During Senator McCain's speech in Denver today, in the midst of the usual and expected mischaracterizations of Obama's Iraq position (and one or two outright lies), I heard something which genuinely shocked me.
Because of the choice we made and all the surge has accomplished, the time will soon come when our troops can come home. But we face another choice today. We can withdraw when we have secured the peace and the gains we have sacrificed so much to achieve are safe. Or we can follow Senator Obama's unconditional withdrawal and risk losing the peace even if that results in spreading violence and a third Iraq war. Senator Obama has suggested he would consider sending troops back if that happened. When I bring them home in victory and with honor, they are staying home.
Righteous indignation after the jump.
Senator McCain:
We know you have trouble keeping the political realities of the 21st century straight in your head. We know you have trouble accepting that Czechoslovakia no longer exists, and we know that you're a little fuzzy on which countries border Pakistan.
But this is one appalling step further into ignorance. When our troops leave Iraq, they won't be able to just come home and stay home. They are sorely needed, as they have been needed for the past six-plus years, in Afghanistan -- the true front line in the war against al Qaeda and against the terrorists who attacked us on September 11, 2001.
Senator McCain, the true tragedy of the occupation of Iraq is not the money that has been spent or the lives that have been lost, it's that the money was spent and lives lost as part of a sideshow. The main conflict in the war has yet to be fully prosecuted due to the blindness and hubris of the Bush administration. And your statement that you would bring the troops home to stay just demonstrates that you embrace that arrogantly blind path, that you would elevate the Iraq sideshow above the main conflict in Afghanistan, that you would spit on the graves of everyone who lost their lives on September 11 by putting political expediency above avenging their deaths and bringing their killers to justice.
To echo your own words from earlier today, Senator:
I cannot conceive of a Commander in Chief making that choice.
You are a disgrace to the office you currently hold, and a disgrace to the uniform you wore. I will enjoy seeing you and your party suffer a historically humiliating defeat at the polls this November.
