McCain, Timetables and Timeframes

McCain gave a superb speech in Ohio today setting forth the goals that he wanted to accomplish as President over a four year term. One of the topics McCain discussed was Iraq and a timeframe in which he expected our nation to succeed in stabilizing Iraq and defeating the dual existential threats to both America and that nation's nascent democracy.

Barack Obama has posed a timetable for withdraw from Iraq with the last of our combat brigades fighting a rearguard action out of Iraq within 16 months, irrespective of conditions on the ground. John McCain said in his speech that he expected to win the war in Iraq and to have most of our combat troops withdrawn from Iraq by 2013. The difference between those two visions and those two plans is the difference between night and day. The former envisions declaring Iraq a defeat and leaving it to be "Lebanized" by Iran and reinfested by al Qaeda. The second envisions doing what is necessary to fully defeat these threats and stabilize Iraq - a nation where accomplishing those goals is becoming a more realistic possibility with each passing day. Nonetheless, here is how the NYT spun McCain's comments in the lead paragraph of its article reporting McCain's speech:

Senator John McCain declared on Thursday that most American troops would be home from Iraq by 2013 and that the nation would be a functioning democracy with only “spasmodic” episodes of violence. The comments were a striking departure from his usual refusal to set a date for American withdrawal.

Read the entire article. Is there anyone in the MSM today who has a shred of intellectual honesty left?

Here is McCain's full speech today

Part 1




Part 2



Part 3