Ken Pollack: McCain’s Iraq Withdrawal Timeline Differs By ‘Just Months’ From Obama and Maliki’s
Ken Pollack: McCain’s Iraq Withdrawal Timeline Differs By ‘Just Months’ From Obama and Maliki’s
Earlier this month, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signaled support for a 16-month U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. In response, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) rejected Maliki’s call, disparaging the comments as the political rhetoric of “Iraqi leaders.”
Interviewed yesterday by PBS’s Charlie Rose, however, Brookings Institution analyst and Iraq war cheerleader Ken Pollack suggested that Maliki, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), and McCain all have a similar vision of the future U.S. troop presence. McCain’s timeline for withdrawal is “pretty close” to Obama’s and Maliki’s, Pollack claimed:
Well, I actually think his timeline, Obama’s timeline, even McCain’s timeline are actually pretty close. Now that’s what you’ve seen over the last 18 months, that we’re now really debating months, maybe years, but really just months. Mr. McCain is basically saying he’ll start some kind of a drawdown in 2011, 2012. Mr. Obama is saying it’d be more like 2009, 2010. And what Maliki seems to be saying is 2010, 2011 — somewhere in the middle.
Watch it:
It is wholly inaccurate to claim McCain’s “timeline” is “pretty close” to the others. Obama has proposed a 16-month timeline for withdrawal from Iraq. Similarly, Iraqi government spokesperson Ali Al-Dabbagh said the government wants U.S. troops out by 2010.
In contrast, McCain rejects timelines for withdrawal and regularly lambastes the idea. He has vaguely claimed that the U.S. will leave Iraq “with victory.” In May, McCain said the war could be over by 2013, but in January, he said notoriously multiple times that U.S. troops could stay in Iraq for “maybe a hundred” years.
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I thought McCain was the 100 year man.
July 24th, 2008 at 8:47 pmOf course McCain is running an ad in this area that Obama changes his positions too much to be a flip flopper.
July 24th, 2008 at 8:48 pmeither 98 years is a only a months few difference or McCain is surrendering victory as they say about Obama
July 24th, 2008 at 8:53 pmALWAYS WRONG POLLACK SHILLING AND LYING FOR IDIOT REPUGLICANS? IMAGINE THAT!
July 24th, 2008 at 8:57 pmWe have always been at war with Eurasia.
July 24th, 2008 at 8:57 pmhere’s another way they aren’t close:
Obama–2009-mid 2010 =16 months @ $12B/month = $192 Billion
McCain–2009–2013 = 48 months @12BB/month = $576 Billion
rough figures of course and completely static but still…Duh!
July 24th, 2008 at 9:01 pmAnd didn’t Chimpy himself just agree to SURRENDER with his “time horizon”? Hasn’t the Reichwing media been screaming about Bush and McSpin’s BETRAYAL in proclaiming we can start to plan a withdrawal?
No? IOKIYR
July 24th, 2008 at 9:02 pmpete Says: We have always been at war with Eurasia.
That is so chilling, pete.
If it weren’t for the internet that would be absolutely true.
July 24th, 2008 at 9:04 pmI wonder if Pollack will loan me a few grand. I promise to pay him back in a few months. You know, like 24?
July 24th, 2008 at 9:06 pmDoes he know why we call him McCentury? It’s not because he’s 100 years old.
July 24th, 2008 at 9:07 pmBTW I do like Charlie Rose for the variety of interesting guests and breadth of topics but he HAS to get out more! He’s frustratingly naive at times.
July 24th, 2008 at 9:10 pmOnly 1184 months difference.
When your household income reaches 7-9 digits, numbers lose most of their meaning.
July 24th, 2008 at 9:12 pmpiltdown…
hey, that’s a pretty cool link thingy there. Also interesting moniker, man.
July 24th, 2008 at 9:17 pmI heard of 16 months ‘Timeline’ suggested by Obama and Prime Minister Maliki, but I never heard of ‘Timeline’ mentioned by Republicans and that includes McCain.
But I heard of Republicans’ ‘Time Horizon’, and that’s not exactly ‘Timeline’.
July 24th, 2008 at 9:17 pmShall we call this a Pollack ‘Timeline’?!!
“Pretty close?” McGeography’s suggestion of continuing our illegal imperial hostile occupation of Iraq for ninety-five more years would about to one thousand and forty months (1,040). That would seem to exceed Obama’s suggestion of a sixteen month (16) withdrawal plan by a factor of sixty-five (65).
July 24th, 2008 at 9:23 pm… the U.S. will leave Iraq “with victory.”
it’s like a nasty scab he/they keep picking at…
that vietnam thing… instead of moving on, they want a do-over…
July 24th, 2008 at 9:32 pmHorizon: a line in the distance, which no matter how we try, we will never meet it.
Time Horizon: We’ll never leave.
July 24th, 2008 at 9:39 pmAs others have noted all over TP for ages already, if “we have won, we are winning we’re going to win, we had won, we will have had won” or whatever the hell it was McCain said, why doesn’t he want to the US leave? Because he’s incapable of logic perhaps?
Well whatever it is here’s an aspect of departing Iraq that has had no attention or forethought in the usual circles and that is….HOW the US leaves and what it leaves behind.
If it’s so goddamn peaceful right now, then NOW is the time to leave, on the assumption that US forces won’t end up retreating under fire .
And this crap about timetables being a bad idea is crap too. You can’t sneak out with nobody noticing. In fact to attempt do so would be the WORST thing one could do. One of the biggest problems was and still is COMMUNICATION and UNDERSTANDING.
When you communicate one thing –”We’re here to liberate you and bring democracy and rebuild your country” and then DO another, like locking up all the young men, controlling the media and destroying the entire infrastructure with weaponry and incompetence. no on;es going to trust you, are they?
But if you say you’re going to leave and start acting like your leaving and actually begin leaving then I imagine the Iraqis would breathe a sigh of relief and say to themselves “finally, the Americans actually fulfilled a promise!
Simplistic argument I know, but when living and social order has been reduced as it has been in Iraq, simple works pretty well.
July 24th, 2008 at 9:40 pmThe only timeline that means anything is the 3+ months we have before the election. Just knowing the Worst is (almost)over will make the world breath a hugh sigh of relief. Things will immediately look brighter.
July 24th, 2008 at 9:46 pmWell, I actually think his timeline, Obama’s timeline, even McCain’s timeline are actually pretty close. Now that’s what you’ve seen over the last 18 months, that we’re now really debating months, maybe years, but really just months.
Only in Pollack’s make believe world does a few months equal 100 years.
http://progressiveworldreview.com
July 24th, 2008 at 9:55 pmThanks, 5th Estate.
I’ve neglected the stumble page for a bit, but there’s plenty of material to go on there.
And I picked the alias to piss off the creationists.
Works well.
July 24th, 2008 at 10:19 pmIn the days since Bush declared his “time horizon“, McCain has been repeating that he “believes we can have most of our troops out by the end of his first term” (ie: 2012).
Obama has consistently said “16 months”.
16 months vs. 48… at the very least. That a difference of 22 months, or nearly two years. I suppose to some, “22 months” is simply a matter of only “a few months difference”… unless of course you’re a stop-lossed soldier or an Iraqi.
July 24th, 2008 at 10:21 pmRepeatedly al-Maliki asked chimpy for a date. And repeatedly chimpy made outrages conditions/demands and mock the PM with taunts about a “time horizon” and such gibberish.
Sen. Obama made the right decision by giving a date without all the bs. A rational, mature, man of peace decision.
BTW — I loved Sen. Obama’s rationale between the job of a general vs. the job of the commander-in-cheif. Excellent!
Sen. Obama = Command-in-Peace
July 24th, 2008 at 10:59 pmThere isn’t a lie in the world that a repug won’t tell.
Going by the crowd Sen. Obama received in Berlin, the world is laughing at repugs.
And repugs will pay.
July 24th, 2008 at 11:28 pmOkay, so the guy that doesn’t know the difference between Sunni and Shia, doesn’t know that Iraq and Afghanistan do not share a border, doesn’t know that the ‘Awakening’ came before the ‘Surge’ (let alone that the ‘Awakening’ is just a payoff program- we’ll maybe he does know about that), and doesn’t know that Czechoslovakia hasn’t existed for 15 years– he’s the foreign policy expert that’s going to bring the troops ‘home with victory’ within a ‘timeline horizon’ of ‘conditions based’ ‘aspirational goals?’
Good God In Heaven! I thought GW Bogus & the Lie Factory were the worst America would ever have to endure.
Note to McCain…our troops have already achieved victory! Saddam is gone. The Iraqis have a constitution, a government, and can vote. How many Generals, including Patraeus, have said there is no military solution in Iraq?
McCain, like GW Bogus & the Lie Factory, is using the ever elusive ‘Victory’ as a political tool. They keep lying while our soldiers keep dying! It’s just sick!
OBAMA, OH-EIGHT, OR ELSE!
July 25th, 2008 at 12:33 amHey, what’s 1200 months? Same difference.
July 25th, 2008 at 12:59 amThe war in Iraq is nearly over. Bush has finally won his war.
The next President won’t have many decisions to make on Iraq.
The next set of decisions involve Afghanistan and Iran. There is also some new instability in Turkey. Hezbollah may start another war.
McCain was right on the surge, Obama was wrong. This is kind of unfair as McCain is a military expert, Obama concentrates on domestic policy.
July 25th, 2008 at 6:28 am“LobbyDelegtes.com is a great tool, I have contacted all my State Delegates for free through email, I have come accross another tool from the same company http://www.statedemocracy.org its also free and I can contact my lawmakers, apply for an absentee ballot & voter registration and on election day I can locate my polling places. Great tool…. use it”
July 25th, 2008 at 6:52 amPollack has a book to peddle, along with this line of bull. He and O’Hanlon need to be dropped into Basra in the middle of the night.
Nearly 400 pages into his book The Persian Puzzle, I read that Pollack had never been to Iran and did not speak Farsi. I nearly threw up.
At what point does credibility acually evaporate?
July 25th, 2008 at 9:32 amThat little sound Charlie Rose makes at the very end says more than any words could say.
July 25th, 2008 at 9:47 amIt’s the Republicans’ new math: 16 months = 100 years
July 25th, 2008 at 10:38 amhow many months are in 100 years?
July 25th, 2008 at 2:25 pmemploying the same logic that allows the earth to be 6000 years old.
July 25th, 2008 at 2:25 pm