McCain (mis)spoke on Iraq War Christopher Clerk & Victor S. Navasky The Iraq war was a disaster for Iraq, a disaster for the U.S., a disaster for the Middle East, a disaster for the world community, but most of all, it was a disaster for the experts. They were wrong about its difficulty. (It was to be either "a cakewalk" or "a walk in the park"—take your pick). They were wrong about how our troops would be greeted ("as liberators" said Vice President Dick Cheney on Sept. 14, 2003; "with kites and boom boxes" wrote Professor Fouad Ajami on Oct. 7, 2002). They were wrong about weapons of mass destruction. ("Iraq not only hasn't accounted for its weapons of mass destruction but without a doubt still retains them. Only a fool — or possibly a Frenchman — could conclude otherwise" wrote Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen on Feb. 6, 2003.) They were wrong about how many troops would be needed. ("It's hard to conceive that it would take more forces to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq than it would take to conduct a war itself," said Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz on Feb. 27, 2003.) They were wrong about the number of casualties. ("we're not going to have any casualties," said President Bush in March, 2003). They were wrong about how much it would cost. ("The costs of any intervention would be very small," White House economic advisor Glenn Hubbard said on Oct. 4, 2002). They were wrong about how long it would last. ("It isn't going to be over in 24 hours, but it isn't going to be months either," claimed Richard Perle on July 11, 2002.) They were wrong about the "sinister nexus between Iraq and the al-Qaida terrorist network," as Secretary of State Colin Powell put it to the U.N. Security Council on Feb. 5, 2003. They were wrong about the likelihood of civil war. ("[There is] a broad Iraqi consensus favoring the idea of pluralism," insisted William Kristol and Robert Kagan March 22, 2004.) There was, in fact, very little they were not wrong about. Sen. John McCain has said in GOP primary debates that he actually opposed the Bush administration's conduct of the war from the start. As he told CNN's Kiran Chetry, in August of 2007, "I was the greatest critic of the initial four years, three-and-a half years." Well, having dug into those missing years a bit, here, for the record, is what we found to be Sen. Mc-Cain's typical responses to some key questions: How would American troops be greeted?: "I believe … that the Iraqi people will greet us as liberators." (March 20, 2003) Did Saddam Hussein have a nuclear program that posed an imminent threat to the U.S.?: "Saddam Hussein is on a crash course to construct a nuclear weapon." (Oct. 10, 2002) Will a war with Iraq be long or short?: "This conflict is … going to be relatively short." (March 23, 2003) How is the war going? "I think the initial phases of [the war] were so spectacularly successful that it took us all by surprise." (Oct. 31, 2003) Is this war really necessary?: "Only the most deluded of us could doubt the necessity of this war." (Aug. 30, 2004) ===== Christopher Cerf and Victor S. Navasky are the co-authors of "Mission Accomplished! or How We Won the War in Iraq: The Experts Speak." Printed with permission from The Nation. Source: www.metro.us |
