Four years ago, talking to the Council on Foreign Relations, John McCain was asked what would happen if the Iraqi government, democratically elected and sovereign, asked for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. “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,” McCain said at the time.
Four years later, with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and his national security advisor both publicly talking about a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops, McCain and his campaign hedged yesterday on whether the senator still agreed with his own position.
Today, the McCain campaign “cleared up” exactly what McCain thinks.
“John McCain has always been clear that American forces operate in Iraq only with the consent of that country’s democratically elected government,” Michael Goldfarb, a McCain spokesman, told the Huffington Post. “The Senator speaks frequently with Iraq’s leaders and they have made clear that they share his belief that any timeline for withdrawal must be dictated by the facts on the ground. He met with the foreign minister and President separately within the last month…He met with Maliki on his last trip to Iraq sometime in late March.”
Goldfarb’s remarks represent a more pronounced effort to bring McCain’s position on Iraq in line with Maliki’s. McCain has forsworn deadlines for troop withdrawal — insisting that it be tied to conditions on the ground — and he did not, initially, express support the prime minister’s position.
Not even close, actually. I’m not sure if it counts as a flip-flop, but the line today from the McCain campaign bears no resemblance to the line from yesterday.
Consider this NYT report from last night:
During a stop at Primanti Brothers, a Pittsburgh sandwich shop famous for stuffing French fries into its sandwiches, Mr. McCain sounded a dismissive note when asked about the latest statements by the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.
Mr. McCain said it was the same as when Iraqi officials said recently that they doubted an agreement with the United States could be struck over the status of American forces. “Prime Minister Malki, is, has got his, he is a leader of a country,” Mr. McCain said, according to a pool report. “And I am confident that he will act, as the president and foreign minister have both told me in the last several days, that it will be directly related to the situation on the ground, just as they have always said. And since we are succeeding and then I am convinced, as I have said before, we can withdraw and withdraw with honor, not according to a set timetable. And I’m confident that is what Prime Minister Maliki is talking about since he has told me that for the many meetings we have had.”
Asked if he thought Mr. Maliki was aiming his statements at a domestic political audience, Mr. McCain said: “I don’t know. Ask him.” […]
Susan B. Rice, a senior foreign policy adviser to Senator Barack Obama, said in a statement: “It’s time for John McCain to explain why he refuses to ask Iraq’s leaders to take responsibility for their own future, and why he has completely changed his own stated position that he would leave Iraq when the Iraqis ask us to. The American people need a strategy for succeeding in Iraq, not just a strategy for staying, and John McCain’s stubborn refusal to adjust to events on the ground just shows that he has no plan to end this war.”
Now, it appears that McCain kinda sorta ended up in the right place. If Iraq’s democratically elected government asked us to leave, McCain agrees that we’d have to leave.
But given the timeline over the last day or so, it seems the McCain campaign had to think about it.