for until he is against it. Or maybe he just forgot what he is for until Obama says what he is for.

That's not confusing.

[lvdragonlady]

I am sorry but as long as soldiers are still dying over there, we have not won.
He is so clueless it is not even funny.

[windwalker1984]

So where is the response ad to this, using his own words to show the voters how out of touch he really is?

[Independent voter]

This alone is a disqualifying comment for President. This man is seriously brain damaged

[XME]

If his idea of "winning" and "easy" is over 5 years of fighting, over 4 thousand American soldiers dead, nearly $3 trillion dollars spent, soldiers STILL there, still fighting, still dying, and no plan for withdrawing, EVERY American should be EXTREMELY concerned about the man's judgement. Yet, he's just cruising along.

It's so very sad that Americans are more concerned about skin color and the APPEARANCE of "experience" (POW does not = qualified to be president) than they are about reality and good judgement!

[Andman0121]

HUH??

[BigMike75]

Wow, and the American people are actually considering Geritol John for President. I make light of his age, because he doesn't remember half of what he says. Playing politics with our military costs innocent lives, all across the board. The neocons have had long enough to inflict their damage, out with the garbage in with the new!

[lmab]

Easy victory..........4000 dead, a trillion dollars spent and a war that has lasted longer than WW2. And he claims Obama is out of touch with America? McCain is a very confused man, who is not fit to be president.

[windwalker1984]

Easy victory......that has defeated our dollar. Part of the reason oil and everything else the US imports is so expensive now is because our dollar has lost substantial value in the past few years due to what the war debt has added to the national deficit.