McCain: for withdrawal before he was against it

by: joesaho

Tue Apr 29, 2008 at 11:14:26 AM EDT

McCain Strongly Rejected Long-Term Iraq Presence: "Bring Them All Home"

When it comes to getting U.S. troops out of Iraq, Sen. John McCain was for the idea before he was against it.

Three years before the Arizona Republican argued on the campaign trail that U.S. forces could be in Iraq for 100 years in the absence of violence, he decried the very concept of a long-term troop presence.

In fact, when asked specifically if he thought the U.S. military should set up shop in Iraq along the lines of what has been established in post-WWII Germany or Japan -- something McCain has repeatedly advocated during the campaign -- the senator offered nothing short of a categorical "no."

"I would hope that we could bring them all home," he said on MSNBC. "I would hope that we would probably leave some military advisers, as we have in other countries, to help them with their training and equipment and that kind of stuff."

Host Chris Matthews pressed McCain on the issue. "You've heard the ideological argument to keep U.S. forces in the Middle East. I've heard it from the hawks. They say, keep United States military presence in the Middle East, like we have with the 7th Fleet in Asia. We have the German...the South Korean component. Do you think we could get along without it?"

McCain held fast, rejecting the very policy he urges today. "I not only think we could get along without it, but I think one of our big problems has been the fact that many Iraqis resent American military presence," he responded. "And I don't pretend to know exactly Iraqi public opinion. But as soon as we can reduce our visibility as much as possible, the better I think it is going to be."

The January 2005 comments, which have not surfaced previously during the presidential campaign, represent a stunning contrast to McCain's current rhetoric.

They also run squarely against his image as having a steadfast, unwavering idea for U.S. policy in Iraq -- and provide further evidence to those, including some prominent GOP foreign policy figures in the "realist" camp, who believe McCain is increasingly adopting policies shared by neoconservatives.

This needs to be pounded home repeatedly. The MSM will continue their current course of meaningless, hero-worshipping McCain stories (along with cookie-cutter liberal elitist stories on the Democratic nominee) if they are left to their own devices. Democrats have to get ahead of this because the media won't do it - NBC must have had this footage and just not bothered to check when McCain made his 100 years statement.  

We saw a primary in 2007 that had Republicans scrambling over each other's bodies to out-macho each other (figuratively speaking, of course, most of them would not fare well in an actual physical altercation). Their nominee, John McCain, never met a principle he wasn't willing to compromise when it came to his political career, but through his relationship with reporters has managed to construct a cult of mavericky personality that has never been questioned. If Democrats are serious about beating McCain, either the nominee or a LOT of his/her surrogates are going to have to  hit him hard and repeatedly where it hurts. Tying Iraq to the economy is a crucial component of this, but  this clip illustrates it is possible to go after him on flip-flopping in Iraq as well.

I also hope both Obama and Clinton - and other Democrats - will realize that sucking up to McCain isn't some kind of voodoo trick by which some of his macho military bravado rubs off on them. It's a recipie for disaster.

Update: Josh Marshall adds some more perspective on the 100 years comment:

As Josh says, McCain's people are contending that the media and even the DNC's attack ads should contain McCain's own pre-spin. Weird. It's the out-of-touch cherry on top of the flippy-floppy sundae.