RobertEmmet

By Robert Schlesinger

Did I watch the same John McCain speech as everyone else today?

The bloviators — and even my esteemed colleague — heard McCain’s speech as being a walk-back from his promise to stay in Iraq for 100 years. I didn’t hear anything today that contradicted his dream of a century in Iraq.

Here’s what McCain — channeling Edward Bellamy — said:

By January 2013, America has welcomed home most of the servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly so that America might be secure in her freedom. The Iraq War has been won.

Is he setting a withdrawal date or timeline? No. Is he saying that all the troops will be out of Iraq? No. If most of the servicemen are home, some are still in Iraq — presumably in the Korea-style garrison that he has said he would happily leave there for 100 years.

But here’s the most important question: Did he say how the war will be won in the next four years? Nope. This is truly the audacity of optimism. The subtext for all of McCain’s Iraq comments — whether looking at the next four years or the next 100 — is that surge-driven victory there is inevitable.

Victory is around the corner … so any attempt to reduce troop strength before we win is Chamberlain-esque and treacherous.

… so within four years we won’t need to have scores of thousands of troops there, only a small force that we keep in other friendly democracies like Germany, Japan and Korea.

… so we can stay there for 100 years without problems.

Of course he still hasn’t answered the question: Suppose victory isn’t around the corner? Is he willing to stay 100 more years if violence continues? How about four more?