Flashback

Tim Russert asked, "Senator McCain, realistically, how long will American troops be in Iraq, and how much is it going to cost us?" John McCain replied:

I don't know the answer to that, but I'm telling you what the question is, and the critical aspect of this is: What happens in the next few months? Time is not on our side. People in 125-degree heat with no electricity and no fuel are going to become angry in a big hurry. The sophistication of the attacks on U.S. and allied troops have increased. And what we do in the next several months will determine whether we're in a very difficult situation or not, and there's still time, but we've got to act quickly.

That happened four and a half years ago on August 24, 2003. But what the country needs is strategic patience.

Comments

Friedman Units need recalibrated to newly represent 6 years versus the current 6 months. Then we wouldn't have to revisit the subject of the Iraq occupation until 2014.

Posted by steve duncan | February 27, 2008 10:16 AM

Apparently, you're Spencer's 'jerk lackey', assording to Noah P.:

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=36096886&postID=6303404575896054869

But I was pretty sure that Spencer was your lackey.

Posted by otto | February 27, 2008 10:20 AM

By using this service you agree not to post material that is obscene, harassing, defamatory, or otherwise objectionable.

I wish this rule were applicable to McCain and the rest of the Right in America.

Lying to manufacture an illegal invasion; the endless Republican blovating over it to obscure the scale of the disaster to our country that Rule Of The Right has been; Friedman after Friedman of "strategic patience" and Teh Surge Is Teh Awsome!...

... and now, Saint John 'More Of The Same', claiming Our Sacred War Leader, Lil' Boots, was so right after all and conveniently forgets what he said all those Friedmans ago...

If we can't call all this Obscene, then where the hell is America's sense of moral outrage? (Hint: We might have sold it to make payments on our credit cards.)

Posted by Jemand von Niemand | February 27, 2008 10:31 AM

Apparently, you're Spencer's 'jerk lackey', assording to Noah P.

Should I interpret that as meaning that I'm (a) a jerk and (b) Spencer's lackey, or is it something more profane?

Posted by Matthew Yglesias | February 27, 2008 10:33 AM

Good question -- innuendo is a possibility with the Commentary blog. But I'm pretty sure Noah meant (a) plus (b).

Posted by otto | February 27, 2008 10:40 AM

Matthew, silly boy, don't you understand we can't get out of Iraq in your lifetime? McCain doesn't want to get out of Iraq in his lifetime. History is longer than that. Don't you know history is written in blood alone?

/end snark, for those whose internet sarcasm meters are broken

Posted by Reality Man | February 27, 2008 10:45 AM

Matthew, silly boy, don't you understand we can't get out of Iraq in your lifetime? McCain doesn't want to get out of Iraq in his lifetime. History is longer than that. Don't you know history is written in blood alone?

You know, not to get all morbid and/or ageist, (and certainly not to advocate people do anything to make this happen; please don't take me to Gitmo, Mr. NSA agent!) but if we were only going to be in Iraq for McCain's lifetime, things could be worse.

Posted by Cyrus | February 27, 2008 11:12 AM

And what we do in the next several months will determine whether we're in a very difficult situation or not, and there's still time, but we've got to act quickly.

He was kinda right, wasn't he? What did we do over the next few months? Pretended the insurgency didn't exist, pretended it was smaller than it was, pretended it was made up of Baathist dead-enders, closed al-Sadr's paper, tortured at Abu Ghraib.

And after all that? It was determined that we were in a very, very difficult situation indeed!

(Although it would be another year or so before that difficulty was acknowledged.)

Posted by Royko | February 27, 2008 11:30 AM

Re strategic patience, your colleague Sullivan had a good post on a reader's comment about all those goals of Cordesman's that can be realized if only we wait..... and wait..... and wait.....

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/02/the-truth-about.html

I'm sure that "magic" will happen any day now!

Posted by scottreads | February 27, 2008 11:30 AM

Re: "jerk lackey"

I thought it was more that you have to fetch all the ingredients when Ackerman feels like cooking Caribbean.

Posted by Delicious Pundit | February 27, 2008 11:55 AM

Ditto Royko. That was then, this is now. It's possible to have "strategic patience" if you recognize the stakes, and have a sense that the cart is not being driven into the ditch by a FEMA-like gang of College Republican jerk lackeys. Currently, I think Peace Is At Hand.

Carribean is good, but I prefer jerked pork bar-b-que.

Posted by Robert Powell | February 27, 2008 12:59 PM

Powell: "Currently, I think Peace Is At Hand."

Let's all remember this quote and make sure we force feed it to Powell in every post in a year or so or whenever it is that the Iraqis finally decide to hand the US military their heads.

Of course, no demonstration of his utter idiocy will silence this clown.

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | February 28, 2008 2:32 AM