McCain: All of us want to withdraw (from Iraq. Really?), but...

[ProSense]

Transcript
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)
Insider Interview With The Washington Post and washingtonpost.com
washingtonpost.com
Monday, July 17, 2006; 12:00 PM

washingtonpost.com's Chris Cillizza and Washington Post reporter Dan Balz interviewed Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on June 29 as part of an ongoing series of conversations with potential 2008 presidential candidates. A transcript of the interview is below:

Snip...

At what point can the American people justifiably say this mission is failing if we can't get to a point where it's safe to to drawn down some troops?

Well, I hope that day is tomorrow. I'm just saying that the Congress of the United States, by dictating a plan for withdrawal that would then have a certain inflexibility associated with it whether we happen to like it or not, ... then you are ... depriving of his flexibility in carrying out withdrawal.

All of us want to withdraw, but it has to be dictated by the conditions on the ground, and I have been disappointed too many times to paint an optimistic scenario. And specifically addressing your question, I don't know when that is. I don't know when it is, and I don't know when Americans are so frustrated that they say we have to get out. But we've proved in this debate that the American people are willing to "stay the course" at least at this particular moment in time.

What do you think and can rightfully point to to say we are succeeding in Iraq with this current policy?

Casualties is one way. Numbers of attacks by insurgents. Ability of the Iraq military to take lead the next times there's a fire fight in Fallujah or Ramadi or downtown Bagdad -- that it's the Iraq military that's doing the fighting and taking the casualties. When the government is able in the view of objective observers to have control in Basra, have control in some of these cities which are tenuous in many respects where militias have sprung up and are basically controlling particularly the police force.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/17/AR2006071700498.html?nav=rss_nation/special

[Jacobin]

1. We really want to leave, but we won't let ourselves

Really, we are trying really hard, but ourselves won't let us do it. We tried arguing and fighting with ourselves, but we wouldn't let us do it.

[gratuitous]

2. What asinine questions

I can't access the article to see all the questions the Post posed to Mr. McCain, but both of the questions excerpted seem to posit administration talking points as their basis. The first question starts out okay with the reasonable premise that the mission in Iraq could be said to be failing, but then takes a hard right turn to let McCain just blather on about staying the course. Notice that if McCain was addressing the question in its entirety, then he would be saying that he hopes we can call the Iraq fiasco a failure "tomorrow." But of course, he never addresses the possibility that the American people could justifiably call Iraq a failure.

The second question is a gateway to toadying, where McCain can point to anything and call it evidence that we can say "we are succeeding in Iraq with this current policy." More people are dying, that's success! More attacks from insurgents means more success! Fire fights in Fallujah or Ramadi or downtown Bagdad featuring the Iraq military means more success! Left unsaid is what would failure look like, since all this carnage and bloodshed means more success.