Letters to the Editor
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Newsflash, Senator:
We friggin won already. The rest of this is just cleaning up the mess that the current pResident deliberately made in order to justify the construction of permanent bases in Iraq. End. Of. Story.
To bandy about talk of surrender is to only paint yourself into a corner, idiot. Short of a MASSIVE second invasion and wholesale partitioning of Iraq, there is zero, zilch, nada chance of effectively pacifying that part of the world. Anyone with even the slightest grasp of the situation on the ground can tell you that. Idiot.
Finally, to suggest that removing combat troops from Iraq would be tantamount to "handing the country over to Al Qaeda" is one of the most monumentally stupid things you'll ever hear said about the situation. The truth of the matter is that once we're gone, the Iraqi people will systematically hunt down elements of Al Qaeda in their country. They've had a semi-secular society far too long to allow a collection of zealots turn their once-proud country into Afghanistan circa 1998. Idiot.
Honestly, Senator McCain, just man up and tell the truth -- among the Washington establishment, the pro-occupation crowd is in it for the following reasons:
-- Establishment of permanent military bases in Iraq, to replace the ones that OSAMA BIN LADIN forced us to abandon in Saudi Arabia. Mission Accomplished, indeed.
-- Private corporate seizure of Iraq's oil reserves. Until Exxon, Shell, Chevron, et. al., have complete ownership of these reserves, there is zero chance the hawks will walk away from Iraq. State-owned Iraqi oil is a direct threat to the Suadi regime, and would all-too-likely end up flowing towards China and India and not the West.
-- Preventing the ascension of Iran as a counterbalance to our Saudi "friends." An un-occupied Iraq means that Iran can stabilize the shared border and exert its (some would argue justified) influence on the predominantly Shia Iraq. In the short term the mullahs currently running the show in Iran would be able to extend their hold on the country a bit longer, but the long term trends suggest that Iran could become a far more moderate, secular state in the not to distant future. Which, again, would be a huuuuuuge threat to the Saudi royal family.
So c'mon, Mr. Straight Talk Express. Tell the damn truth. I dare you.