Another Unlearned Lesson From Vietnam

And this is particularly mind-blowing considering the sacrifice of the person in question from that war.

John McCain uttered these words about Iraq in a recent AP interview, courtesy of Atrios and The American Prospect…

"I believe victory is still attainable," the Arizona Republican says. "But without additional combat forces we will not win this war."

In carefully scripted language, McCain then adds: If the country does not have the will to do what it takes to win in Iraq -- send in more forces -- then U.S. troops should not be made to serve more tours of duty.

“If the country does not have the will to do what it takes,” huh, John? Is that so, Mr. Presumptive Republican Presidential Nominee for 2008?

There is nothing wrong with the “will” of this country. This country has always had plenty of will, especially after 9/11 when we were unified to go after Osama bin Laden (remember him?), overthrow the Taliban in Afghanistan, and try to install a government that was friendly to us. But we know all too well what happened after we achieved a temporary victory over there; Dubya and the Repugs created a feeble pretext to attack Iraq, which had no connection to anything except a lot of oil.

This country has the will to do the right thing, and except for the efforts of our service people, other coalition forces, some contracting personnel and innocent Iraqis struggling to survive, there is nothing honorable going on in that country. We have the will to fight for a just cause, and the Iraq war does not qualify as such any longer, assuming it ever did at all.

That is the main reason, Senator, why your Republican Party lost Congress on November 7th. That vote was the will of the people. We want our military pulled back out of this chaos to the point where we can redeploy some forces and start sending others home. We don’t want more troops sent into this carnage.

If you are this ignoring our will and preferring your own, then you not only should not be elected president, but you shouldn’t be serving in government, period.