New TV Ad Puts Focus on McCain's Promise to Keep Oregon's Troops in Iraq for 100 Years

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Audio

Question from audience over a card with CG: Senator McCain, President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq for 50 years.

McCain answers.

CG: 100 years in Iraq
McCain video

Scenes of Iraq CG with no announcer:
5 years - $500 Billion Spent - over 4,000 dead



Back to McCain video split screen with Iraq footage

Freeze - CG over picture of McCain and Bush: Is John McCain the Right
Choice for America's Future?

Disclaimer: Paid for by Democratic National Committee. www.democrats.org. This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. The DNC is responsible for the content of this advertising.

President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq for 50 years.

Maybe 100.

That would be fine with me.





President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq 50 years.

Maybe 100.


If all he offers is more of the same..is John McCain the right choice for America's future?



The Democratic National Committee is responsible for the content of this advertising.

Audio

Video

Backup

President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq for 50 years.

Question from audience over a card with CG: Senator McCain, President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq for 50 years.

Bush has talked about our troops being in Iraq for 50 years. "Tony Snow, the White House press secretary, told reporters Bush believes U.S. forces eventually will end their combat role in Iraq but will continue to be needed in the country to deter threats and to help handle potential crises, as they have done in South Korea. The United States has kept forces in South Korea since war erupted with North Korea in 1950 and currently has about 30,000 troops there." [Los Angeles Times, 5/31/07]

100 Years Questioner: "Everyone Who Was There That Night Got It: We Weren't Getting Out Anytime Soon." According to Dave Tiffany, the questioner at the McCain town hall in New Hampshire who prompted McCain to pledge his allegiance to staying in Iraq for 100 years, "While splitting hairs over the meaning of campaign rhetoric, all ignore the fact that McCain advocates an open-ended presence in Iraq, and the consequences that would follow from such a commitment. McCain's words left little room for interpretation. By saying that he was fine with staying in Iraq for 100 years, he made clear his commitment to staying the course and, further, to remaining in Iraq for years after the country is pacified, assuming that's ever possible. Everyone who was there that night got it: we weren't getting out anytime soon." [The Huffington Post, 4/7/2008]

McCain's Notion Of 100 Year US Presence In Iraq "Betrays A Fairly Acute Lack Of Knowledge About Both Iraq And Islam." "Time Columnist Joe Klein writes, "The problem with John McCain's 100 years in Iraq formulation isn't that he's calling for 95 more years of combat--he isn't--but that he thinks you can have a long-term basing arrangement in Iraq similar to those we have in Germany or Korea. That betrays a fairly acute lack of knowledge about both Iraq and Islam. It may well be possible to station U.S. troops in small, peripheral kingdoms like Dubai or Kuwait, but Iraq is--and has always been--volatile, tenuous, centrally-located and nearly as sensitive to the presence of infidels as Saudi Arabia. It is a terrible candidate for a long-term basing agreement." [Time, Swampland, 4/1/2008]

Maybe 100.

That would be fine with me.

McCain answers.
CG: 100 years in Iraq
McCain video

2008: McCain Said US May Stay In Iraq For 100 Years. At a New Hampshire town hall when McCain was asked "President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq for 50 years." McCain responded: "Maybe 100." [McCain Town Hall, Derry NH Opera House 1/3/2008]

President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq 50 years.

Scenes of Iraq CG with no announcer:
5 years

$500 Billion Spent

over 4,000 dead

Iraq War Has Lasted Five Years
The U.S. invaded Iraq on March 20, 2003.

Cost Of Iraq War Exceeds $500 Billion So Far. "The United States has poured more than $500 billion into Iraq, mostly for military operations. But that figure is just a small piece of the much larger bill that taxpayers will pay in the future. Because the money for the war is being borrowed, interest payments could add another $615 billion. A heavily depleted military will have to be rebuilt at a cost of $280 billion. Disability benefits and health care for Iraq war veterans, many of them severely injured, could add another half-trillion dollars over their lifetime." [San Francisco Chronicle, 3/18/2008]

Over 4,000 American Military Personnel Have Died in The Conflict. As of April 24, 4,046 American soldiers, Marines, airmen, sailors and Coast Guardsmen have died in the Iraq War. [http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/]

McCain: "We're Going To "Win This Victory" And "It Will Be Brief." McCain said, "Well, I'll tell you why [Mr. Blair doesn't politically suffer Mr. Churchill's fate]. It's because we're going to win this victory. Tragically, we will lose American lives. But it will be brief." [Hannity and Colmes, 2/21/03]

2002, 2003: McCain Proclaimed Success In Iraq Would Be "Easy." In the run up to War with Iraq, McCain repeatedly emphasized that the conflict would be "easy." Speaking in September 2002 about the prospect of invading Iraq, McCain said he thought it would not be a difficult conflict. McCain said, "I believe that the success [in Iraq] will be fairly easy." In January of 2003, McCain again predicted the same about invading Iraq, saying, "we will win this conflict. We will win it easily." [CNN, "Larry King Live," 9/24/2002; CNN.com, 1/22/2003]

Maybe 100.

Back to McCain video split screen with Iraq footage

McCain Said No One Anticipated Iraq Would Be A Long War. Campaigning in Rhode Island for Senator Lincoln Chafee, John McCain claimed that no one warned the war in Iraq would last as long as it has. McCain said to a crowd of 500 at Chaffee's home, "Mistakes have been made in this war. It has lasted much longer than any of us have ever anticipated." [AP, 6/18/2006]

If all he offers is more of the same..is John McCain the right choice for America's future?

Freeze - CG over picture of McCain and Bush: Is John McCain the Right Choice for America's Future?

McCain Echoed Bush's Case For War. As early as 2001 McCain was helping to make the case for war with Iraq alongside Donald Rumsfeld. During a November 2001 appearance on ABC's Nightline, McCain echoed Rumsfeld and CIA director James Woolsey on the case for invading Iraq, using the same misleading rhetoric. Rumsfeld claimed there were ties "between the terrorists in the Philippines and the al-Qaeda and people in Iraq." Woolsey suggested Iraq had "been involved in terrorist acts against the United States." And John McCain, given a chance to disagree, instead echoed both men and the Bush Administration, claiming there had "been significant involvement on the part of the Iraqis and Saddam Hussein in the acts of terror that have been committed in the past." [ABC News, "Nightline," 11/28/2001]