Team McCain is really setting a gold standard on how not to help their candidate. On the economic side, we're a nation of whiners stuck in a fantasy recession. On the foreign policy side, we're in Iraq for-ev-ah!
After simply waving away the recent pronouncements of the Iraqi government in favor of Obama's time frame as a mere mistranslation (my kingdom for an update!), Max Boot runs through what he thinks are more realistic time lines while proudly announcing that "Senator McCain (whose campaign [he's] advising) has been pushing all along" for the views expressed in that clarification issued by the Iraqi government (*cough* U.S. Central Command).
Officers in the Iraqi Security Forces, who have a closer day to day view of the situation than does the Prime Minister, are not sanguine that a turnover by 2010 will be possible.
A recent Washington Post story contains this quote :
We hope they will stay until 2020," said Brig. Gen. Bilal al-Dayni, a commander in the southern city of Basra, where about 30,000 Iraqi soldiers patrol the streets after a major offensive in March against extremist militias.
That matches the views of Iraq’s defense minister, Abdul Qadir. Earlier this year [January 15th!] the New York Times quoted him as follows :
The Iraqi defense minister said Monday that his nation would not be able to take full responsibility for its internal security until 2012, nor be able on its own to defend Iraq’s borders from external threat until at least 2018.
Ah yes, officers on the ground like one guy in Basra. Oh, and don't forget that quote from freakin' seven months ago that actually said nothing about how long American troops should stay in Iraq!
So, there you have it. Max Boot -- one of McCain's top foreign policy advisor -- agrees with his cherry-picked quotes supporting more than another decade (let me repeat that: more than another decade) in Iraq.
And for our nation of whiners, we can hope for a mental withdrawal from Iraq, I guess.
(H/T Jed).