The Alleged 100-Years War

For weeks now, the left has been attacking McCain for comments that he has made regarding the war — i.e., that we may be in Iraq for years to come and that supposedly he did not care about when the troops were coming home. McCain’s statements have been taken entirely out of context and the left knows it. What McCain actually said was that “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 … 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 Queada is training and equipping and recruiting and motivating people every single day.” Clearly, McCain did not advocate a war that would last for 100 years. The idea is that we must win the war and then, potentially, stay in Iraq to ensure its stability — as we have done in other volatile places in the world. As we all know, we maintain a presence in Korea, but no one would argue that we are at war with Korea. As I have said before, there are plenty of legitimate issues on which the two sides can debate. There is no reason to take comments out of context. Especially since McCain is right. We must finish what we started in Iraq — whether or not the reasons for going in were legitimate. We all must get over the fact that we went into Iraq and discuss how we are going to finish what we started. McCain was one of the first Republicans to criticize the Bush administration on the way the war was handled and advocated a course of action that has been successful. It is unbelievable to me that Obama has advocated bringing all of our troops home from Iraq before we have finished the job. We should not embolden our enemy by running away with our tail between our legs. At the very least, let’s have an honest debate about the war — rather than distorting McCain’s comments.