McCain Told Me 100 Years - I am McCain's "Ernest Hemingway"

[jaqeboy]

Local guy (Nashua area) Dave Tiffany (from NashuaPeace.org) tells of his questioning of John McCain and the origin of the "100 years" quote in the Huffington Post and in the Tuesday Union Leader.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-tiffany/mccain-told-me-100-years_b_95522.html

excerpt:

Now the Manchester Union-Leader has joined the chorus with its Sunday, April 6 editorial, McCain's '100 Years': the Democrat's war on the truth.

While splitting hairs over the meaning of campaign rhetoric, all ignore the fact that McCain advocates an open-ended presence in Iraq, and the consequences that would follow from such a commitment.

McCain's words left little room for interpretation. By saying that he was fine with staying in Iraq for 100 years, he made clear his commitment to staying the course and, further, to remaining in Iraq for years after the country is pacified, assuming that's ever possible.

Everyone who was there that night got it: we weren't getting out anytime soon.

Hendrik Hertzberg of The New Yorker summed it up when he wrote, "what the context shows, I think, is that yanking that sound bite out of context isn't really all that unfair. 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."

When offered the opportunity to backtrack later, McCain only dug himself in deeper, upping the ante to 10,000 years, or a million. He may as well have said "forever" when he confirmed his 100 years remark and added that he would support permanent bases in Iraq three days later on NBC's Meet the Press.

Dave's a great guy and NashuaPeace, started by a couple of libertarians is a great group for consistent, steady anti-war activism.

[Tom Sawyer]

he was fine with staying in Iraq for 100 years

Yeah the bitter old bastard... he's a real tough guy, especially when 19 year old Lance Corporals are the point of his spear.

[KBCraig]

he was fine with staying in Iraq for 100 years

Yeah the bitter old bastard... he's a real tough guy, especially when 19 year old Lance Corporals are the point of his spear.

The only point of respect I grant to McCain, is that his youngest son is an active duty enlisted Marine who has been, and likely will be again, deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. McCain has studiously avoided mention of this, and will not answer interview questions about it, to the point that it's hard to find news articles about his son's service.

This might be the only extant example of McCain choosing honor over grandstanding.

The UL link, with comments:
http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?articleId=8e261e0a-1726-49c3-894c-103f5b4a9501