A Christian Liberal is NOT an oxymoron.

Posted by XT on June 24th, 2008 in Campaign News

I’ve finally figured out what it is about John McCain’s “100 year” statement concerning Iraq. Here’s the video of the comment, in case you’re just lost about what I mean.

As McCain’s defenders rightly point out, he isn’t calling for a hundred years of war in Iraq. No, he only wants to stay in Iraq for a hundred years if American soldiers are not getting killed.

It would stand to reason that, if our soldiers were not getting killed; then they would not be under fire. Which means that Iraq would be pacified. Which means there would be no reason to keep our soldiers there. Which means it’s rather odd to keep them there for a full century.

The reason, it would seem to me, is that he is talking about acting as a de facto empire. There will be unrest in that region, so we should keep enough forces over there to snuff it out quickly - without loss of life (on our side). That’s not too very different than the reason British forces used to stay in the region. Or in India. Or in the Faukland Islands - but of course there was some loss of life to protect that sheep-infested rocky crag.

The moderator (at the WaPo site) is right to point out that the President doesn’t need individual permission to send our troops straight to Hell, should he (or she, eventually) decide to do so. But the President does need popular support and the consent of Congress (theoretically). There is a lot of hysteria over McCain’s comments that focuses on things he didn’t really say.

I wish someone would focus on what he did say. Keeping occupying forces in a pacified country for a hundred years doesn’t sound like the work of a democracy to me. By the way, that means that I’m not sold on the idea of keeping American bases in Germany, Korea, and Japan open, too. The benefit of having a base in Germany is that it is a staging area for getting stuff to Iraq. If we aren’t going to police the world - and I don’t think we should - then we don’t need bases in Iraq, and therefore, we don’t need bases in Germany, either.

Technorati Tags: John McCain, 100 year, Iraq