100-Year McCain Yet Again Compares Iraq to Germany, Japan

Posted by Blue Texan, Firedoglake at 11:08 AM on April 1, 2008.

St. McCain is increasingly annoyed that his "100 Years In Iraq" pledge is predictably biting him in the ass.

Responding to Obama's frequent mocking of McCain's suggestion that U.S. troops might remain in Iraq for 100 years, the Republican nominee-in-waiting said the Illinois senator failed to understand that America has kept forces in Korea, Japan, Germany and Kuwait long after wars in each country ended.

"In all due respect, it displays a fundamental misunderstanding of history, of how we've maintained national security, and what we need to do in the future to maintain our security in the face of the transcendent challenge of radical Islamic extremism," McCain told reporters on his campaign plane.

Someone who favorably compares Iraq -- three religiously and culturally distinct countries crammed into one by British after World War I -- with the ethnically, culturally and largely religiously united societies of Germany and Japan, displays a fundamental misunderstanding of history.

Someone who favorably compares the United States' peaceful occupation of Germany and Japan, neither of which were resulting in American casualties 5 years after our arrival, displays a fundamental misunderstanding of history.

Someone who asserts that occupying Iraq for 100 years is the solution to "radical Islamic extremism" displays a fundamental misunderstanding of history.

Someone who is so objectively wrong about so much -- and is clearly confused about the present (above) -- probably shouldn't be lecturing anyone else on their supposed historical ignorance.

But look, if St. McCain really thinks that comparing Iraq to Germany is really going to make people suddenly love the disastrous occupation of Iraq and happily accept another few trillion dollars and several thousand more American casualties, he's in for a serious beatdown in November. So knock yourself out trying to make that sale, St. McCain.

Blue Texan is a regular contributing blogger for FireDogLake.