McCain Clarifies “100 Years in Iraq” Remark
Republican front-runner and Arizona Sen. John McCain defended his “100 years in Iraq” comment, saying he was referring to a military presence similar to what America already has in places like Japan and South Korea.
“It’s not a matter of how long we’re in Iraq, it’s if we succeed or not,” McCain told Larry King. “And both Sen. Obama and Clinton want to set a date for withdrawal - that means chaos, that means genocide, that means undoing all the success we’ve achieved and al Qaeda tells the world they defeated the United States. I will not let that happen.”
The controversial remark stems from last month, when, at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire, a crowd member asked McCain about a statement by George W. Bush that troops could be in Iraq 50 years.
“Maybe 100,” McCain said. “As long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed, it’s fine with me … if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where al Qaeda is training, recruiting, equipping and motivating people every single day.”
Democratic co-frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have hammered McCain over this quote, making it a key talking point.
“[John McCain] said recently he could see having troops in Iraq for 100 years,” Clinton said in Arlington, Va., last week. “Well, I want them home within 60 days of my becoming president of the United States.”
Taking a similar tack, Barack Obama said recently that “Sen. McCain said the other day that we might be mired for 100 years in Iraq - which is reason enough not to give him four years in the White House.”
There’s no doubt that Obama and Clinton are taking the remark out of context. However, there’s also little doubt that John McCain’s world view is nearly as bellicose as the current chief executive’s.
John McCain backed Bush’s Iraq war from day one, while Barack Obama opposed it and was right on day one. Hillary Clinton’s stance is less clear, but she, like Obama, is now at least campaigning on a policy of troop withdrawal.
McCain is known as “every Democrat’s favorite Republican” for a reason - he’s honest, genuine, heroic and a moderate on many crucial issues.
But regardless of the blown-out-of-proportion “100 years” quote, John McCain’s vision is that of unavoidable wars with unstated ends.
That sounds awfully familiar after the last seven-plus years. Does America need a fresh start, or a continuation of this approach? You decide.
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February 15th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
I absolutely agree with senator McCain on this issue. The United States will most likely have to keep a presence in Iraq, even in peace time. We have been in Japan since the end of World War II, Korea since the “Cease Fire”, and Germany since V.E. Day. The presence is necessary and proper. We are not there to interfer with the goings on in those countries. We are there to help when asked by the governments and once Iraq is stable enough to take over the duties of security and normal military operations, at this point we will be able to bring most of the troops home, perhaps keeping a peace time force of 10,000 to 20,000 troops. However, at this point we cannot fully pull out like the socialistic polititians that do not understand we are up against an enemy that cannot be negatiated with in anyway and an enemy who actually welcome death if they can only take a few american’s with them.
Even though the democrats in congress do not want to admit we have made great strides in destroying the enemy since the surge, we are! and that is something the democrats do not want. I have read the stories and listened to their speeches and am amazed at how much the democatic party has invested in making sure the US losses this war.
Under no circumstances could I ever vote for Hillary Clinton or Barak Obama, I disagree with them on 98% of their Ideas. Universal health care is the worst idea, because it is actually rationed medicine, with the government making all your medical decisions for you, Medicare is the worst run health insurance system going and is the type of system universal health care would be, reimbursements to doctors do low that they wouldn’t be able to continue practicing, and specialists would disappear as going through the extra education would not be economically feasable for them. Taxes would definately go up and not just for the supposed rich but for the middle class as well, what people do not seem to understand is that anybody making over $70,000 is considered rich to the Democrats, I make about $58,000 a year and have benefited from both Bush tax cuts and want them made permanant for all, even the rich, YES I SAID THE RICH!!. The Democrats are wrong on drilling for Oil in ANWAR and anywhere else in the US. Oil will never be able to be eliminated from our lives completely, most alternative fuels by themselves can provide the horse power that fossil fuels can, It will be they Hybrids, combination alternative energy and fossil fuels with cleaner ways for fossil fuels to be burned, will be what we need and to truely be energy independent we will need domestic oil to be tapped and we need common sense regulation, not over and intrusive regulation, to allow oil companies to build additional refinery capacity in our country, this is the only way to increase supply and bring down oil prices in this country. I could go on, on other issues, but this seems enough for people to chew on with this posting.
Just a note, even though I do not agree with McCain on everything he has done or wants, when it comes to national security, taxes, health care, and energy I will vote for him over either democrat. There is no such thing as the perfect president, but he will be as close as we can get this year.
February 19th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
The war in Iraq (I mean military against military) last about 2 minutes, and it was over. This has been an occupation for 4 years now, and we just can’t afford this endless occupation business anymore. You can’t sell democracy to a people who have neither wanted it nor dreamed of it.
February 20th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
The morality of the Senator John McCain leads him to distort deliberately Senator Obama’s words about bombing Pakistan in the hope that ignorant Americans will buy that rhetoric without examining the context of those words. Those words have a context, but Conservative Republican honesty does not go that far. Does not his words about troops in Iraq for 100 years fall into a similar category?
McCain’s high road morality instructs us in electrifying empty words that they are the only ones who know how to “keep Americans safe, propserous, and proud.” These are very good words, and if they are original with John McCain (you do the research and tell us what you find) then we are blessed to have such a man as our leader. But since McCain’s morality leads him to question Obama’s character the question you pundits should ask is: “Did John McCain plaigiarize Obama when he said in a very loud voice as he ended his stump speech: “I’m fired up and ready to go.” Americans did not hear him cite that he was using the words of Barack Obama. So when he infers that Obama has a “confused” and base morality of “empty words,” should he not be speaking about himself as well?
September 26th, 2008 at 11:29 am
HAve you ever seen Democrats on a n elevator. Its totally true.