McCain's flip-flop on military withdrawal goes by the book

[azmouse]

http://www.azcentral.com/news/columns/articles/0403montini0403.html

The senator wanted American troops out of the war zone and offered a controversial amendment on the Senate floor that would have restricted funds for U.S. forces except for those needed to pay for a "prompt and orderly withdrawal."

The president called it a breach of executive authority, but the senator was adamant. He argued that to remain as an occupying force would needlessly endanger American lives.

Later, he wrote, "And I ended by fairly shouting, 'Whose responsibility is that? Whose responsibility is that?' - implying that the blood of future casualties would be on our hands."


This wasn't an anti-war Democrat speaking about Iraq in 2007.

It was our own Sen. John McCain in 1993, speaking about Somalia.

(snip)

In his book, McCain concludes that he that he may have "gone too far" in 1993.

But he also says, "Even though I regretted my action, I felt that circumstances were so compelling that it was a necessary response to a failed policy that had cost the lives of eighteen good Americans."

More than 3,200 members of the American military have died in Iraq since 2003, roughly 100 of them from Arizona.