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Washington Post: A Century-Long War? Not Exactly (4/3/08)

Examining Democratic candidates' claims that John McCain has endorsed a 100-year Iraq War, the Post quotes McCain responding to a question "about the Bush administration's willingness to keep troops in Iraq for 50 years" with "make it a hundred." McCain went on to say U.S. forces having been in Germany and South Korea since respective wars there is "fine with me, as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed." After emphasizing the "difference between fighting a war and occupying a country," Post fact-checkers say McCain's 2007 comments on Charlie Rose show him publicly "reject[ing] the Korea/Germany analogy":
Rose: Do you think that this—Korea, South Korea—is an analogy of where Iraq might be... in terms of an American presence over the next, say, 20, 25 years, that we will have a significant amount of troops there?

McCain: I don't think so.

Rose: Even if there are no casualties?

McCain: No. But I can see an American presence for a while. But eventually I think because of the nature of the society in Iraq and the religious aspects of it that America eventually withdraws.


The lesson drawn here? Democrats should take "a more honest line of attack" instead of having "twisted his words by claiming that he 'wants' to fight a 100-year war." But when addressing McCain's record of rejecting of the very same historical analogy he's used to defend his own remarks, the Post hops the Straight Talk Express and simply says "McCain has also not been entirely consistent about his thoughts on a long-term U.S. military occupation of Iraq."

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