McCain - A Moral Obligation?

On the campaign stump today in California John McCain said he thinks we have a moral obligation to remain in Iraq. He previously declared we should stay there until we have achieved victory.

As to achieving victory, I remember Bush claiming victory many moons ago from an American aircraft carrier. If we haven't really achieved victory yet then it's only because Republicans kept moving the goal line. Hey, Haliburton and other major Republican contributors are making too much money there. Why quit now, right?

Regarding the issue of our moral obligation, there was a time when I agreed that we needed to stay in Iraq. We gave them almost two years to develop a constitution. It took our forefathers only a couple months, and they had no examples to follow. We've allowed them five years to build a reasonably sound government structure. Our founding leaders had that in place before Georgie (with aid of the French) beat the Redcoats.

We can train a soldier for sixteen weeks, throw him into battle, and he can compete with the best anywhere in the world. Iraqis have had five years to develop a strong police and military force. They don't even have to raise capital to buy their equipment. U.S. taxpayers are giving it all to them, to the detriment of our own economy and military. I've often wondered if they're stupid, lazy, or do they just not care enough?

Now Republicans claim we must stay in Iraq until they have a strong economy. They had a stronger economy before GW came along. It only takes three to six months to open a corner "mom and pop" shop here in the U.S. It shouldn't take them that long, since, again, the U.S. taxpayers are paying for the assistance the government allows them to start businesses.

I'm assuming all the above is true, since I learned it from our government spokespersons. And we all know they wouldn't lie to us. No, Mr. McCain, we have given the Iraqis more than ample time. We have paid our moral obligations to them in full. The only reasons for remaining there any longer are so staff officers can secure further promotions and your party's large contributors can secure billions more in profits.