McCain Takes Much Needed Break From Reality

Earlier today, John McCain spoke about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the NY Times, he said:

withdrawing American military forced [sic] in those countries could allow them “to sink back into chaos and extremism” that would “determine the fate of that critical part of the world, but our fate, as well.”

If US forces leave, he says, Iraq could sink back into chaos and extremism. I hate to be the one to break it to him, but if Iraq has risen out of chaos and extremism (which is itself a dubious claim) it is already well on its way to sinking back into the quagmire. The Christian Science Monitor reports:

Residents and Mahdi Army militants alike appeared to be bracing for a coming battle, guarding against US and Iraqi forces advancing to stop the rockets allegedly fired from Sadr City that hit the Green Zone again Wednesday for the third day since Sunday.

Although it's in Basra, the oil-rich southern city, where the Mahdi Army and Iraqi forces were locked in a bitter fight for a second day, killing at least 55, many in Baghdad fear that clash will trigger a new battle in Mr. Sadr's Baghdad stronghold. Already there were reports by US-funded Al Hurra TV, citing hospital sources, that at least 20 people have been killed and 140 wounded in sporadic clashes in Sadr City since Tuesday.

Now, in a place where the US has done battle many times before, a sense of siege and helplessness has replaced some of the flickers of optimism that emerged over the past few months as a result of improved security made possible by the US surge and the Mahdi Army's seven-month cease-fire, which now looks to be shattered.

McCain went on to say:

We have incurred a moral responsibility in Iraq. It would be an unconscionable act of betrayal, a stain on our character as a great nation, if we were to walk away from the Iraqi people and consign them to the horrendous violence, ethnic cleansing and possibly genocide that would follow a reckless, irresponsible and premature withdrawal.

One of the most disturbing talking points of the right is that there is a possibility of ethnic cleansing taking place in Iraq if US troops pull out. How can we trust McCain to lead this country if he doesn't even know that Iraq has already fallen victim to ethnic cleansing? How far up his own ass has McCain stuck his head? Is he getting the same daily briefings that Bush gets? The ones that say, "Everything Is Good?"

You can Google Iraq ethnic cleansing and see for yourself, but in case you don't feel like doing that, here's a bit from Patrick Cockburn:

Civilian casualties have fallen from 65 Iraqis killed daily from November 2006 to August 2007 to 26 daily in February. But the fall in the death rate is partly because ethnic cleansing has already done its grim work and in much of Baghdad there are no mixed areas left.

Once everyone has been killed, it only stands to reason that the death rate will drop.

And of course McCain claims that Bush's "surge" is working.

“Political reconciliation is occurring across Iraq at the local and provincial grassroots level,” he said. “Sunni and Shi’a chased from their homes by terrorist and sectarian violence are returning."

Obviously there isn't any evidence of political reconciliation. As for the people chased from their homes, ReliefWeb puts it like this:

Hundreds of thousands of Baghdadis now live in walled-in, ethnically cleansed, heavily guarded enclaves that they are terrified to leave. Sunnis do not venture into Shia areas, and vice-versa. Sectarian hatreds have been contained, but not resolved.

2 millions of internally displaced and 2 millions of refugees ... are still struggling to survive in dire conditions. They cannot return to their place of origin, as their safety cannot be guaranteed.

I don't know what Iraq John McCain just visited, but it sounds a hell of a lot nicer than the one that we have here on Earth.

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