Iraq Withdrawal: McCain or McFlopper Extraordinaire

I knew McCain would modify his position as we moved from the GOP primary to the general election, but WOW! He sure didn't waste any time. I'm glad to hear this but the suddenness kinda leaves me cynical. Looks like he's tacking just to Obama's right so he can defuse the issue with the general populice without alienating the right-wing too much.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/05/15/mccain_outlines_troop_withdraw.html?hpid=topnews

JOHN MCCAIN
McCain Outlines Troop Withdrawal Hopes

By Michael D. Shear
COLUMBUS,Ohio, MAY 15--Sen. John McCain will pledge today that most American troops will return home from Iraq by 2013 if he is elected president, a position that closely resembles the promises made by both of his potential Democratic rivals.

In a speech here this morning, McCain will say that only a small contingent of troops would remain in Iraq in non-combat roles beyond that date. He predicts that the drawdown will be possible because al Qaeda in Iraq will be defeated and a democratic government will be able to thrive in the war-torn country.

Excerpts of the speech to be given at the Greater Columbus Convention Center were released this morning.

McCain has repeatedly resisted offering a timeline for withdrawal of U.S. troops, saying that to do so would be tantamount to giving terrorists a timeline for defeat. During the Florida primary, McCain was withering in his criticism of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney for what he said was support of a withdrawal timeline.

Just last month, McCain said that "To promise a withdrawal of our forces from Iraq, regardless of the calamitous consequences to the Iraqi people, our most vital interests, and the future of the Middle East, is the height of irresponsibility. It is a failure of leadership.''

But in the speech excerpts, McCain describes in detail the "conditions I intend to achieve" by the time his first term in office ends. He says he will "focus all the powers of the office; every skill and strength I possess," to make that future a reality.

"By January 2013," the speech says, "America has welcomed home most of the servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly so that America might be secure in her freedom. The Iraq War has been won."

By that time, the speech says, "the United States maintains a military presence there, but a much smaller one, and it does not play a direct combat role."

Asked to make a similar pledge during a debate last September, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama declined, saying that "it's hard to project four years from now and I think it would be irresponsible. We don't know what contingency will be out there."

But more recently, Obama has said he will remove all combat brigades from Iraq within 16 months of becoming president and will leave "some troops" in Iraq to protect U.S. embassy personnel there and carry out targeted strikes on terrorists.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said during the same debate last year that it was her "goal" to have all of the U.S. troops out of Iraq by 2013, though more recently she has said she would begin a phased withdrawal immediately.

In the speech today, McCain describes the America he hopes will exist after four years of his administration.

In that future America, he promises that taxes are lower, congressional earmarks are eliminated and robust economic growth has returned. He promises a new international "League of Democracies" that will have stopped the genocide in Darfur. He promises that construction will have begun on 20 new nuclear plants and that there will be a free-market plan to reduce greenhouse gasses. And he promises to have secured the country's southern border and offered a temporary worker program to illegal immigrants.

To accomplish those goals, McCain pledges cooperation with Democrats, saying that he will "listen to any idea that is offered in good faith and intended to help solve our problems, not make them worse."

In the speech, McCain disavows "signing statements" often used by President Bush to alter the implementation of laws, saying that "I will not subvert the purpose of legislation I have signed by making statements that indicate I will enforce only the parts of it I like."

And McCain says he will ask Congress to hold regular Q & A sessions with him, much like the feisty exchanges that take place regularly between the British Prime Minister and members of the House of Commons.