Extremities

by digby

White House officials are keen to portray the new policy as a compromise between two extremes. On one side are the John McCains of the world, demanding big numbers of new troops for extended periods in Iraq. On the other side are the antidependency Democrats, demanding a phased withdrawal, or a timetable for withdrawal, to shock the Iraqis into action. (The White House dismisses the third option of rapid withdrawal as simply a form of defeat.)

Those are two extremes. Except that one of them is favored by a large majority of Americans and the other is favored by three neocons at AEI and Joe Lieberman.

This is nonsense and we should not let them get away with it. Bush is adopting the most extreme position which is the McCain doctrine and he is rejecting the mainstream position which is the phased withdrawal.

And we cannot let them get away with distancing themselves from McCain either. He was the first one out of the box with this idea of escalating the war last October 27:

Republican Sen. John McCain, a possible 2008 presidential candidate, said Friday the United States should send another 20,000 troops to Iraq.

A member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, McCain said increasing U.S. forces would require expanding the standing Army and Marine Corps – a step the Bush administration has resisted. He also reiterated his opposition to a hasty U.S. withdrawal.

“If we leave … the fighting will evolve into chaos there,” McCain told reporters after speaking at an event for local Republican candidates.

Reporters asked him to elaborate on his statement last week in Iowa that more combat troops are needed in Iraq to quell a “classic insurgency.”

“Another 20,000 troops in Iraq, but that means expanding the Army and the Marine Corps,” he said.

McCain may be saying something different since then (he’s been all over the map on the exact number) but he’s the one who introduced the idea of 20,000 more troops into the debate and it’s his baby all the way. He and Junior are joined at the hip on this and they cannot be allowed to forget it.

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