On McCain’s fantastical plan to win the war in Iraq

October 21, 2006

Guest Post by Michael J.W. Stickings

Well, what do you know? John McCain has a plan for winning the Iraq War. How exciting! I’m sure it’s the one we’ve all been waiting for from the warmongers.

Or not. Glenn Greenwald, who does about as good a debunking job of the possible ’08 GOP presidential nominee as you’re likely to find anywhere, puts it this way:

I don’t think McCain even knows what to say about Iraq at this point — the Straight Talker refuses admit that it was wrong because he was one of the loudest cheerleaders for it, but there are also plainly no viable options to change what is occurring — so all he does is babble incoherently about it. As best I can tell, his position is that we need 100,000 more troops to win, and that young Americans one day are going to realize this and there will be a spontaneous and massive wave of volunteers eager to go to Iraq and fight in combat there because they will realize — like McCain and the President do — just how Very Important it is that we win.


Yup, it’s McCain the Neoconservative, regurgitating the same old more-troops argument we’ve heard over and over again from Bill Kristol and his PNAC ilk. But with a twist. Called to service — surely not by Bush, who avoided his own call to service and whose concept of national sacrifice amounts to asking Americans to go out and shop — America’s “young people” would dutifully sign up and head off to battle.

Oh, really? You think so, huh? You think America’s young men and women see, or will ever see, the Iraq War as a “crisis” for America? Sorry, but the crisis is in Iraq, which seems to be slip-sliding ever deeper into civil war with each passing day. You don’t think America’s “young people” in whom you have so much confidence see that? You don’t think they know about the death and destruction, the chaos and carnage? They aren’t about to rush off to war. They aren’t about to see the utter disaster you supported, and continue to support more ardently than some of its architects, as a noble cause. Don’t ask them, and certainly don’t expect them, to go off and die in the deserts of Mesopotamia for what is now an utterly lost cause.

This issue has passed McCain by. More troops may have been advisable back in 2003, but the American people have turned against the war and its architects. That’s what the polls say, and the results of next month’s votes all over the country may confirm it.

There is no popular support to send more troops over to Iraq. Even if there were, there are no troops to send, certainly not 100,000 more. And even if there were, how would Iraqis, insurgents and non-insurgents alike, respond to the sudden increase in what is almost universally viewed as an occupying force? Even if a larger force were able to overcome both the anti-American insurgency and the intra-Iraqi sectarianism, even if some semblance of peace were to be imposed at gunpoint, would not the resentment of Iraqis towards the United States increase? Would not the image of America as an imperial power be reinforced throughout the Muslim world?

The shark has been jumped, Senator McCain. It’s over. We need a plan that involves getting out of Iraq, not one that would make a disastrous situation even worse.

It’s surely more complicated (and tragic in many ways), but anyone who proposes something to “solve” Iraq ought first to be made to comment on this graph.

  • Re: The shark has been jumped, Senator McCain. It’s over.

    Hush now Mr. Stickings…

    No sense educating these Mad Hatters before the 2008 tea party.

    In other words:

    McCain is right, we need to send more IED fodder to Iraq…
    And no… we don’t need any translators either.
    And yes, 3 billion a week is better than 2 billion.

  • Good morning, Michael!

    The only way to get more American young people to go to Iraq is to offer really good deals on condos over there. 0% down. 0% per month. And pre-paid mortar insurance.

    Another heroic independent stand from the Straight Shaft Express.

    For one thing how about letting the army do the job in the first place instead of having Halliburton charge $99 for a bag of laundry and sending empty trucks across deadly highways because they get paid by the truck. Yes, I saw Iraq for Sale last night and it made me furious and then suprisingly sad for the demise of our country as imperfect as it might have been before, now under the “leadership” of the Bushettes. This is probably the most ironically quote-marked administration in history. “Leaders”, “security”, “elections”…

    More troops. Brilliant McCain. Give me a high five.

  • John McCain only ever made it to Commander in the Navy because he was the son and grandson of famous fighting Admirals, but he was unlikely to ever make it past Captain, becoming the first in the family to not make Admiral – and he might not have made it to Captain had he not been shot down (“turned his airplane into a bullet interceptor” as people who were there put it, meaning he got shot down for stupidity) and turned into a POW. Had he not been shot down and come home “famous,” and then divorced his wife who stood by him all those years he was gone so he could marry a young rich girl whose inheritance could finance his ambition, he’d have been quickly forgotten as most of the other POWs have been.

    As far as 100,000 young Americans leaping up to serve their country in the Great Crusade, the majority of people don’t want to be shot, and they definitely don’t want to be shot for no good purpose, so that comes under the heading of Highly Unlikely. Hell, they can’t even man the Imperial Wehrmacht nowadays without turning it into the Volkssturm – you only take guys over 40 into an Army as new recruits when you are scraping the bottom of the barrel. There’s a reason why every country eventually has to resort to a draft to fight wars, they can’t even get enough dumb 18 year olds to fill out the Imperial Stormtroopers, er, I mean the Marines (and I very much doubt “Flags of Our Fathers” is going to fill the enlistment offices). I for one would love to see the Republicans be stupid enough to try and bring back the draft for George Bush’s invasion of Poland.

    John McCain, the Potemkin Hero. Examine him closely and you see there’s nothing there behind the cardboard cutout but a staffer hiding there to move the cutout on to the next bullshit session.

  • Perhaps a melanoma has eaten into his brain stem. Thanks in part to his cheerleading if there is another attack by foreign terrorists in the US, these hypothetical young people are less likely to join in a fit of patriotism because that sort of trick only works once a generation.

    Or perhaps we should kit him up and leave him on a street corner in Basra so he can see that ground combat is a wee bit different than dropping bombs from a plane. It might help him understand why our wonderful youngsters haven’t been rushing down to the local recruitment center.

    Or perhaps he’s just another schmuck trying to dance around the “D” word. Every one knows that’s what it will take to get that many bodies in combat gear, even though the Army is doing what it can to meet its recruitment goals by lowering the standards. (Do you think they screen out the folks who should not be allowed near a plastic knife, much less a machine gun?) But the “D” word is a political death nell so he can only chatter about the glorious call to arms.

    Or perhaps this magical call young folks are supposed to hear is the call of a newly re-instated draft board.

    Or perhaps McCain is a big unwashed ass-crack.

  • Andrea Seabrook, on NPR’s Morning Edition Saturday, interviewed Gen. Batiste this morning and his balony was in lockstep with McCain and Ms. Seabrook really just scratched the surface, (if that), in her questioning of the General. My letter is below. The Greenwald post is excellent.

    Hello NPR,

    I enjoyed Ms. Seabrook’s taking of the helm today. I must comment on one story though and that is the interview with Gen. Batiste.

    I am including a link to a post which I think is relevant.

    “John McCain unveils his Grand Plan for Victory in Iraq.”

    http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/10/john-mccain-unveils-his-grand-plan-for.html#links

    The connection here is that John McCain is saying the same thing Gen. Batiste is and it’s utterly hollow rhetoric which I would have liked to see questioned more directly.

    Gen. Batiste says we need more military personel and that the U.S. needs to ramp up it’s intensity regarding being more authentically on a “war footing”. I thought for sure the word DRAFT might rear it’s ugly head but no such luck. If you read the linked post you will see that our military is stretched thin. Please read Update III which talks of how many people supported the war but were unwilling to stand when asked if they would commit to actual participation. Lots of warlove so long as someone else does the dying. The word DRAFT would have been a totally relevant word to speak during this interview.

    And we are going to ramp up to a war footing NOW? NOW? After the waste of hundreds of billions of dollars and the deaths of almost 3,000 Americans and tens, (hundreds?), of thousands of dead Iraqi’s? NOW?

    And does anyone, even the strongest supporters of this “war”, think that if a fair and across the board draft were proposed, we wouldn’t be out of Iraq in a matter of weeks?

    This country is sick of this war and the opportunity to ramp up for war is over. That was five idiotic years ago although it shouldn’t have happened at all and now American’s know that and accept that more than ever.

    Gen. Batiste talked of heat and dirt and lack of armor and the difficulties of our soldiers. That’s fog. Gen. Batiste said nothing during your discussionj. Nothing.

    Please read the link. It’s an intelligent post and shines a brilliant light on this fog of war.

    You don’t have to be combative to ask probing, pertinent questions. I don’t really need to say that. But I was disappointed that Gen. Batiste wasn’t questioned more deeply.

  • Thanks Burro, good stuff.

    McCain might be saying( although Greenwald is right he is incoherent) that the 100,000 more troops are needed to take the burden off the National Guard Units.

    Hopefully there won’t be a war for McCain to be in charge of if by some chance he gets elected which I doubt.

  • So the options have condensed down to limiting the costs of failure. And biggest on this list is how to reduce the numbers of Americans dying for a lost cause. Now is when we really need to be supporting our troops — to help them deal with the psychological trauma of seeing their buddies killed for nothing. How are their commanders dealing with this? I hope behind closed doors, the generals are telling Bush, “Listen you motherfucker, get us out of here!”

    An overwhelming defeat of the Republicans might just be the best way to start.

  • I shopped this scenario over at Matt Yglesias and Eschaton…anybody have any reaction to this???…it was in response to Yglesias’s reservations about partition:

    “It’s not really Bush’s decision vis-à-vis Iraq any more after the mid-term elections…to some extent it’s every man for himself as the Republican succession wars play out until a 2008 nominee emerges…

    Having said that, the Washington political establishment (and that includes Republicans, too) is now in general agreement that “stay the course” can no longer be successfully marketed to the American public and, in the interests of both parties, it is determined that Iraq will be neutralized as an issue before the 2008 elections.

    So, what to do???…redeployment or retreat in Iraq is indicated…the question is simply how to effect it…do we redeploy to the superbases, or do we wait for the strains of “White Christmas” on the loudspeakers in the Green Zone to take the next helicopter out??? Remember, the American position in Iraq is ultimately not about the general Iraqi good, it’s all about us…the benighted invasion of Iraq was always about us and it always will be.

    This is what I’m guessing could play out after the House goes Democratic in November: a bi-partisan Congress negotiates with the Bush administration that American casualties are to be held to a certain target (ie. a handful a month) and American expenditures in Iraq must also reach a certain target – a few tens of billions a year. The Administration is required to realize those targets within a specified period of months.

    Bush determines initially to re-deploy to the superbases and the Green Zone. It is also decided that partition is the most effective means of stabilization in Iraq – at least in the short term. Partition is also believed to minimize Iraqi civilian and militia casualties and, it is hoped that by minimizing casualties – both American and Iraqi – that the plummeting approval of both the American media and public vis-à-vis Iraq will be stabilized. Bush strongarms the Iraqi parliament (by threatening to withdraw American presence from the Green Zone and, in essence, withdrawing their bodyguards) to vote in favor of de-jure partition. Having secured that figleaf , Bush is allowed to make the spin that Iraqis have democratically determined to create “autonomous federal zones” and that coalition forces will respect that decision.

    Persons of Shia, Sunni, and Kurdish identity are required to withdraw to pre-determined ethnic zones that are effectively policed by individual ethnic militias – while persons of mixed identity are allowed safe haven in United Nations monitored refugee camps in the desert. To effect partition in Baghdad, whole sections of the city are depopulated, bombed, and razed. Intra-ethnic rivalries are permitted to play out in the ethnic zones – democracy is messy after all, and we couldn’t stop them if we wanted to – but battlefield setpieces between extra-ethnic militias are punished by US bombings in the now depopulated and sanitized frontiers between ethnic zones.

    ‘And upon this blasted landscape a new day in Iraq dawns…’ “

  • I added this postscript later:

    “think about it…it was Congress that finally pulled the plug on Vietnam when they refused to appropriate further funding (remember the spring of 1975 when North Vietnam was taking province after province, and Congress would not budge despite Ford’s remonstrations) and now that Iraq is similarly radioactive as we head into 2008, I’m betting they will choose to take Dubya’s credit card from him if he doesn’t play ball (BTW, I’m discovering that Northeast Republicans seem to have general contempt for Bush these days – that alone could make a coalition with the Dems).

    Bottom line: Dubya is not up for re-election in 2008 but most of Congress is…and Bush can still spin a retreat/redeployment as a victory for democracy as long as the Iraqi parliament gives him a figleaf…”

  • That’s an interesting scenario, ricardo. It makes a lot of sense.

    One thing I would suggest is that Bush is no Gerald Ford. For one thing Bush is a “war” president and claims war powers. If Congress tried to cut him off it might trigger his megalomania and cause him to find the money elsewhere or simply overrule them on the basis of “powers that reside in the executive branch”. Bush does seem to make some concession to public opinion, but if he wants his war, he’ll probably have it till he’s out the door.

  • Hey, that’s not fair to Senator McCain. You left the part out where he gets the Shiites and Sunnis together, and stops the civil war by telling both sides to “stop the bullshit.”

  • I recommend the movie Flags Of Our Fathers, and there is a true McCain moment when the surviving flag raising troopers are greeted back home by politicians and the disconnect between reality and political bullshit is made painfully clear. McCain should know better, having seen it from the other side.

  • Only 10 comments?
    Das cool.
    Because quality here is varying inversely to quantity.
    (Ain’t that just like life itself?)

    Re Ricardo’s brillant post @ 9&10:

    Guess we were wrong…. Hunter S Thompson is still alive. Only now… he is ranting in the guise of Ricky Ricardo @ Red State Lucy in perfectly intelligible spanglish about figleafs.

    ROFLMAO.
    You may be right. You may even be wrong.
    But hell fella… you were definitely entertaining.

    Re The Answer is Orange @ 5:

    Perhaps a melanoma has eaten into his brain stem. Thanks in part to his cheerleading if there is another attack by foreign terrorists in the US, these hypothetical young people are less likely to join in a fit of patriotism because that sort of trick only works once a generation.

    I beg to agree.

    Fool me once call me Vietnam…
    Fool me twice call me Iraq…
    Fool me three times call me Toby Keith with a fake cowboy hat at a Stockcar race at Walmart:

    I AIN’T GOING TO NO FUCKIN I-ROCK!

    Re Dale @ 3:

    The only way to get more American young people to go to Iraq is to offer really good deals on condos over there. 0% down. 0% per month. And pre-paid mortar insurance.

    Double take…
    Then: I was braying like a burro with too much beer in him over here…

    Hint: It is even more enticing if you offer 0% APR for 60 mos.
    Like Toby is doing today in a full page ad (Sports section) here in Tucson for Ford 150s…

    Re all you others….

    Thanks for the most entertaining short thread in the history of short threads…

  • Very interesting comments, everyone. Thank you. I’m still trying to think through whether partition is a viable option or not. It didn’t work all that well in, say, Ireland, Cyprus, and the former Yugoslavia, but the fact remains that “Iraq” — and I put quotes around it because it’s essentially an artificial construct — seems to be ungovernable.

    As for McCain, I just wonder how he’ll possibly get through the next two years with any credibility left. It would have made sense to consider his “plan” back in 2003 — back when Rumsfeld didn’t want to hear about any post-war planning — but now he’s excessively hawkish at a time when Americans have had enough of the hawks.

  • Does McCain have a plan to retake Vietnam after he leads us to victory in Iraq?

    McCain has been dead wrong about two major U.S. wars, both unnecessary, both incompetently carried out, both requiring every politican and functionary supportive of those wars to be charter members of the Liar’s Club and both helping to produce the widespread cynism about government which is endemic today.

    I am tired of McCain as well as these ex-general blowhards like Batiste who talk tough about Iraq now but who bowed and kissed and scraped before Rummy and Bush while they were window-sitting in the Pentagon, Central Command or the Green Zone. The only top command officer left with any honor out of this fiasco is General Shinseki.

    True to form with McCain, after Bushco trashed him, his wife and family during his 2000 presidential campaign, he recently went to play nice-nice with the same folks who slandered him and killed his 2000 bid.

    I know McCain was a POW when he was tortured and forced to sign and broadcast an anti-U.S. statement during Vietnam. But what’s his excuse now?

  • McCain is playing the same card as Bush by trying to claim that he won’t deserve the tag of loser for supporting an illegal war to the hilt that has played out poorly because of divine confidence in Rummy’s game plan. Bush can blame the whole thing on Rummy when it’s convenient by saying he was betrayed by a loyal friend he gave every opportunity to win the war and McCain can claim no one listened to his wisdom that would have won it. It’s all about claiming they had the right vision for victory while being able to turf the loss onto someone else.

    If Iraq does get divided, I imagine it will wind up being a messier, homegrown event, probably beginning with the Kurds saying they going to take their oilfields around Kirkuk and go home. Then enter the Turks, Iranians and possibly Saudis to protect their spheres of influence.

    For the U.S. to get out, I get the feeling that another shoe will have to drop. Another event will have to precipitate either an economic or military need to withdraw, or, god forbid, an event that causes US casualties of number or gruesomeness that the nation’s collective stomach is turned. In other words, I don’t see anyone with the political strength to end this thing as it currently exists. Lives are cheaper than political capital at the moment. It’s the sad state of our political climate.

  • “Iraq” — and I put quotes around it because it’s essentially an artificial construct — seems to be ungovernable.

    Saddam proved that it is governable, given sufficient troops and the ruthlessness necessary to subjugate dissenters. What Bush managed to prove is that there’s actually something worse than a murderous tyrant: an incompetent murderous tyrant.

  • I’ve got an idea–program the Diebold machines (that should be easy) to send an induction notice to anyone of fightin’ age who votes for Rethuglican “stay the course” candidates. You’ll get your 100,000 and you won’t have to feel the slightest sympathy for them.

  • The only way McCain will have a say is if he wins the presidency as a Democrat. The media loves this guy. Republicans loathe McCain.

    To be more succinct, conservatives loathe McCain. His poll numbers may actually spike in the Republican party because true conservatives are bailing out. Keep this in mind.

    Take everything with a grain of salt in the next two months. And rub plenty in the Republicans gaping wounds after Nov. 7th. You guys are too timid to understand just how big the Dems are fixin to win. You don’t deserve it.

    Cut & Run Republican
    Thirdworld, TX

  • I’m a Democrat with a big D and I thought McCain would have made a good president until the Iraq War now I see him catering to the base. I thought for sure he would show some spine on the Detainee & Interogation Bill but when he collasped on that one I lost all respect for him.

    There is only one way to end the vilence in Iraq and that is to move out of the populated areas and let the Iraqi Forces and government work things out.

    As for McCains sending 100,000 more troops to Iraq even if the enlisted and went through training for 6 months we don’t have enough equipment to send them with. There is not one unit on standby that is fully equiped now so don’t expect there would be enough in the next year. Our eqipment is now only lasting 6 mos on average in that atomosphere we are in Iraq.

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