Note what he says about casualties being “down.” First — certainly the number of casualties in May (19) was down from what it had been in April (52). But, um, April was way “up.” You have to go back to September 2007 for a worse number. It’s not as if the violence has been steadily diminishing; it just comes in waves. We may head back “up” any time.
Second — 19 deaths in May are still 19 too many.
It’s really quite amazing how he has this idea that, if we could somehow (magic?) stop the soldiers from being wounded or killed, we’d be all right with keeping them there. As if it’s OK with us that National Guard troops and resources were sent to the desert for no good reason. As if it’s OK with us that military families have to suffer through repeated extended deployments, and our readiness to deal with real threats (or natural disasters here) has diminished. Like it’s OK with us that we’re spending billions to keep them there, and even the ‘friendly’ Iraqis are getting sick of us.
Let’s hope he keeps talking like that, and only discovers his mistake in November.
And it’s apparently so completely OK with us that we kill tens of thousands of Iraqis every year, and have driven a sizeable fraction of the nation’s populace out as refugees, that it’s not even a consideration when we calculate whether to stay or to go.
McCain reminds me of the bullshitters I knew in high school…. and on foreign policy it’s becoming clear he IS a bullshitter.
America’s credibility and moral authority aren’t really important either, but it would be nice if they could whittle down that 10 billion dollar a month financial nut we’re carrying in Iraq to something more palatable. For some reason I consider 10 billion a month to be a lot of money, and I can’t foresee any tangible return on that kind of expenditure…It’s just accumulated debt that I know intuitively is not good for America.