{"id":9613,"date":"2007-01-13T11:45:39","date_gmt":"2007-01-13T16:45:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/9613.html"},"modified":"2007-01-13T11:45:39","modified_gmt":"2007-01-13T16:45:39","slug":"mccain-takes-ownership-of-iraq-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/mccain-takes-ownership-of-iraq-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"McCain takes ownership of Iraq policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Because I recently suggested<\/a> that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) might be trying to move away from the escalation policy he used to embrace, I thought it only fair to note that we can still<\/a> call the 20,000 troop increase the McCain Doctrine.<\/p>\n

Sen. John McCain defended President Bush’s Iraq plan on Friday as a difficult but necessary move, parting company with lawmakers questioning the wisdom of the military build up.<\/p>\n

“I believe that together these moves will give the Iraqis and Americans the best chance of success,” said McCain, R-Ariz., a leading presidential contender for 2008.<\/p>\n

McCain also took a shot at Democrats who say the United States must bring some troops home within four to six months.<\/p>\n

“I believe these individuals … have a responsibility to tell us what they believe are the consequences of withdrawal in Iraq,” he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the general point, I’m glad to see McCain endorse Bush’s “new” plan. As recently as last week, McCain seemed to be hedging<\/a>, suggesting that the president’s so-called “surge” might be too small, even after personally recommending 20,000 additional troops. Now he’s gone ahead and embraced his own idea. If it fails, McCain will not be in a position to say, “If only Bush had listened to me, we would have had a chance at success.”<\/p>\n

As for critics’ “responsibility” in this debate, McCain may not realize it, but that’s a two-way street.
\n
\nMcCain argued that we it’s incumbent on us to describe the consequences of withdrawal. The suggestion is not entirely without merit. I think the answer is fairly obvious: withdrawal, or redeployment, creates an incentive for Iraqi forces to step up and take control and removes our troops from the middle of a civil war. Could things get worse? Absolutely. But as every credible person has argued, there are no good options left, only degrees of bad options.<\/p>\n

But shouldn’t the same question be asked of McCain? Doesn’t he have a responsibility to tell us what he believes are the consequences of his plan, should it fail? Will he be prepared to consider withdrawal if his last-ditch effort meets the same fate as all the previous efforts?<\/p>\n

I also saw McCain in a TV interview yesterday, saying war critics have no policy proposals of their own. I’m afraid that argument jumped the shark quite a while back. I’m afraid the typical discussion has effectively become the following:<\/p>\n

War critic: Given the deteriorating conditions in Iraq, I think it’s time to withdraw U.S. forces.<\/p>\n

War supporter: No, that’ll make things worse.<\/p>\n

War critic: Alright, how about a redeployment plan in which we’ll be at the periphery of the civil war in Iraq.<\/p>\n

War supporter: No, that won’t work, either.<\/p>\n

War critic: How about a series of enforced benchmarks?<\/p>\n

War supporter: No.<\/p>\n

War critic: How about a timeline, with enforced deadlines, so that Iraqis know we’re not there indefinitely?<\/p>\n

War supporter: No.<\/p>\n

War critic: How about a more prominent role for Congress in shaping war policy?<\/p>\n

War supporter: No.<\/p>\n

War critic: This isn’t getting us anywhere.<\/p>\n

War supporter: See? War critics don’t have any ideas to offer.<\/p>\n

It’s getting tiresome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Because I recently suggested that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) might be trying to move away from the escalation policy he used to embrace, I thought it only fair to note that we can still call the 20,000 troop increase the McCain Doctrine. Sen. John McCain defended President Bush’s Iraq plan on Friday as a difficult […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9613\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}