Jeopardizing what is already in jeopardy

John McCain went on Meet the Press today.

He said that people who oppose the war are just plain ignorant: “My point is, and I’m sure we’ll get into it, and that is we have a chance of success, and I don’t think that a lot of Americans are as fully aware as they should be of the consequences of failure in Iraq.” For example, “You’d have to partition bedrooms in Baghdad because Sunni and Shia are, are married.”

Not that the war couldn’t have been run better: “You know, in hindsight, if we had exploited the initial success, which was shock and awe, and we succeeded, and we had done the right things after that, all of us would be applauding what we did. We didn’t. It was terribly mismanaged.” What with the not exploiting shock and not exploiting awe.

Asked if we won’t have to leave if the Iraqi parliament tells us to, he said no, referring to that august body as “the Iraqi, quote, ‘parliament’”. He said of the signatures of the majority of the Iraqi Quote Parliament on a petition calling for a timetable for withdrawal of occupation troops, “there is some, a certain amount of domestic political calculations involved”. That certainly put them in their place.

McCain really is a puffed-up little toad, isn’t he? He says of, I’m not even sure what, something manly about Iraq anyway, “that’s my duty. That’s my obligation. It’s not my privilege.” Even when talking about the Iraqi parliament’s proposed two-month vacation, he doesn’t just oppose that, he is “unalterably opposed to it.” “So if I’m the last man standing, I have an obligation to do what my conscience and my knowledge and my background and everything I’ve known through my well-experienced life is best for this country.”


He says that unless the Iraqi regime acts on various things, “it could jeopardize what is already in jeopardy.” Yeah, hate for that to happen.

Asked if he isn’t planning for Americans to occupy Iraq for a decade or more: “We’ve had troops in South Korea for 60 years, and Americans are, are very satisfied with that situation.” So that’s okay, then.

Russert read him a statement about the uselessness of continued occupation and nation-building and the need for Congress to pull the troops out. McCain responded, yeah and what happens after we leave and blah blah blah, and Russert told him that the quote he’d read was...oh the irony... McCain in 1993 about Somalia, gotcha. McCain said he doesn’t see any comparison between Somalia and Iraq.

Russert read him some quotes about his April visit to the Baghdad market, and McCain responded to one quote about security being a smidge higher than usual, “I don’t know who Mr. Faiyad is, and I’m sorry that I didn’t see him.” McCain is lying. How do I know that? Because Russert never said the name Faiyad, just “the owner of an electrical supply shop.” I had to google Faiyad to identify which quote was his.

He added, “I was glad to walk through that market. I will go walk through a market as often as I can. It was not allowed to go through a market a short time before that. ... I didn’t call for the kind of, quote, ‘protection’ that was around me.” There are those air quotes again. “But I am not afraid... And I’ll be glad to go back to that market with or without military protection and, and humvees, etc.” Cool, is Tuesday good for you?

Evidently in 1999 McCain said that he worried that if Roe v. Wade were overturned, women would have illegal, dangerous abortions. Asked if he’s still concerned about that, he said no, he “would hope” they’d just go ahead and give birth instead. So that’s okay, then.

HANGING AROUND WITH BUSH TOO LONG? “There are some progress being made”. “and this now is got to do with vital national security interests.”