So, now Redstate has mounted a campaign to call reporters at the LA Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, the Boston Globe, amd MSNBC to "set them straight," citing the above reports. Their links are here. Perhaps progressives should write to them, too. Because, McCain did say, not that we'd be fighting in Iraq for 100 years, but that we'd be there. The proof is in the videos. To be there that long, given the recurring violence, implies that we'll be fighting there for a long time to come before that peaceful age he envisions -- a sustained presence on the model of post-World War II troop commitments to Europe. At the present rate, that could be 100 years, or at least a long time after John McCain has gone to meet his Maker.
The US would go bankrupt first, but then McCain has also been quoted as saying that he didn't know much about Economics, as if it didn't matter.
To tie this into my own study of the parallels between the current period and the late Roman Empire, it was precisely this unwillingness to accept limits, this determination to act as an empire even after Rome couldn't afford to, that led to its own demise -- when it couldn't pay the mercenaries who had taken over fighting their wars for them -- just as we are progressively doing ourselves (180,000 in Iraq, more than the US troops there). (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
