Cognitive Coup

I saw this today at Politico:

Matt Lauer asked McCain, “If it’s working Senator, do you now have a better estimate of when American forces can come home from Iraq?”

McCain replied: “No, but that’s not too important. What’s important is the casualties in Iraq, Americans are in South Korea, Americans are in Japan, American troops are in Germany. That’s all fine. American casualties and the ability to withdraw; we will be able to withdraw. General [David] Petraeus is going to tell us in July when he thinks we are.

“But the key to it is that we don’t want any more Americans in harm’s way. That way, they will be safe, and serve our country and come home with honor and victory, not in defeat, which is what Senator Obama’s proposal would have done. I’m proud of them. And they’re doing a great job. And we are succeeding and it’s fascinating that Senator Obama still doesn’t realize that.”

The Democrats are trying to say that McCain believes that it’s “not too important” when American forces are coming home. What he’s really saying is that it’s not too important when they’re coming home if they’re safe in Iraq.

However, I’m not sure if it matters whether you call it victory or defeat when the entire war has been a national disgrace. McCain doesn’t want any more Americans in harm’s way? Cause they’re in a war zone. Bombs go off. People get shot.

The good news is that violence is on the decline with Reuters reporting that “the number of incidents in the week ending May 23 was around 300, down from a high of nearly, 1600 in mid-June 2007.” So they’re almost out of harm’s way – just another 300 incidents a week and they’ll be in a non-violent war zone! Win!

And to think it was all just to secure future oil supplies for America, or to prevent oil fields from getting into the hands of terrorists, depending on whether you’re a smart ass or not. It’s easy to call it a needless war, it’s a lot harder to find an alternative. For now, I suppose I’ll join the endless ranks of hypocrites who detest the needless occupation of Iraq while sitting in line at the pumps.