"A thousand years. A million years. Ten million years." That's how long John McCain said he's willing to have U.S. troops remain in Iraq. Think the Arizona senator might be having a bad campaign day?
Actually, pressed by an anti-war activist on how long he saw the U.S maintaining its presence in Iraq, McCain reportedly said "100 years" — as long as the well-being of soldiers wasn't threatened. Later, asked by journalist David Corn of Mother Jones whether he had said that, he upped the ante with the "thousand years, million years, 10 million years" retort.
This is the kind of PR he thinks will give him a boost in New Hampshire?
McCain may well regret this ridiculous utterance, which so brazenly flies in the face of what most Americans feel and believe, as much as his spontaneous "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" song. Think maybe his campaign staff needs to put him on a shorter leash?
This blog brought to you by the Sun-Times editorial board (click on names to read bios):
not many, if anyone, has stated as i have in media and to canadian gov't that u.s. invasion is brilliant success. with mere 4t deaths u.s. obtains important acreage; telos for u.s.; just like for china, russia, france, assyria, persia, and countless other lands and empires, being acquisition of land by proxie or direct control; and by any means. if bombing of civilians in japan is any guide, u.s.; or, rather of ab 10% of u.s. population, will stop at nothing; especially now as the planet u.s.a. is getting daily poorer in so many aspects. thank you.
In the Democratic debate last night, a question was posed to the candidates about the surge. Specifically, the fact that they had opposed the surge and it has indeed worked and if their views on the surge were wrong. There has been a marked reduction in violence and a marked decrease in the number of deaths for American troops. The candidates' response to this was that although there had been a reduction in violence the political process in Iraq has not made any progress.
A study of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs suggests that until basic human needs are met, then higher needs can not be realized. On the first level, Maslow theorized that humans' physiological needs ruled all. Those physiologal needs are ones such as shelter, warmth, eating, hydration, etc. If one of these needs is not satisfied then all of his energies turn toward remedying these deficiencies, and other needs remain inactive.
With his physical needs relatively satisfied, the individual's safety needs take over and dominate his behavior. These needs have to do with man's yearning for a predictable, orderly world in which injustice and inconsistency are under control, the familiar frequent, and the unfamiliar rare. For the most part physiological and safety needs are reasonably well satisfied in an affluent and relatively lawful society.
The other needs that follow in order are: Love/Belonging, Esteem, Self-Actualization.
How can we expect the political process of Iraq to proceed if the Iraqi’s basic needs of food, shelter, and safety are not first met? Only until the Iraqi people and those involved in the political process feel that they can be safe can they begin to proceed with the political process. As was brought up in the debate, political processes take time to be effective.
A look at history should highlight this. Before WWII the United States had a position of neutrality concerning involvement with foreign conflicts. In 1935, President Roosevelt signed the Neutrality Act, which was renewed in 1936, and made permanent in 1937. In fact one poll in 1939, the start of WWII, showed that 94% of Americans didn’t want the U.S, involved in a war abroad. By declaring our neutrality, we only encouraged Germany and Japan, as was evidenced by the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, which could be paralleled to 9/11.
Would any of us dispute that American involvement in WWII was a mistake? Would any of us say that dictators the likes of Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo just to name a few should have been allowed to rule their countries like they did? It is evident that time has allowed us to have perspective on these events and the people involved. Like or not, sometimes there are conflicts and those involved that have to be resolved militarily.
If Hitler lived in today’s world and committed the same acts, would we as American’s or would the rest of the world act any differently? I would hope we would join forces with our allies as we did in WWII to rid the world of him.
Our own independence from Britain officially lasted from 1775-1783. That is 8 years. What if popular opinion at the time showed that it was not supported? What if those brave and courageous individuals decided not to see it through to the end? What if they had said….enough, this is too hard, costing too many lives, and too much?
In order for the political process in Iraq to succeed and the pullback of American troops to begin there must be a measure of stability and safety. This is being accomplished by our and our allied troops. This is being accomplished through the surge. We must give the surge the time to let the political process work. Pullback of American troops on a timetable will have disastrous results for Iraq and for America. We must pull out of Iraq. But it needs to be done not on a timetable, but with political, economic, and national milestones within Iraq being accomplished.
What would the world look like if we had just abandoned Germany in 1945? We had the courage, the strength, the will, and the foresight to see through our own pains and have the loss of human life mean something in that war. We need to do the same in this one.
We live in a world of instantaneous information and gratification. High-speed internet, email, texting, etc. has skewed our expectations of real life events. We get upset when the web page on our phones takes too long to load. However, the same speed in our lives doesn’t apply to historical events. Just because a war was started in one year, it is unreasonable for us to expect it will be wrapped all nice and neat the next year. Sometimes, complex world events take longer than one presidential term. The military occupation of Germany ended in 1955, ten years after the end of the war. But it was worth every day and every life lost to rid the world of Hitler and have the end result a democratic, stable, viable, prosperous, and free Germany.
We must give Iraq the time to get the political, economic, and national processes started back in order before we pull out or we risk being militarily involved with an even more unstable country in the years to come.
"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
-Edmund Burke
Lloyd...with all due respect to you as a person, you fail to recognize some realities of the real world. McCain deserves respect for his experiences in war and his perspective on reality, that we as a people are threatened and need to do whatever is necessary! Put in another tone..when a rabid dog growls, then bites you, are you foolish enough to give him another chance to do it again? I for one would NOT...you can pet him if you want!!!
There is no proof that the surge will bring stability. A drop in violence could mean anything: a re-classification of criminal acts; an omission of criminal activity; a natural decline.
America's involvement in WWII wasn't a mistake. In fact, we were barely involved at all. European losses during WWII totalled in the tens of millions while our casualties were less than 500,000. WWII was fought and won by Europeans, not Americans. Germany is prosperous now because it preserved and thrived on the infrastructure that was already in place before WWII. The international community learned its lesson from the Versailles treaty and chose to help Germany instead of pillageing the nation once again.
The war in Iraq was started five years ago, not last year. Iraq is a sovereign nation that is capable of thriving on its own with the help of limited foreign aid. We had no business invading in 2003 and we have no reason to stay. Guess what: there were no WMD and Saddam and his heirs are dead. If killing them didn't solve the "problem", then killing some low-level sheiks won't help us any.
We need to pull out now.