Source:
Washington PostTiming of Iraq Troop Withdrawal 'Not Too Important,' Says McCain
By Jonathan Weisman
Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, said this morning that when U.S. forces come home from Iraq is "not too important," so long as U.S. casualties in the Middle East fall to levels comparable to those in Germany, Japan and South Korea, where U.S. forces have been stationed for decades.
"That's not too important," McCain said on NBC's "Today Show," when host Matt Lauer asked if he could estimate when U.S. forces would come home. "What's important is the casualties in Iraq, Americans are in South Korea, Americans are in Japan, American troops are in Germany. That's all fine."
That stance represented no real change from McCain's previously-stated Iraq policy prescriptions, but Democrats pounced on the language, accusing McCain of wanting to keep U.S. forces in Iraq indefinitely.
"It is unbelievably out of touch and inconsistent with the needs and concerns of Americans, particularly the families of the troops out there," said Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), in a conference call hastily convened by Democratic rival Barack Obama's campaign. "It is the most important thing in the world to them that they come home."
Susan Rice, a senior foreign policy adviser to Obama, accused McCain of "a real disturbing pattern of confusing the basic facts of Iraq."
* * *
Read more:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/06/11/timing_of_iraq_troop_withdrawa.html