Think Progress

Bush Rejects McCain’s ‘100-Year’ Occupation Of Iraq: ‘That’s A Long Time’

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has spent the last few weeks saying that in order to ensure the stability of Iraq, the United States should be prepared to stay in the country for 100 to one million years. On Sunday, he said he may support permanent bases in Iraq.

President Bush recently signed an agreement for an “enduring” relationship with Iraq, signaling his support for a long-term military presence of unspecified length. But even Bush is queasy at the thought of supporting McCain’s occupation plan.

In an interview with NBC aired this morning, the President rejected McCain’s plan to keep the troops in Iraq for a century or more, saying, “That’s a long time”:

Q: John McCain has been saying on the campaign trail that the American people would accept U.S. troops remaining in Iraq for a hundred years. Do you agree with that?

BUSH: I don’t know if a hundred years is the right number. That’s a long time.

Watch it:

[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2008/01/bushmccain10yrs.320.240.flv]

Bush, however, did say he could “easily” see troops in Iraq for the next decade. “It could very well be, but it’s going to be on the invitation of the Iraqi government. … It could easily be that [ten years]. Absolutely,” he said.

With even the President distancing himself from McCain, it’s clear that McCain is even more hawkish than Bush on Iraq.

Digg It!



52 Responses to “Bush Rejects McCain’s ‘100-Year’ Occupation Of Iraq: ‘That’s A Long Time’”

  1. FearandSmear says:

    That’s a long time.. Gee, ya think?

    F’in tool…


  2. Badmoodman says:

    BUSH: I don’t know if a hundred years is the right number. That’s a long time.

    - – But it’s still not as long as the last seven years, Georgie.


  3. shoeless says:

    BUSH: I don’t know if a hundred years is the right number, because I can’t count that high.


  4. JimRMTZ says:

    With even the President distancing himself from McCain, it’s clear that war’s most loyal senator is even more hawkish than Bush on Iraq.

    …and that Bush still hates McCain. Like his mother, Dumbya knows how to hate. No amount of grovelling and soul-selling support for torture is ever going to get Bush to support McCain.

    If McCain does get the nomination, Bush will probably stick more than one knife in him post-convention.


  5. wisedup says:

    99 years is ok with my military industral complex friends tho..hurry and leave chimpy.


  6. bs says:

    why would that be off basis? wasn’t this the administration that said it was going to be like korea……i think we are still there aren’t we…..the last i checked. wtf


  7. hellinabucket says:

    I will not agree with McCain but I do understand what his position is. It should have been the position of the current administration prior to going into Iraq. This should have been fully discussed and explained to the public that nation building is a long term commitment. Something that the shrub neglected to do.


  8. Evil Spaniard says:

    How many Friedman Units are 100 years?


  9. hellinabucket says:

    Bush doesn’t want to agree with this because it would damage his feel good legacy tour that will sky rocket his approval ratings into the upper 30’s.


  10. Vet says:

    What he means is: “The oil will be gone long before that, so why would we want to stay for 100 years?”.


  11. Badmoodman says:

    10: How many Friedman Units are 100 years?

    – - 200. Discounting any more surges, of course.


  12. Peter C says:

    It’s odd that NBC seems to demand more specificity from McCain than from Bush.


  13. shoeless says:

    If McCain does get the nomination, Bush will probably stick more than one knife in him post-convention.

    Comment by JimRMTZ

    Romney is the Bushbot this year, and the Bush cartel will probably do something unbelievably nasty to McCain, like they did in 2000. However, I don’t think they will wait until after the convention.


  14. Vet says:

    Comment by Evil Spaniard — January 11, 2008 @ 1:07 pm
    —————————
    100/6 = 16.666666666


  15. Buckie Boy says:

    BUSH: I don’t know if a hundred years is the right number. That’s a long time.

    Wow, but can he count to a hundred? Because that is how long he should be in jail for, his list of crimes is too long to even post.

    Bush/Cheney
    Hague Trials ‘09

    Buck Fush


  16. Vet says:

    100/6 = 16.666666666
    —————–
    Nevermind. I just used Bush math!!! Sorry.


  17. darladoon says:

    bush actually said something right:

    only “at the invitation of the iraqi government”

    thanks. now let’s see how that plays out…..


  18. Ditch Mitch KY says:

    Hey Bush Baby, Yes — 100 years is a long time. Thanks for clearing that up for us. Ten years is also a “long time” if you are occupied by a foreign military force. But I’m sure the Iraqis won’t mind.

    Keep scratchin’ that head and squintin’ those eyes and I’m sure you’ll come up with more brilliant observations.


  19. Dumb_Fox says:

    I don’t know if a hundred years is the right number. That’s a long time.

    Translation:

    Who knows how long we’ll be drilling the oil?


  20. Dumb_Fox says:

    btw… What’s a long time in Iraq?

    15 months.


  21. Juan C. says:

    100 years? What’s Iraq good for without oil?


  22. leftcoast says:

    “I have never, that I can recall, heard the subject of a permanent base in Iraq discussed in any meeting,” Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon news conference. “The likelihood of it seems to me to be so low that it does not surprise me that it’s never been discussed in my presence — to my knowledge.”

    He added later that his answer would be the same if “long-term” were substituted for “permanent.”- Rumsfeld April 2003


  23. PeterW says:

    Invitation of the government? We’re not there at the legal invitation of their government now!

    Bush’s puppet Maliki has done everything to illegally thwart allowing a parliamentary vote to kick us out. Because he knows he loses that vote.


  24. Leftside Annie says:

    Um, well, yeah, and it’s hard work, too.

    OMG. I am sooooooo embarrassed by America’s retarded president. Pass me my Unknown American bag, willya, please…?


  25. Jason M. Hendler says:

    Considering that it took Germany, the most geographically important country in Europe, only 60 years to stablize and re-unify, I suspect Iraq should take no longer than that.


  26. Fred says:

    Um, well, yeah, and it’s hard work, too.

    OMG. I am sooooooo embarrassed by America’s retarded president. Pass me my Unknown American bag, willya, please…?

    Comment by Leftside Annie

    Well, he wasn’t actually elected so that explains a lot. Soon we will have an elected president to guide us out of the nightmare created by the conservatives.


  27. RUCerious says:

    And Brazil and Russia are kind of big too.


  28. andy42302 says:

    This indicates 3 things
    1. Neither has a clue as to how to get out of this mess.
    2. Neither has a clue how long we will be there.
    3. Neither cares.


  29. Zooey says:

    Ten years, or even 100 years are easy — when you don’t give a shit.


  30. sacopenapa says:

    CHECK YOU TUBE: JOHN PILGER ‘WAR ON DEMOCRACY’ and ‘STEALING A NATION’.


  31. Frosty Cupcake says:

    Soon we will have an elected president to guide us out of the nightmare created by the conservatives.

    Comment by Fred — January 11, 2008 @ 1:33 pm

    Private companies with hackable electronic voting machines are still out there.

    I have *no* confidence the next election will be honest.


  32. sacopenapa says:

    Good old days when the war criminal Rumsfeld said the war would take weeks and would cost peanuts…


  33. Zimzone says:

    6 days
    6 weeks
    6 months


  34. sacopenapa says:

    JOHN PILGER’S ‘WAR ON DEMOCRACY’ and STEALING A NATION. YOUTUBE!


  35. Fred says:

    32 then God help us.


  36. Leftside Annie says:

    32 – Frosty…I have the same fear.

    November 6, 2008 – possibly the start of the NEW American Revolution, eh? See ya on the barricades.


  37. civil behavior says:

    I never knew I had the capacity to hate the words and looks of someone so much as I do when this f”in bozo appears on these headlines.

    How was it that we were cursed with this imbecile?

    Can someone PLEASE tell me how this is haooening n this country and how the media has already chosen the next bozo?

    I am approaching the closing date of the sale of our residence. I cannot wait to take my money out of this country never to return.


  38. Frosty Cupcake says:

    Annie:

    I’ll bring the music.


  39. shoeless says:

    November 6, 2008 – possibly the start of the NEW American Revolution, eh? See ya on the barricades.

    Comment by Leftside Annie

    You may very well be right. In their book The Fourth Turning Strauss and Howe show that American society has historically gone through a major upheaval about every 80 years, the last one being the Great Depression in 1929.

    1929 + 80 = ?


  40. robbez_92107 says:

    And Brazil and Russia are kind of big too.

    Comment by RUCerious — January 11, 2008 @ 1:36 pm

    I was just thinking the same thing – although I thought that he told Hu Xintao that China was “kinda big.” If you expect the answers of a third grader, you wouldn’t be far off……


  41. RUCerious says:

    He doesn’t know what the number is.

    Rummy did. it was 0.5.


  42. sacopenapa says:

    ‘WAR ON DEMOCRACY’ JOHN PILGER YOUTUBE!


  43. DieNowForPeace says:

    but it’s going to be on the invitation of the Iraqi government.

    Bullshit. They’ve already asked us to leave, you lying sack of shit.


  44. RUCerious says:

    Bush will find out what a ‘long time’ is, while serving his prison sentence at den Hague.


  45. oldtree says:

    it’s not as much as a brazillian


  46. Clumberfeet says:

    100 years is a bit of a stretch for even Bush when 6 years ago;
    ‘The war will me short’ and ‘The oil will pay for it.’


  47. DieNowForPeace says:

    ‘The oil will pay for it.’

    Comment by Clumberfeet

    Always loved that one. We were supposed to pay for invading their country by stealing their oil. How Peter Pan-esque (i.e. FAIRY TALE).


  48. Zimzone says:

    The Mutual Admiration Society is running low on members?


  49. Doc Rock says:

    He likes ninety-eight better, maybe?


  50. barfly says:

    “Bush, however, did say he could “easily” see troops in Iraq for the next decade. “It could very well be, but it’s going to be on the invitation of the Iraqi government. …”

    Comment by CaptainMantastic

    Like they “invited” the Turks to invade, and set up outposts in the north?

    The Maliki government is toothless.


  51. DieNowForPeace says:

    The Maliki government is toothless.

    Comment by barfly

    Yup, totally inept, just like the Government(U.S.) that installed him as leader.


  52. Marie says:

    OT, but slightly relative –
    Has anyone ever come forward who served with Bush in the Texas National Guard?
    Has anyone claimed to be his friend? Validated his service? Told anecdotes?
    Bush further displayed his complete ignorance of history as he second-guessed the WWII military today. He wants to know why we didn’t bomb Aushwitz? (Wouldn’t that be pointless to kill people before they are killed by the Nazis?)
    That Bush would ask such a question and reveal that his solution to everything is to obliterate it with bombs is indicative of his level of thought process, and the degree to which he believes he can intelligently command the military.
    The 6-week war that was predicted in March of 2003 is in its 5th year and he expects another decade.
    Bush – the worst f&^%ing president in history.



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