McCain thinks it’s ‘insulting’ to care about the length of the occupation

February 13, 2008

It doesn’t get mentioned nearly enough, but one of the factors that may help the Democrats this fall is that John McCain, when he talks about Iraq policy, tends to fly off the handle and say things that don’t make a lot of sense. Here he is on Monday, campaigning in Virginia.

For those of you who can’t watch videos online, the clip shows McCain responding to a question about his willingness to keep U.S. troops in Iraq for another 100 years. “Anyone who worries about how long we’re in Iraq does not understand the military and does not understand war,” said McCain. He added that it is “really almost insulting to one’s intelligence” to question “how long we’re in Iraq” because he believes the current “strategy” is “succeeding.”

Now, it’s worth noting that when it comes to Iraq, John McCain has been hopelessly, almost comically, confused for many years now. I’m sure he’d prefer to forget about it now, but his pre-war predictions look ridiculous in retrospect. He claims to have rejected the White House policy years ago, but he was actually a cheerleader for the Bush/Rumsfeld strategy, repeatedly emphasizing the need to “stay the course.” All of his assurances about the benchmarks of the surge have proven false.

What’s more, about a year ago, McCain insisted that parts of Baghdad are safe for Americans to go for a stroll and that General Petraeus travels around the city “almost every day in a non-armed Humvee” — claims that senior military officials on the ground found literally laughable. Shortly thereafter, he went to a Baghdad market, surrounded himself with 100 soldiers, three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships, and then told reporters that was able to walk freely in Iraq’s capital.

And yet now he wants to lecture others about who really “understands” Iraq.

Obviously, McCain’s heroic military service commands respect and the nation’s gratitude, but having worn the uniform with honor does not necessarily translate into expertise on military policy. Indeed, by all appearances, McCain doesn’t have the foggiest idea what he’s talking about.

Matt Yglesias’ take was particularly spot-on:

In the short-term, the McCain plan for open-ended warfare in Iraq costs lives, money, and carries enormous political costs and opportunity costs in terms of what the United States can do around the world. In the long-term, McCainite visions for a perpetual US military presence in Iraq fuel skepticism of US motives in that country and are a key driving force behind anti-American violence.

McCain even goes so far as to directly compare his vision of Iraq to the current situation in Kuwait, where in exchange for basing rights and oil we help prop up an unaccountable and corrupt dictatorship. Fear that this is what we’re aiming for in Iraq is precisely why many Iraqis are fighting so hard against our troops, and our habit of acting this way in other Gulf states is a major driving force of anti-American sentiment throughout the Muslim world. The Bush administration has at least had the good sense to pursue this agenda quietly and in secret, but hot-head McCain can’t keep his mouth shut to avoid gaffes and can’t stop digging now that he realizes he’s in a hole.

As for McCain’s assertion that it’s insulting to care about the duration of the U.S. occupation, the senator seems to be inadvertently insulting senior military leaders.

By dismissing as naive those concerned with how long the U.S. military is mired in Iraq, McCain is claiming that top officials in the Pentagon don’t understand “the military” or “war” as well as he does. In a recent GOP presidential debate, McCain argued, “I’m the expert” on Iraq.

Top military brass, such as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Adm. Mike Mullen and Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey, have worried in the past year that “a protracted deployment of U.S. troops”in Iraq would not be a wise move for the military:

– In October 2007, Casey said that “it’s going to take us three or four years and a substantial amount of resources to put” the Army “back in balance” and that time frame depends on when “the conflict end[s].”

– In July 2007, Mullen testified that without political and economic progress in Iraq, “no amount of troops and no amount of time will make much of a difference” and that “a protracted deployment of U.S. troops to Iraq…risks further emboldening Iranian hegemonic ambitions.”

By McCain’s logic, both the Army Chief of Staff and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff don’t “understand the military” as well as he does.

As the campaign moves forward over the next several months, watch for these gaffes to pile up. McCain just can’t help himself.

I stopped taking McCain seriously a few years ago when I noticed that he looked a lot like Tim Conway and some of his buffoonish characters on the Carol Burnett Show.

His words and his deeds have not influenced that comparison since then.

  • Refuting McNutjob’s military “expertise” is like shooting a fish in a barrel if you’re a progressive. But that’s not the task me must accomplish.

    I think it will be very important to study how the bamboozled “center” of American politics sees the state of the Iraq conflict, and then look at McNutjob through their eyes. We need to highlight for them the points where he shows that he’s both crazy and dangerous (which he obviously is to us, but not necessarily them).

    Do not underestimate the power of misinformation. If you are convinced that leaving Iraq will lead to chaos and terrorism and Iran nuking Baby Jesus, then McNutjob’s insanity doesn’t look insane. If we want McNutjob to lose, we need to find out how the bamboozled can be un-bamboozled.

  • Amen to Racer-X

    I think it will be better to prove that McCain is pretty much a Bush clone. Then play the clip where the Bush administration says it would be a cake walk, greeted with flowers, mission accomplished, ‘in their last throws, another 6 months and we’ll see progress, and the topper that it would approximately cost about 50 billion – at the most.

    You have to be a total moron, even if you’re undecided, or an independent if you can’t see that: it has not been a cake walk, we were not greeted with flowers, the mission certainly hasn’t been accomplished, and with 100’s dying every month the insurgents don’t seem to be in their last throws, and progress hasn’t been convincing after almost 6 years, let alone 6 months, and the cost…. that should make anybody pause, even a ‘room temperature IQ’ Republican and Independent and/or undecided.

  • I think it will be very important to study how the bamboozled “center” of American politics sees the state of the Iraq conflict, and then look at McNutjob through their eyes. -Racer X

    I was contemplating the October surprise recently: in recent elections, we’ve seen direct manipulation of artificial ‘threat’ ratings, conveniently timed messages from Osama bin Laden, conveniently timed executions, and capture of yet-another-second-in-command.

    Will there be a run-up of news like this again this year or will it just hurt McCain’s support among war weary centrists? I have a feeling this year, more news about the war actually helps the Democrats by pushing independents and moderates away from Mr. 100 Years War.

    A successful campaign against McCain will paint him as a cantankerous, warmongering asshole. Just the facts, m’am, as they say.

  • Always remember that security moms will beat soccor moms when it comes to voting. What do you think is going to happen when BushCo puts the 6 detainees on trial in Cuba seeking the death sentence for all of them. What about Sadr does extend his cease fire in Iraq and all hell breaks out. All this seems to be looked at in a prism but everyone should know by now that BushCo will do anything to hold on to power. Remember he has his hands on the nuke buttons. Don’t forget the Bush traffic light system of terrorist alert that will be making a comeback in the next couple months. Even a minor terrorist attack on a US installation will turn attention to security over the economy. Most of us here won’t fall into that trap but alot of the independents and republicans that are crossing to Obama will most likely switch back to McCain. On a related note from yesterday more independents and republicans voted for Obama than for McCain. And those are the ones that would most likely go back to him. Moral of the story be careful of what you wish for.

  • I don’t agree with the above statement:Obviously, McCain’s heroic military service commands respect and the nation’s gratitude…”

    As I wrote late last night in response to Michale Savage’s contention..
    ” I think he was one of the most — he was a scoundrel. And I’ll tell you why I detested Tom Lantos. The man survived the Holocaust of World War II and used it as a weapon the rest of his life.’”

    I wonder… when Michael Savage gets his man-crush on McCain… if the same will apply: ” I think he was one of the most — he was a scoundrel. And I tell you why I detest John McCain. The man got shot down over Vietnam due to his own incompetence, enjoyed preferential treatment in the Hanoi Hilton – with Paris no less! – and has been using it as a weapon ever since he got back from his P.O.W. vacation.”

    McCain was no war hero and did not wear the uniform with honor – maybe he thought so himself in retrospect, but he certainly didn’t when he was doing his service. After almost having been thrown out of the Naval Academy several times, he graduated with only 4 other men having lower grades. He was an average pilot at best, and was considered a loose canon… You should see some of the choice ‘pet names’ he was called… makes ‘senator hothead’ look very nice indeed.

    In short: stop buying into the rhetoric that he’s a war hero. The only thing he has going for him is, that his Rear Admiral father was able to get him a cushy assignment State wide – not unlike George Bush – but he chose to go and actually get into the action himself. It was very unfortunate that he got shot down and that he was tortured, but if it wasn’t for that.. He was a party animal, just like Bush was, with lots of drink binges and behavior that would make the so called conservatives turn red faced from embarrassment.

  • Oh yeah, McCain? Well, I think it’s insulting to not give a shit that a sizable and vocal majority of the people you represent want us out of Iraq and the sooner the better! I think it insults the intelligence of well over half of all Americans.

    Keep in mind, there was no exit strategy because the plan has always been to stay and collect and distribute the oil. And protect it with the permanent bases we’re building there. Talk about insulting people’s intelligence!

    Asshole!

    Just sayin’.

  • Yglesias’ take is the obvious undercurrent to the whole occupation. If someone were to attack the US so that they could control our principal national source of revenue, turning it over to foreign companies and then impose a profit sharing agreement that would keep the nation relatively impoverished, who wouldn’t resist such an affront their nation?

    An insurgency only has to not lose to win. McCain won’t admit that as long people exist who are willing to fight on or take up the cause, any gains we may make are ephemeral.

    There is no freedom agenda. This is not about national security or holding terrorists at bay. It’s plan and simple blood for oil. And who among us wants to day for the gasoline in Cheney’s car’s tank?

  • Expect to hear McCain talk about the Korean model (which he has flip-flopped on) and the Kuwaiti model in the same breath.

    Hopefully when he does that, Obama/Clinton should be quick to compare the governments and the people’s will of the two countries.

  • Racer X said:
    Do not underestimate the power of misinformation. If you are convinced that leaving Iraq will lead to chaos and terrorism and Iran nuking Baby Jesus, then McNutjob’s insanity doesn’t look insane. If we want McNutjob to lose, we need to find out how the bamboozled can be un-bamboozled.

    Bush & Co. screwed up their Iraq campaign so badly that even cutting the American military presence in half will lead to chaos and terrorism and incerased militarization by Iran — plus horrific bloodshed, ethnic cleansing, even more refugees, and (intollerable!) a decrease in oil production. Unfortunately, if we keep we keep 100,000 troops in Iraq for another four years (this is a hypothetical — it doesn’t look like it’s possible to maintain those troop levels for that long) and then leave, we’ll still end up with chaos, terrorism, bloodshed, etc.

    McCain (and Bush’s) comparision of a long-term military presence in Iraq with our 50-year presence in Korea is ridiculous. There is a cease-fire agreement in place with North Korea. It probably isn’t possible to get cease-fire agreements between all the various ethnic groups, militias and foreign fighters. So our soldiers in Iraq will be under fire for as long as they are there.

    The way to get the corporate-controlled media to pay attention to the Republican “misinformation” about Iraq is to speak the truth, but in outrageous ways. The MSM loves outrageous and will put it on the air for the same reason that house fires get on the local news broadcasts.

    First of all, don’t say “misinformation”, say “LIES”. When the press-titute protests that “lie” is a strong word, ask them what word they would use when someone says something that is false, even though they know it’s false. Ask them how McCain could honestly say he walked freely through the streets of Bagdad when the truth was he had to be protected by a 100 soldiers and three helicopters.

    Second, when describing Iraq, always remind people that the situation is so bad because the Bush administration’s invasion was a “perfect storm of arrogance, ignorance, incompetence and corruption.” The press-titute will probably balk at the word “corruption”, so ask them to name a single no-bid contractor who was not a large contributer to the Republican party. Ask them how many of those no-bid contracts were actually completed.

    Third, when McCain claims that the Iraq invasion was a good idea that was executed badly by Donald Rumsfeld, demand that McCain cite a single instance prior to 2005 where he criticized the conduct of the war. And demand that he cite a single instance where he ever called for Congressional investigations into the conduct of the war.

    Finally, when the Bush apologists say that the Democrats just want to see the U.S. lose in Iraq, tell them “No, but when you see see someone jump off a 20 story building you don’t hope they’re going to die, but that’s what you expect.”

  • Jim said:
    Even a minor terrorist attack on a US installation will turn attention to security over the economy. Most of us here won’t fall into that trap but alot of the independents and republicans that are crossing to Obama will most likely switch back to McCain.

    Unless the Democrats find a collective backbone and remind the corporate-controlled media that they’ve given Bush everything he asked for — Patriot Act, FISA revisions, no deadlines for Iraq, and MORE money for homeland security than Bush asked for.

    Any attack on the U.S. or our allies will be Bush’s fault.

    Start saying it now. Say it like you believe it — Any attack on the U.S. or our allies will be Bush’s fault!

    It’s Bush who allowed Osama bin Laden to escape, and who dismantled the militry unit dedicated to tracking him down. It’s Bush who diverted resources to Iraq that could have fought the terrorists. There were no terrorists in Iraq until Bush & Co. screwed up the invasion.. And it will be Bush who was too worried about his historical legacy to take a threat seriously.

    Keep saying it, like you take vitamin C to prevent a cold —Any attack on the U.S. or our allies will be Bush’s fault!

  • ***we need to find out how the bamboozled can be un-bamboozled.***

    Easy. John McCain thinks along the same “military genius” lines as did a similar advocate of eternal war. He ridicules anyone who dares question his strategic superiority—just as a similar politician. Just as one is prepared to reinvent an entire religious culture as “the eternal enemies of the Homeland,” the other was prepared to reinvent an entire religious culture as “the eternal enemies of the Fatherland….”

  • We have something that no previous opponents of a war had, direct contact with people ‘on the ground’ who are living through the results of our actions. I mean the Iraqi blogosphere. (Some of whom were forced from their country by the War, but who remember why they had to leave.) Before, the best input we had was ‘reporters with good contacts.’

    If I were the Obama campaign, I’d put together a collection of quotes from Iraqi bloggers — of all political viewpoints — showing their response to McCain’s “100 years more of occupation.” (I haven’t had time to check in with the blogs, I am just assuming their response was horror.)

    I also think it would be a powerful boost for Obama — as well as being worth it in its own right — if someone compiled a book from the Iraqi bloggers. If I were doing it, I’d ask each of them to give a list of 5 posts they thought important, with the understanding that the editor would add a sixth of his own choosing. The financial part would be tricky, but having that book in bookstores by September might highlight the difference between a McCain — for whom the Iraqis are ‘characters in a video game’ at best, a different type of ‘gooks’ at worst — and an Obama, who realizes there are real people at the other end of our rockets.

  • “Heroic military service”???? Hah!

    If there is a Vietnam veteran who could be successfully “swiftboated” for what he did by merely reciting the actual facts – facts that would stand up to scrutiny, unlike the “facts” used against Kerry – it is John “low, slow, and out of ideas” McCain. The man who only made it past Lt. Commander because he was a POW and the Navy had a policy throughout the war of promoting POWs when their seniority was due, without further examination of their record. When he got out, as a Captain, and was given a command a Captain (Colonel in the other services) is supposed to be capable of, he was incompetent and the Navy quietly advised him to retire before he publicly embarassed himself.

    Of course, if someone was to cite all the true facts about McCain, the MSM would be johnny-on-the-spot to defend him against the “swiftboating” (as they were absent in 2004 or quoted the lies as truth), which the public would believe since there has been such ex post facto demonstration that the campaign against Kerry was lies. So McCain is innoculated against the truth because of the lies told about his “good friend” Kerry.

    McCain, living proof that “the first generation makes it, the second generation keeps it, and the third generation loses it.” Just like Little Georgie.

  • the nation’s gratitude? I’m sorry he was tortured, but really, how are we supposed to be grateful for him going over there dropping bombs on people whose country had done nothing to us?

  • More than this clip, I found myself shiver when listening to his (electoral) victory speech last night. I can’t decide whether it scares me more thinking that he really believes this or is just pretending to. Either way, that fact that such rhetoric is designed to attract support rather than repel it, saddens me as I contemplate its possible success.

    If Hon. Sen. Obama becomes the nominee, and loses to this claptrap, the sane among us will be sustained in our effort to resist. Otherwise, I fear that Hon. Sen. Clinton will try to try to triangulate a position which, even if triumphant in November (with an eye to 2012), will lead us to the same place as if she had lost, while instilling a sense of futility that there will exist no will to keep opposing our path toward ruination.

    This perhaps histrionically expressed view is why I can’t get too worked up about the ‘specifics’ of the Dems’ policy proposals (after a pretty coarse-grain agreement). When faced with the prospect of President McCain, these proposals (which will have to suffer the meat-grinder of the Congress in any event) just don’t seem that meaningful.

  • He’s such a megalomaniac that he truly believes he’s the expert on Iraq. What a joke. the time has come…we knew the repubs would have to put somebody up to run for president just as we knew that no matter what these guys did they created a disaster that we want no part of anymore. Best just to ignore them till we get to vote to get rid of this embarrassing obstructionist republican regime for no other reason than to just keep our rage under control. I seldom feel the urge to slap a man in his seventies but when that horrible authoritative mocking grin comes over this ego maniac’s face I just go berserk in my own mind wanting to slap him. I’m sure he has his followers but they are minute and I thank god I will never have to worry about this man ever being president of the USA, because no republican will win the WH this election. Enough is enough is enough. I just hope we will still have elections. Every day I live in fear of this president…of what he might do next.

  • You know, I’m beginning to believe that we need to recall the draft. Load up the military, send them to Iraq and Afghanistan and restore order while we rebuild the nations we have so wantonly destroyed. If it takes 10 years, so be it! (And no one eligible should be exempt from the draft.)

    In the meantime, domestically we need to raise taxes, put the U. S. on an austerity budget for the duration of the rebuilding and make our citizenry aware of just what this stupid administration has done to us!!

    Then, the next administration needs to turn the current admin over to the World Court in the Hague for trial, crimes against humanity, the U. S. included among the plaintiffs!!!

    Sen. Obama wants to leave too early, Sen McCain never wants to leave and Sen. Clinton isn’t really saying very much. She may be the only one who really understands the mess and the problem. That doesn’t mean that Sen. Obama won’t learn quickly, just that he should be cautious with his statements until he gets more involved with the disaster the Bush-shites have wrought.

  • Don’t forget the Bush traffic light system of terrorist alert that will be making a comeback in the next couple months. Even a minor terrorist attack on a US installation will turn attention to security over the economy. -Jim

    Reminding people about the war or that Republicans have failed to make us safer probably won’t play well for the GOP in November. Recent polls indicate those ‘security moms’ you’re warning us about believe the Democrats across the board are far better suited to securing America.

    On a related note from yesterday more independents and republicans voted for Obama than for McCain. And those are the ones that would most likely go back to him. Moral of the story be careful of what you wish for. -Jim

    I carefully wish that you’d stop the concern trolling.

    It is one thing to have valid concerns about the Democratic chances in November, but you’re just posting silliness.

    How is it a bad thing to have more independents supporting Obama? I know you sprinkled in a little fearmongering suggesting that in November they will all go running back to McCain after a ‘minor terrorist attack,’ but please tell me how that makes Hillary a more electable candidate? She’s more electable because she never appealed to those independents in the first place? How does that logic work?

    Sen. Obama wants to leave too early, Sen McCain never wants to leave and Sen. Clinton isn’t really saying very much. She may be the only one who really understands the mess and the problem. -shadou

    Obama and Clinton have relatively the same Iraq policy, and are both calling for a fairly rapid redeployment.

  • Am I the only one who sees echoes of McCain’s frequent “F*ck you, I’m the expert” explosions at his fellow Republican senators? At least we were spared the F-bomb.

  • “Anyone who worries about how long we’re in Iraq does not understand the military and does not understand war,” said McCain.

    McCain is right, and the Democrats do not understand what War is about. America was attacked at home and abroad during Clinton’s eight years, and he did nothing more than talk, rattle-a-saber, and cater to terrorists and their supporters. BTW, we are still involved in Kosovo, for whatever reason that was about?!

    If Gore had been elected, he would’ve let the attacks continue also, until some Arab nation decided to choke-off the Gulf, and then watch the Americans cry about having no oil.

    Most liberals/socialists/democrats don’t even know what Presidential Directive/NSC-63 is. Saddam was a threat to it, and so was/is Iran. We need to stay in Iraq until the entire area around the Persian Gulf region settles down.

  • I do remember NSC 63 and it still is wrong! War is war and war is wrong. That piece of hogwash was the product of a guy who was scared to death of Commies. He was trying to justify perpetual war and military intervention, just like Johnny.

    The NSC 63 demanded that we always use military force to protect OUR interests, There is no emphasis on diplomacy or the respect for the rights of other nations when we simply want to run the world OUR way.

    Who says that the Gulf states are obliged to make our way of life safe via OUR ripping off their natural resources? We squander their resources and they get pissed at us? Surprise!

    And what history books based on counterfactuals have you been reading, SB? McCain has not been right since he returned from captivity. That is understandable but you aren’t.

  • Regarding NSC 63, it was to have been completed and activated by 2000. Where was its continuity under the Bush administration on September 11, 2001? Did Mr. Bush even seem aware of it? I seem to remember that his administration pooh-pawed the warnings that they were receiving from the Clintons at the time.

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