100 Years

It seems to me that John McCain's campaign doth protest far too much when they whine about being portrayed as the ticket that wants the war in Iraq to last for 100 years. Of course John McCain would prefer the war to magically end ASAP and then move into his vision for 100 years of peaceful occupation. But as Joe Klein says that vision "betrays a fairly acute lack of knowledge about both Iraq and Islam."

Meanwhile, McCain has made it clear that he believes the war in Iraq ought to continue indefinitely. He would prefer that the fighting end sooner rather than later, but he has no intention of bringing it to an end nor does he see any limit in terms of time spent or resources expended beyond which it would make sense to end the war. Since McCain can't serve in office for any more than eight years, he clearly can't commit the country to 100 years of continued fighting in Iraq. A McCain administration would mean not 100 more years of war in Iraq, but 8 more years followed by a new President taking office. But if McCain lived forever and stayed in office forever, the war would continue forever -- he doesn't want it to continue forever, but he does regard all realistic means of ending it as unacceptable. That means endless war.