There are a lot of reasons not to like McCain, but this isn't one of them

Lauer: "If [the surge is] working, Senator, do you now have a better estimate of when American forces can come home from Iraq?"
McCain: "No, but that's not too important. What's important is casualties in Iraq. Americans are in South Korea. Americans are in Japan. American troops are in Germany. That's all fine."

The mainstream bloggers (MSB) think this is horrible.  McCain says an estimate of when American forces can come home from Iraq is not that important. 

Why is he such a heretic?  Because he thinks the American people are not at all upset about having troops overseas.  They're just don't like our troops getting shot at, a point which seems patently obvious.  Nobody's arguing we should get out of Germany, for example, even though World War II ended over 60 years ago.  This part of McCain's position seems inarguable. 

The next question is whether or not the violence level in Iraq can or will decline to the point that the presence of American soldiers there is not controversial.  Or, to put it another way, does the American presence contain the violence or exacerbate it?  That's the real question. 

In any case, considering that we have a couple of dozen permanent bases which lie roughly on top of the largest untapped oil reserves on the planet, it's quite unlikely that we're getting out of Iraq in the foreseeable future.         

Comments

[Hypatia]

McCain is right and the bloggers are making hay out of nothing, in keeping with their M.O. of the primary campaign. Not that Republicans haven’t been doing it for years, of course.

[John Petty]

To me, it's because there's a kind of "group-think" about Iraq, and only certain ideas and phrases are acceptable.

[lillianjane]

I protested in the lead-up to the war, but I still understood what he said--I think people purposefully misconstrue the words of their enemies. As you said, there are plenty of reasons not to like him.

[lillianjane]

I protested in the lead-up to the war, but I still understood what he said--I think people purposefully misconstrue the words of their enemies. As you said, there are plenty of reasons not to like him.

[John Petty]

Yes, the impulse to pounce is almost irresistible.