McCain: U.S. "incurred a moral responsibility in Iraq"

Looks like Republican presidential candidate John McCain is continuing his push for keeping the U.S. in Iraq for another hundred years. This time, McCain said that the U.S. has "a moral responsibility" for continuing the war in Iraq. From The New York Times:

Senator John McCain made his case for continuing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying on Wednesday that those countries are at the core of a region extending from the Middle East to Southeast Asia.

Making his first major speech on foreign policy since becoming the presumptive nominee, Mr. McCain said that withdrawing American military forced in those countries could allow them “to sink back into chaos and extremism” that would “determine the fate of that critical part of the world, but our fate, as well.”

While strongly affirming the need for military success in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mr. McCain clearly sought to distance himself from the Bush Administration on a range of other issues. Speaking before the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, he said that the United States should “close Guantanamo and work with our allies to forge a new international understanding” on how to treat detainees determined to be dangerous.

Invoking his family’s military history — his father and grandfather were admirals — and his own service in Vietnam, Mr. McCain said: “I detest war. It may not be the worst thing to befall human beings, but it is wretched beyond all description.”

Nevertheless, he said: “We have incurred a moral responsibility in Iraq. It would be an unconscionable act of betrayal, a stain on our character as a great nation, if we were to walk away from the Iraqi people and consign them to the horrendous violence, ethnic cleansing and possibly genocide that would follow a reckless, irresponsible and premature withdrawal.”

Okay, let me get this Bush/McCain pro-war rational straight for continuing this disastrous war in Iraq. First we had to invade Iraq because Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Then we had to invade Iraq because Saddam was harboring al Qaeda terrorists. Then we had to invade Iraq because Saddam was behind the 9/11 terrorists attacks--don't want a mushroom cloud over New York. Then we had to invade Iraq because Saddam Hussein was another Adolf Hitler. Then we had to invade Iraq to free the Iraqi people, and bring democracy into the region. Then we had to stay in Iraq to stabilize the region, to avoid making Iraq into another terrorist state where al Qaeda could conduct terrorist operations. We had to stay in Iraq to keep the country, and government, intact, or Iraq will split into three distinct ethnic regions. We had to generate this troop surge to allow the Iraqi government to--again--stabilize the country and provide political and economic reforms in order to bring all three ethnic constituents into the Iraqi political process. And now McCain said that we needed to stay in Iraq because the U.S. "incurred a moral responsibility."

It doesn't matter whatever the reason is--McCain just wants to continue this failed Bush war in Iraq. Continue the endless war.