McCain you've done it again!

I was thinking of doing a satirical video about John McCain's support of an ongoing occupation of Iraq. Found this little gem that reflected what I had posted earlier, especially the Kissinger connection and Nixon's phony "peace with honor". It turned out to be from McCain's own Channel.

You'd think this was an endorsement he could do without. Kissinger and Nixon were experts on "character".

For a non-partisan view of Iraq after 5 years of war, I recommend this piece by the BBC's John Simpson:

Some people - for instance Senator John McCain, the Republican candidate for the White House - will no doubt call this rearguard action a success. He may even be tempted to call it a victory.

Yet at present it is hard to think of it as particularly successful. On Monday, Vice-President Dick Cheney came to Baghdad and talked about "the phenomenal improvement in security". That day more than 60 Iraqis were killed in bomb attacks.

He had to travel with unprecedented numbers of bodyguards, even though he never left the heavily defended Green Zone. Two mortar rounds hit the Zone while he was there.

None of this feels like a phenomenal improvement in security.

He makes the broader point that the international standing and credibility of the United States has beena very high price of this war:

Iraqi friends of mine who once hated the fact that the Americans were here now praise them for driving the militants from the streets. That is a real success.

But it is small compared with the damage which the war has done to America's reputation. The US state department finds it much harder nowadays to be taken seriously when it criticises other countries for their use of torture and arbitrary arrest.

...Above all, we have seen how hard it is for the Americans to deal with a few thousand lightly armed volunteers.
Iraq war shows limits of US power (BBC News19 March 2008)

Anyday now I expect Bush to announce the Iraqisation of the war to enable a withdrawal of some kind. More echoes of Vietnam. It will not be a military solution which gets the US out of this latest quagmire. Any hope may rest with Barack Obama's oft claimed ability to get people together.

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