At a campaign stop in New Hampshire with booster Holy Joe Lieberman, Republican presidential contender John McCain shows that he has his finger on the pulse of the national mood (2/3 of New Hampshire citizens poll that they want the troops home now) by telling potential voters that he’d like to stay in Iraq for 100 years.
Q: President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq for 50 years — ” (cut off by McCain)
McCain: “Make it a hundred.”
Q: “Is that …” (cut off)
McCain: “We’ve been in South Korea … we’ve been in Japan for 60 years. We’ve been in South Korea 50 years or so. That would be fine with me. As long as Americans …”
Q: [tries to say something]
McCain: “As long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed. That’s fine with me, I hope that would be fine with you, if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where Al Qaeda is training and equipping and recruiting and motivating people every single day.
No Trackbacks To “John McCain: Let’s Stay In Iraq For “100 Years”!“
FRUST!
This shithead WILL be the one the Repubs end up with. The Bushbase types won’t suffer populism on their watch. Huckabee has violated the GOP code of pandering the peons and daring to speak against the Corporatocracy.
So it’s this dipshit. And comments like this by McCain need to be framed and mounted on every blog out there to remind the American public just what another damn Republican President brings to the table.
Edwards 08!
WTF…McCain saying that “as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed
or wounded or killed” we can stay in Iraq for 100 years??? Does he not know
that each and every day our fine military personnel are in fact being “injured/harmed/wounded and killed in Iraq” What an idiot..
He’s toast……
What a raving dork. Might as well relect Bush
It’s ok with me if McCain goes to Iraq and stays for 100 years.
Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran! Double Guantanamo! 100 more years! The party of raving nut jobs. You would think it would be easy to trounce these morons this time, right?
and trillions more for the war profiteers
and working men and women butchered on both sides
it’s an age old story
hillary and obama like it too
I agree with John…but only if I can get a double Gitmo on the side.
Capt. Bat Guano @ 7:
i hate when people call the right nut jobs or idiots or morons…they have an agenda
it is just morally and legally and fiscally bankrupt
it serves the higher powers and not us
bush and cheney are doing a great job…depending onj your persepctive
and people wonder why america is feared, despised, and hated by so many people around the world.
the GOP and a large segment of society (including a LOT of dems) really do not understand the nature of the world, how our economic and military imperialism has been the biggest reason for terrorist funding and activity. and all for what? american prosperity? no, only if you are in the top .1% of the population. no, for americans we have seen the might, influence and power of america hijacked (or re-hijacked) to cater to the interests of the market fundamentalists and the wargasm-crowd. and the result has been loss of jobs, loss of clout, weakening dollar, weakening influence, increased terrorism, hypocrisy, and global resentment.
the current neoliberal/neoconservative/market fundamentalism/imperialism has been a complete and utter failure.
mccain, true to form, has been left behind. if this were 1981 i think people would be more willing to listen to his imperialistic bullshit. but we have seen the results of these policies and we are worse off for them.
without a fundamental change from idiotic and irresponsible policies, like this 100 year joke, america’s ailment might be terminal.
Just goes to prove that the most sane of the repub candidates is totally batshit crazy.
STOP THE PRESS!
Unfortunately the press has just been handed a gift, little Miss Wonderful is about to distract the public again, wonder what they don’t want people to think about now?
Spears Taken in Ambulance After Standoff
McCAIN = The Manchurian Candidate???????
.
In other news today…..
Huckabee adviser acknowledges plan to go negative in South Carolina.
Ed Rollins miffed at Townhall blogger for eavesdropping
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/....._0104.html
Nice! That’s going to come back to bite him.
CafeenMan @ 6:
He and his handfull of supporters.
It’s not at all fine with me, and most Americans either.
It’s obvious that he remembered to take his stupid pills
Lets hope this is the year that old, crusty, backward-ass, angry, greedy, conservative white men are buried for good in this country.
ROTFLOL oh yeah this makes sooo much sense …. l;eave them in a hostile region, where they are targets, is fine with him. . . . Just as long as no one get’s hurt.
My eyes are bouncing around in my head trying to make sense of or try to understand that train of thought.
I’d expect better from someone who has fought in a war.
South Korea has a clearly-delineated border secured by thousands of US troops, backed up by a sympathetic defending army, and hundreds of thousands of mines to keep the sides apart. How is that model similar to Iraq?
Japan’s military and government were beaten down and ultimately surrendered after massive sacrifice and expense. There was dissent among some of the population about whether to accept surrender, but there weren’t dozens of religious factions looking for an opportunity to wipe out their competitors by civil war or ethnic cleansing. Again, how does he see this situation as proof that occupation will be peaceful?
Ok with me. The french and britiish have had permanent forts in the region off and on since biblical times. It might help to draw the terrorists out and improve communications with the good guys in the region if we maintained defendable spaces. Give our military something to do other than stay home and play war and just draw a paycheck and beef up the reume. Most of all it will provoke worthless shitheads that dont like us into throwing the first punch away from innocent american communities. Saving good well educated american lives. All and all poor folks will carry this burden for a long, long time. Ha Ha!
Check out the guy in the front row of the audience. When McCain says “100 years” he looks up at him in open-mouthed astonishment. I had the same “wtf” reaction. McCain needs a field sobriety test.
When you think about it, he sounds like a smart ass by saying that. It totally sounds like something bush might say to the press when he’s making one of his wise assed off the cuff remarks.
And where does this idiot of a candidate John McCain expect to find the funds and troops to support his endless campaign. I doubt he has even thought of it. What a twit.
“That’s fine with me, I hope that would be fine with you, if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where Al Qaeda is training and equipping and recruiting and motivating people every single day.”
McCain is a fool if this is what he truly believes. However, I don’t think this is what he truly believes - this is a convenient excuse, no more.
The reasons cited by Bin Laden himself for coming over and attacking NYC in the first place were that American had a presence in Saudi Arabia, wasn’t it?
Doesn’t the term “blowback” carry any meaning for Sen. McCain?
He’s truly an idiot if he believes continuing the strategy that has proven to be dangerous to not only American lives but also the lives of those around the world (by association) is a good idea.
16 - I think the Iraqis might have a problem with that…
How many American troops do we have in japan and Korea, who many of them were put over there on false pretenses and how many of them are getting blown to bits everyday?
What! Cut and Run after 100 years!?!
Eric- yes - That’s a perfect point to make. I don’t, however, forsee any of the current Pres. candidates having the balls to make this point.
The American people don’t believe in blowback. We’re Americans, and we should be loved wherever we goosestep, all over the world because we’re bringing freedom, goddamnit! And if you don’t like it, we’ll blow up your country and take your oil while we administer that freedom. God Bless America! Our God can beat up your god! Yee fucking haw.
Tell me again why we have bases in 160 countries?
How many American troops do we have in Japan and Korea? How many were put there on false pretenses? How many are getting blown to bits everyday?
Was what I meant to say.
Don’t you just love how when liberals draw a parallel between Iraq and Vietnam, we’re told the world isn’t that simple, and there’s no resemblance … but then clowns like McCain come and tell us a long-term presence is Just Like Korea, or Just Like Japan.
As recent events reminded the public, we’re technically still at war with Korea. When the Frat Boy-in-Chief failed to understand that, the two Korean leaders engaged in diplomacy on their own, recognizing that America and its current leadership are clueless, ineffectual, and don’t really give a sh-t about either country.
Not only did Japan’s surrender came after we dropped two nukes on them, it was amid the background of World War II, with the complexities that entails, not toppling Tojo and sprinkling some magic democracy dust on the place.
We need to be better served than with a one-size-fits-all foreign policy, and that means picking leaders who understand this. Sitting in Iraq for 10, 100, or even 1,000 years is simply Class-A Stupidity when set against the background of a religious conflict that has existed since Mohammed kicked the bucket in 618 A.D.
Question for Mr McCain; If Your neighbor from the other side of your block started parking his Lincoln Navigator in your driveway every day, would it bother you? Would you do anything about it? Now apply that logic to what you just said about US presence in other countries.
obviously no one cares that our entire gubmint budget is being funded by debt. how long are the countries of the world supposed to lend us money to hold them hostage?
CoIntelPro @ 31:
According to McCain I guess we should and we should be using our tax dollars to pay for them to stay there for a 100 years. Especially the countries that have oil and other natural resources of value.
Fade @ 30:
Sigh. Yes, point taken…
Smart move for him. Why appear to waffle at the last moment? It would look weak. His opinions may be wrong but he’s trying to ride the “sticks to his guns” platform.
What a senile old twat.
The Insanity of it All
Feb. 7,’03 Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, to U.S. troops in Aviano, Italy: “It is unknowable how long that conflict will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.”
March 16,’03 Vice President Cheney, on NBC’s Meet the Press: “I think things have gotten so bad inside Iraq, from the standpoint of the Iraqi people, my belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators. . . . I think it will go relatively quickly, . . . (in) weeks rather than months.”
March 27,’03 Bush, at a news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, when asked how long the war would take: “However long it takes. That’s the answer to your question and that’s what you’ve got to know.”
Six days, six weeks, six months, six years, six decades, forever and a day just remember armed robbery of a country takes time. Bush/Cheney knew what they were and are doing from the get go. Watch No End In Sight to see that this is working just as they planned.
Check this book out folks:
McCain: The Myth of a Maverick
by Matt Welch
Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (October 16, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0230603963
ISBN-13: 978-0230603967
Book Description
John McCain is one of the most familiar, sympathetic, and overexposed figures in American politics, yet his concrete governing philosophy and actual track record have been left curiously unexamined, mostly because of the massive distractions in his official biography, but also because of his ingenious strategy of talking ad infinitum to each and every access-craving media person who happens by. The more he has spouted, the less journalists have bothered trying to see through the fog.McCain gives the voting public what it wants but can’t find — a flesh-and-bones political portrait of a man onto whom people are forever projecting their own ideological fantasies. It is a psychological key for decoding his allegedly ‘maverick’ actions, and the first realistic assessment of what a John McCain presidency may look like. McCain will quickly lay out in overlapping detail the root cause of the senator’s worldview: his personal transformation from underachieving punk to war hawk uber-patriot, in which he used the “higher power” of American nationalism to save his life and soul. As McCain wrenches himself inside-out in pursuit of the prize that eluded him in 2000, McCain will look behind the war hero, behind the maverick reformer. Journalist and pundit Matt Welch brings to this project an investigative eye and a coolly analytical mindset to provide Republicans, Democrats and Independents a picture of the man in full before they enter the voting booth in 2008.
Review
“How the journalistic elite got taken for a ride on the Straight Talk Express is one of the revelatory sagas of modern-day Washington. Matt Welch has the audacity to think that John McCain’s views matter, not only his legends, and he smokes out McCain with gusto. You don’t have to follow him every inch of the way into libertarian politics–as I do not–to be dazzled by the light he casts on a telling tragedy of American politics.”–Todd Gitlin, author of The Bulldozer and the Big Tent: Blind Republicans, Lame Democrats, and the Recovery of American Ideal
“The redoubtable Matt Welch does the unconscionable today: he writes an op-ed for the LA Times in which he examines John McCain’s actual views on the issues…. Hear hear…. [McCain’s] flip-flops get a lot of attention mainly because they’re easy to find and satisfying to point out. Actually looking past his occasionally “maverick” views is far more important.” — Kevin Drum, The Washington Monthly
the Republican/Corporate agenda is failing. ABOUT TIME!!! I wonder what they’ll have in store for us now to “keep us all in line”.
Keep your eye on these criminals. And Go Obama/Edwards.
Hate to be his press agent right about now:
“What the Senator meant to say while he had his foot in his mouth was …”
Obviously McCain is talking about a peace time military presence. We should be honest that if they did manage to stabilize Iraq a peace time presence wouldn’t be that far out to lunch. Unfortunately no one is thinking about “peace time” when they talk about withdrawing troops from Iraq. They’re thinking about the front lines of a deadly and costly war where US presence is questionable.
He loves war too much. Maybe he needs a few more years of torture; in Gitmo.
Ehhh….Let’s not instead….. McCain? Why don’t you…. Ahhh fuck it, he’s an old man who is hitting the wall… Go home John… Viet Nam is over… and so are you…
JD
Amitola @ 4:
Maybe, maybe not, but this sure means that Giuliani is toast. McCain is consolidating the crazy militarist vote in his camp, and that leaves Giuliani without much of a base. Who, at this point, is going to vote for Giuliani if McCain seems credible other than people made giddy by torture who can’t bring themselves to vote for a Mormon? That may be a sizable number of Republicans, but it’s not enough for Giuliani to win.
Not to defend McCain, but he’s right, the USA has been in Korea and Japan for more than 50 years. And as CointelPro points out, we have bases in 160 countries. How many of the Major Brand Name Party Politicians are challenging this blatant Imperialism? Iraq and Afghanistan are just manifestations of the American Imperialist culture.
Don’t just hate the player, hate the game.
Do we get credit for the 17 years we’ve already put in over there? If so, then “Mission 17% Accomplished!”
pissed off patricia @ 12:
They must be passing out really good drugs on Capitol Hill.