1 Boring Old Man

… Our troops have to stay. Like water spiraling down the drain and into a sewer, that’s where every Republican canard and conservative dodge leads. Over 4000 American KIA, thousands more maimed for life, half a trillion dollars and counting, no end in sight.

…Look, there are only three future possibilities, and staying in Iraq is the only answer the GOP has for any of the three. Forget crayons, this flow chart could be drawn with a can of spray paint on a legal pad:

1. Violence up, our soldiers have to stay.
2. No change, Petraeus explains why our troops have to stay.
3. If someday the violence falls to whatever arbitrary magic number is deemed acceptable, can our troops finally come home? TPM dug up this gem from the New Yorker which sums up the absurdity of John McCain’s answer to that one perfectly: "McCain wants to stay in Iraq until no more Americans are getting killed, no matter how long it takes and how many Americans get killed achieving that goal – that is, the goal of not getting any more Americans killed. And once that goal is achieved, we’ll stay."

Why? To protect us from Arab attacks? Maybe. To protect Israel from Arab attacks? Probably. To establish access to Iraqi oil? Undoubtedly. We never had a military draft because that would make people upset and they would want an end to the war. It was an Army of Occupation from the start. Cheney and Wolfowitz wanted to undo what they thought was Papa Bush’s mistake – coming home. They wanted to put their policy Papa Bush quashed when it was leaked, Wolfowitz’s Defense Guidance [which became the Bush Doctrine], into action.

McCain knows we’re in Iraq to stay and blurts it out. His examples are South Korea and Japan. We stayed in both places to reconstruct the country and keep them from becoming a problem. Dick Cheney, John McCain, and I grew up with Made in Occupied Japan stamped on the back of our toys. I expect Cheney wanted it stamped on our oil barrels – Made in Occupied Iraq. John McCain isn’t a fool like everyone says. He’s just got loose lips and is letting the cat out of the bag…