John McCain, he of the recent electoral "surge" right into fourth place in Iowa, stood next to his goofy alter-ego and fellow star of Cocoon Joe Lieberman in Derry, New Hampshire and declared his intention for us to be in the Greater Mesopotamia area for the next century.
Here would be your transcript. Make sure to catch the video too:
Q: President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq for 50 years -- " (cut off by McCain)
McCain: "Make it a hundred."
Q: "Is that ..." (cut off)
McCain: "We've been in South Korea ... we've been in Japan for 60 years. We've been in South Korea 50 years or so. That would be fine with me. As long as Americans ..."
Q: [tries to say something]
McCain: "As long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed. That's fine with me, I hope that would be fine with you, if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where Al Queada is training and equipping and recruiting and motivating people every single day.
Let's be serious for a moment and look at the real underlying facts. The reason that Al-Queda hates us so is because of our military presence in Saudi Arabia, their high holy land. Does anyone think that keeping our military there for 50 or 100 years is going to help win the war against terrorism? Maybe if we removed our troops from the region altogether, we might have a chance at turning this around. Why do we even protect the Saudis? Because of their oil. If we wanted to force a democratic government then would it not be easier to start with one we are friends with like the Saudis? But then again, setting up a democratic government is NOT the reason we went into Iraq, is it.