That's right--forget about bringing home American soldiers so that they can be reunited with their children, their spouses, their parents, and friends--just extend their deployments for another hundred years! McCain tries to sidestep the issue, saying that reducing American casualties in Iraq is more important that bringing the troops home, and again trying to link deployment of American forces in Iraq with the deployment of American forces in South Korea, Japan and Germany. John McCain still doesn't get it. American forces stationed in Iraq are an occupation force, to maintain control of the country and its oil resources. These U.S. soldiers embark on combat patrols in Iraq to hunt for insurgents or terrorists, or they will be used in support for Iraqi government troops in their own fight against extremist. You don't see American troops embarking on combat patrols in Japan or Germany (I would imagine American soldiers patrol the DMZ in South Korea). What I'm saying here is that American forces were stationed in Germany, Japan and South Korea as a Cold War deterrent against a Russian or North Korean invasion of these three countries. These American forces are not an occupation force, nor are American soldiers being attacked in these host countries as they are in Iraq. And yet McCain is still trying to link the American occupation of Iraq with the American military presence in these three countries. What is worst is that the biggest move that John McCain could make to reduce American casualties in Iraq is to remove these American combat forces from Iraq--yet John McCain rejects this proposal as being "not too important."
John McCain is an idiot.
Update: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid issued a statement responding to McCain's remarks that bringing American troops home from Iraq are "not too important" Reid's statement:
“McCain’s statement today that withdrawing troops doesn’t matter is a crystal clear indicator that he just doesn’t get the grave national-security consequences of staying the course – Osama bin Laden is freely plotting attacks, our efforts in Afghanistan are undermanned, and our military readiness has been dangerously diminished. We need a smart change in strategy to make America more secure, not a commitment to indefinitely keep our troops in an intractable civil war.”
Update 2: Steve Benen over at Carpetbagger has posted a four-stages of grief the McCain campaign is in as they attempt to spin a justification for McCain's "not too important" line. Benen states that it is "truly entertaining" to watch "the McCain campaign struggle to come up with a coherent response. It’s almost consistent with the five stages of grief." And Benen lays out the four stages of grief--denial, anger, bargaining, and depression. Will the McCain campaign reach the final stage of acceptance? Benen makes an interesting case in linking this political spin as being parts of a stage of grief. I'm thinking that the McCain campaign were caught with their pants down after Johnny-Boy stuck his foot in his mouth with this "not too important" remark. And yes, the McCain campaign is spinning like a broken top, attempting to create any justification for this latest McCain remark. But as Benen states, the problem isn't that Americans want to hear their prospective candidate say that it is "not too important" for when the American troops will come home from Iraq. The real problem is that John McCain "actually believes what he said."
Update 4: Josh Marshall, over at Talking Points Memo, explains why McCain believes it is "not too important" for bringing the troops home:
Sometimes these references by McCain are treated as gaffes but they're not. This is what McCain believes: that we should have a long-term troop presence in Iraq to guarantee the survival of a pro-U.S. government and assert power in the region. That's not a crazy position. That's the position of the current administration. That's why we're currently trying to secure an agreement with the Iraqis to ratify that goal. The problem isn't that McCain's position is incomprehensible. It's just not popular. Most Americans think reducing casualties is important too. But they'd like to do both -- reduce casualties and leave too.
The problem for the McCain campaign is that he keeps stumbling into clear statements of his actual policy, which is close to lethal since the vast majority of Americans disagree with his policy and Iraq is virtually the only thing he's running on. The context the McCain campaign keeps trying to put forward after the fact is what they wished he'd said rather than what he did. And even that, when you push deep, isn't that different from McCain's actual policy, which is that he doesn't think we should be leaving Iraq for years to come, most likely decades.
John McCain supports the Bush administration's war in Iraq. If he is elected, he will continue that war until he is voted out in 2012, or continues on in a second term until 2016. John McCain actually believes in this war in Iraq, and will continue it during his administration. The problem for the McCain campaign is trying to present John McCain's pro-war stance to an American public that is opposed to the war. So the McCain campaign is stressing the importance of reducing American casualties in Iraq, over the American publics' desire for brining the troops home.
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