John McCain's Red Coat Posted by Max Bergmann

Ana Marie Cox on the trail tried to get McCain to expand a little on his "100 years" comment, but came away annoyed.

What frustrated me yesterday was his refusal to engage on what it would take to make the transition from an occupying force in a country torn by civil war to something less intrusive... and also to address the mixed feelings that Iraqis greet the prospect of perpetual American presence.

She should be frustrated. The notion that a permanent presence of U.S. troops will be readily accepted by a country that has already marshaled a powerful insurgency to eject U.S. occupation is ridiculously naive. McCain, despite emphasizing his experience on foreign affairs, seems to have forgotten about that whole nationalism thing that facilitated widespread and rapid decolonization following WWII  - and which has made any future efforts at old school imperialism impossible. A long term U.S. presence in Iraq is almost guaranteed to spawn a continuous insurgent effort to evict the U.S.

So McCain's strategy is what? To just stay and continue to fight for the occupation's sake? It reminds me of a quote from former Centcom Commander Joe Hoar a few years ago at CAP,

I just finished reading [David] McCullough’s book, 1776.  We’re in there.  (Laughter.) … Yeah, but we have red coats.

Comments

[Zathras]

Do I really need to point out that this post is typical of Democrats leading with their chin on foreign policy, and Iraq in particular?

Americans will evaluate the commitment in Iraq based on what is in it for us, what it is costing us, and whether what is in it for us is worth the cost we're paying. In the absence, hopefully the protracted absence, of daily casualty reports, Americans will assume the costs of the Iraq commitment have gone down a lot, and will continue to assume that for some time as long as no one is talking about them.

A surprising number of Bush administration critics don't. They find it more useful to make comparisons between Arabs blowing up other Arabs in markets and busses and Americans of the Revolutionary period. Good luck trying to end the war that way.

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