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His complete remark:

At a New Hampshire Town Hall Meeting, fourth paragraph, in January, McCain answered a question about staying in Iraq for 50 years by declaring:

"Make it a hundred. We’ve been in South Korea, we’ve been in Japan for 60 years, we’ve been in South Korea for 50 years or so. That’d be fine with me as long as Americans are not being injured, or harmed, or wounded, or killed. That’s fine with me, I hope it would be fine with you."

This is stunning. Here we have a presidential candidate speaking freely. How can such a person, so "important," so experienced with public life, and an important senator, be so ignorant of insurgency history? He does not understand humanity.

Doubly stunning because here we have a man who served on the losing side in Vietnam and suffered capture and abuse in prison camp, yet who actually believes the Iraqi insurrection would die. It reminds one of Don Quixote!

See Violent Politics for the straight dope.

Comments

The insurgency is down in Iraq mainly because al Qa'ida shot themselves in the foot when they went after the Sunnis. The Sunnis turned on them and chased them out. Take that away and where is the change in the indigent-insurgency levels?

If insurgencies are so easily beaten, why did the British Empire come apart? In one sense you are are spot on. Genocide can do the trick--as it did in the good old USA when the natives were either killed or pushed aside.

See: http://www.roadtopeace.org/...
for the straight dope from William Polk who has studied the history of insurgencies. Better yet, read his book.

Posted by RoadToPeace on Sunday, June 08, 2008 at 15:23:47

A comment above the above has been withdrawn by its author.

Posted by RoadToPeace on Friday, December 04, 2009 at 00:14:31

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