http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/15/politics/main4098335.shtml
McCain makes clear why he will insist upon endless war. The stated purpose for the Iraq war was to eradicate its massive stockpiles of "weapons of mass destruction," which posed a grave threat to U.S. national security. When it became obvious that there were, in fact, no such weapons in Iraq, the Bushies decided that the purpose of the war was to bring democracy and freedom to the Iraqi people. Now, McCain tells us, on his watch we will see a future in which
The Iraq war has been won. Iraq is a functioning democracy, although still suffering from the lingering effects of decades of tyranny and centuries of sectarian tension. Violence still occurs, but it is spasmodic and much reduced.
Iraq will never be a functioning democracy. In fact, Iraq will never be a functioning nation. In the best case scenario, there will be bloody fighting among Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds until the country is partitioned, with the majority Shiite portion dominated by Iran, whose power in the region will have been dramatically increased by the Bushies' incompetent foreign policy. But the Bushies' and McCain's dream of a "functioning democracy" in Iraq will never materialize. Iraq lacks the cultural, historical, and material bases for democracy, period.
Note that McCain's vision of an Iraqi "functioning democracy" includes sectarian violence. Thus, there is no means to measure success and completion of our mission in Iraq, and no way for anyone to tell McCain that the war should be concluded. No, the war must continue until there is a "functioning democracy" in Iraq, which means the war will never end until we have honest leaders with the courage to admit that the Bushies' lies have cost thousands of wasted lives for no reason at all.
