If McCain Wins, What Happens in Iraq? “100 Years” a Frightening Prospect

At a town meeting in New Hampshire this election season, John McCain made a rather startling statement: when asked about how long he thought troops should stay in Iraq, he said it would be fine with him if troops remained for “maybe 100” years.

From MSNBC:

First, if McCain doesn’t envision a 100-year American front-line combat presence in Iraq, how long is he willing to keep U.S. forces in that role? So far, all he has said is that the United States should withdraw only if it concludes that the Iraq mission is unachievable or when it has achieved success, which he defines as the establishment of “a peaceful, stable, prosperous, democratic state.”

McCain hasn’t said how long he would keep fighting to reach that demanding goal. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of McCain’s closest Senate allies, recently said he thinks that McCain would maintain current U.S. troop levels in Iraq through his entire four-year presidential term if military commanders recommended that course to maintain stability there.

Since his original declaration, McCain has repeatedly insisted he doesn’t foresee a century of American combat in Iraq but rather a military presence “after the war is over,” as the United States has maintained in Germany, Japan, and South Korea.

As Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dead points out, we’re not exactly welcome in Iraq. They don’t want us there. People in the region don’t want us there. Why would they? We’ve destroyed a culture. We’ve killed hundreds of thousands (some put the figure at over a million) of their people, most of whom were innocent bystanders. We’re responsible for so much death and destruction. The danger to our troops isn’t going to magically disappear – people are angry, and rightfully so.

Hopefully statements like this will help prevent this guy from becoming president. Plenty of people are against the war in Iraq, but considering the ongoing battle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the race and gender issues in play and the usual spate of conservative ‘value voting’ i.e. gays, guns & God, is it enough?

Link [MSNBC]
Photo credit: Flickr user sskennel

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