If you're wondering why the Maliki "correction" issued by CentCom doesn't sound like a "correction" and doesn't specify what needs to be "corrected," you're missing the point.Bush and McCain aren't trying to get Maliki to retract the his statement in terms of the policy he endorsed, they just want to salvage a meme they have been carefully cultivating since the beginning of the month: namely, that Obama has supported some mythical position called "precipitous withdrawal" and that the reiteration of his old position over the July 4th weekend constituted a "flip-flop." Now, with the insanity surrounding Maliki's statements, we can clearly see that this campaign wasn't just an effort to make Obama look indecisive and inconsistent. The campaign, facilitated by a shamefully compliant media (and even some progressive bloggers), was intended to give McCain cover to steal Obama's policy.
While McCain and Bush obviously have no actual intention to withdraw our men and women from Iraq, they know that their political survival depends on blurring the line between themselves and Obama. In poll after poll, the American people have overwhelmingly expressed their support for withdrawal.
In the last month, CBS/NYTimes found that 59% believe the war was not worth the cost and 51% believe that it is currently going poorly. In an ABC/WaPo poll, 63% said it was not worth it and 60% said that even an undefined "failure" in Iraq would not be a significant detriment to the conflict with Al Qaeda. In a CNN poll, 64% of Americans say they want the next president to remove most of our troops within a few months of taking office. In a Time Poll, 56% of Americans say they want our troops home "within a year or two." According to Bloomberg, 68% either want our troops home right away or within a year.
It is clear, then, that Obama's plan for a sixteen month phased withdrawal conducted in accordance with military commanders and the Iraqi government is, in fact, slightly to the right of the majority of Americans. McCain's position, however, is over in 28%'er territory. It goes without saying, then, that McCain's actual position on Iraq is electoral poison.
So what does he try to do? Convince the American people that he's right? Nope.
He tries to steal Obama's position.
The events that have unfolded since the beginning of this month have been nothing less than a grotesque display of the American media's shameless, almost compulsive need to win John McCain's approval. With nothing more than some mild prodding from the McCain campaign, they smeared Obama as a "flip-flopper" for advocating the same position he's held since before the primaries even began, implicitly asserting that he actually proposed something called "precipitous withdrawal." It didn't matter if footage from their own debates contradicted the story, McCain had set the narrative, and with ratings falling since the end of the primaries, they were all too willing to "make it a race" for their pal John.
While it first seemed like McCain was just trying to make Obama look uncertain and opportunistic, it is now clear that painting a negative image of Obama was only a secondary objective, a distraction. With yesterday's announcement that the White House was proposing "time horizons," it became clear that McCain and Bush were trying to claim the phased withdrawal strategy for themselves while pushing the ludicrous lie that it was Obama who had flip-flopped to their position. The media, of course, gobbled it right up, and began reciting their new buzz word without a hint of skepticism.
But then Maliki happened. He stated clearly and unambiguously that he supported Obama's plan for withdrawal in 16 months (with the possibility of slight adjustments). He made it clear that the Iraqis wanted Americans to leave "as soon as possible." This, in effect, blew a giant hole right in the heart of McCain's flip-flop attempt.
Immediately, his campaign and White House buddies were out on the attack, throwing out contradictory scraps of both the position that McCain holds and the position that McCain wants to hold. Finally, they settled on "McCain's support of the surge made a responsible withdrawal possible" while the Pentagon released a highly suspicious press release implying that Maliki had "mistakenly" understood Obama's position as a phased withdrawal instead of a "precipitous withdrawal."
Of course, GOP memes never die, and tomorrow, the conventional media will get right back to work trying to help McCain flip-flop and thieve without notice. Whether he intended to or not, Maliki has given us a golden opportunity to put this grotesque lie to rest. We cannot let it go by.
Obama's position is and has been support for a responsible, phased withdrawal.
McCain's position is and has been support for a permanent occupation of Iraq.
Anyone who suggests anything else is lying to you. No matter what George Stephanopolous and Mark Halperin and Wolf Blitzer and David Gregory try to say, this is the simple truth about what voters will be choosing between in November. This time, we cannot afford to let anyone forget.