McCain says he's fine with US in Iraq for another 100 years

January 4, 2008 2:14 AM

McCain says he's fine with US troops in Iraq for another 100 years. He later tells a journalist that even a million more years there is fine with him.
posted by Rajamadan (18 comments total)

Ok, so now someone's taken the concept of staying 'on message' to its logical extreme, and it looks silly. Does this mean we can get out of this stupid era where every politician has one chance to pick a stance on an issue and then must defend it until death? Or are we going to go back to letting people have a change of heart without casting them to the lions?

Probably not.

And the idea that the US as we think of it today will even be around in 100 years is starting to look like hubris.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 2:35 AM on January 4, 2008

"as we think of it today" --- hmmm. It's a pretty different US from 1980 or 1968...

Let's see if "staying on message" works for Rudy Giuliani in a few days. I suspect Iowans are a little sick of hearing about 9/11, and I wouldn't be surprised if folks in New Hampshire feel similarly. I bet they'd love McCain in SC, though.
posted by pax digita at 2:45 AM on January 4, 2008

Well, I hope he's also "fine" with picking up the tab as well. Since we're spending around $200 million per day on the war in borrowed money, factored over 100 years at a modest 5% interest, works out to roughly $209 trillion dollars. ($209,658,020,101,164.10)

Of course, by 2108 our debt will be priced in "Bush Pesos", so it'll be ok.
posted by Avenger at 2:46 AM on January 4, 2008

Flagged as a sucktastic one-link newsfilter post.
posted by fandango_matt at 2:54 AM on January 4, 2008

Whoa.

Best part of this link, aside from the chance to watch Obama's wonderful victory speech again? Watch the bearded fella in the front row at the McCain event. Watch how his jaw drops open while listening to McCain's batshit response. That's about how I felt.

In watching these primaries, I'm very much hoping the GOP nominates a candidate I can live with -- that is, not Romney, Giuliani or Huckabee. Given the turnout at the Democratic caucuses, I'm not too worried about a Republican being elected, but I'd feel better if they nominated someone who didn't want to use mythology to craft public policy.

Ron Paul tops my list of acceptable Republicans, of course. And McCain has the second slot. Times like this, though, I remember that it's year 2000 McCain I'm thinking of. Can we have him back, please?
posted by EatTheWeak at 3:07 AM on January 4, 2008

Crazy, I'm crazy for feeling so lonely
I'm crazy, crazy for feeling so blue
I knew you'd love me as long as you wanted
And then someday you'd leave me for somebody new
Worry, why do I let myself worry?
Wondering what in the world did I do?
Crazy for thinking that my love could hold you
I'm crazy for trying and crazy for crying
And I'm crazy for loving you
Crazy for thinking that my love could hold you
I'm crazy for trying and crazy for crying
And I'm crazy for loving you.
posted by Henry C. Mabuse at 3:08 AM on January 4, 2008

So? Is this a surprise?

Flagged.
posted by chillmost at 3:14 AM on January 4, 2008

David Corn asked McCain about his assertion afterward and says McCain told him American troops “could be in Iraq for ‘a thousand years’ or ‘a million years,’ as far as he was concerned.”

When told that Senator McCain wanted to keep American troops in Iraq for 1 million years, Senator Clinton lifted her little finger to the edge of her cruel smile and replied "I'll keep the troops in Iraq for a BILLION years."

Lieberman was Al Gore's running mate in 2000 for God's sake. Both parties are committed to occupying Iraq for as long as the eye can see.

Only the good Dr. Ron Paul will bring the troops home.
posted by three blind mice at 3:38 AM on January 4, 2008

So this is the thread where we all say whether or not we've flagged it or not?
posted by maxwelton at 3:57 AM on January 4, 2008

Christ, I'm a soldier and if that became true, it makes me happy that I won't live forever.
posted by SeanMac at 4:01 AM on January 4, 2008 [3 favorites]

During May, when the days are long,
I admire the song of the birds from far away
and when I have gone away from there
I remember a love far away.
I go scowling, with my head down
so much that songs and hawthorn flowers
aren't better, to me, than the frozen Winter.

I trust the Lord's fairness
in having formed this faraway love,
but for each consolation I achieve
I get two ills, because I am so far away.
Ah! Why didn't I go there as a pilgrim,
so that my staff and hooded cloak
would be beheld by her beautiful eyes!

It will certainly feel like joy when I ask her,
for the love of god, to be hosted;
and, if she likes it, I shall lodge
near her, although I come from far away.
Conversation is so pleasant
when the faraway lover is so close
that he would long to be welcome with kind intentions.

Sad and pained shall I depart
if I don't see this faraway love.
I don't know when ever I shall see her,
so far away our countries are.
So many are the crossings and the roads
that I can't tell.
But be everything as she likes it.

Never shall I enjoy love
unless I enjoy this faraway love,
since I don't know of a better and worthier one
anywhere, near or far away.
So abundant and sovereign her merits are
that down there, in the Saracen's realm,
I wish I were held in thrall for her sake.

God, who created all that comes and goes
and shaped this faraway love,
give me strength, since I already have the intention,
so that I see this love far away
in reality and in a fitting place
so that rooms and gardens
shall seem to me to be new palaces.

He is true who calls me grasping
and longing for a faraway love
since no other merriment pleases me as much
as enjoying a faraway love.
But that which I want is denied to me
since my godfather made it so
that I love and am not loved.
posted by nicolin at 4:15 AM on January 4, 2008

A million years? Well, that's just how long I wouldn't vote for John McCain in.
posted by birdhaus at 4:22 AM on January 4, 2008

Too bad some folks think this is so craptastically flaggable. It's an interesting insight into the one guy in this beauty pageant that I had a reason to respect. (Too bad he's such a tool.) Unless you go trawling in sites like the one linked to -- and I don't have time to -- it'd easily be missed in the noise over the Iowa results.
posted by pax digita at 4:23 AM on January 4, 2008

I remember that it's year 2000 McCain I'm thinking of. Can we have him back, please?


Be thankful he didn't get elected. His agenda this year, compared with those of previous, just reveals him to be a panderer, saying whatever he is told his target demos want to hear. The difference in 2000 was he was pandering to you.

He's no better than the rest of the the panderers.
posted by poppo at 4:25 AM on January 4, 2008

poppo - fair enough. that trip to Liberty University was probably as much a pandering maneuver as his rebuke of Jerry Falwell a few years prior.

That said, I'd still have taken him over the last four years of Bush.
posted by EatTheWeak at 4:28 AM on January 4, 2008

eight, i meant eight. Oy with the whole-word typos.
posted by EatTheWeak at 4:30 AM on January 4, 2008

That said, I'd still have taken him over the last four years of Bush.

That didn't even need saying :) Not only would I have taken a panderer, I would have taken a Panda Bear.
posted by poppo at 4:30 AM on January 4, 2008 [5 favorites]

After reading the MoJo 'blog, I wonder if he's not saying pretty much what's going to come to pass anyway...we'll be parking a garrison there, pretty much like in Germany, Korea or Japan. I have to concede he's being more honest about it than the other candidates (Ron Paul excepted).
posted by pax digita at 4:36 AM on January 4, 2008