100 Years for What? Posted by Ilan Goldenberg

So, I'm piling on but I can't help myself.  I want to second comments made by Max and Michael (As well as Spencer and Matt Duss). 

Here's the thing about McCain's mistake (and let's be clear it was a mistake he repeated it three times in one day.  It's a mistake and a lack of understanding).  This is a man who has staked his ENTIRE CAMPAIGN ON IRAQ.

This is a man who thinks it's OK for us to leave a troop presence in Iraq for 100 years.  He thinks that Iraq is the central struggle of our day.  He thinks that all of our other interests should be subverted to sticking it out in Iraq.  He is running on his foreign policy experience.  Yet he doesn't even understand who we are fighting.  Is this the person we want answering the phone at 3 in the morning?  This fundamental misunderstanding makes you wonder if he is qualified to be commander and chief.  It's quite frankly stunning.

Comments

[zhav]

McCain was lying when he made the "mistake" and he was lying when he "corrected" himself.

He's already helping beat the neo-con and jewish war drums by spreading lies about Iran -- and he hasn't even been elected yet.

[Don Bacon]

In this matter it's important to understand the US Constitution. According to this old scrap of paper the Congress, representing the people, makes decisions on initiating and funding war. The president, answering a phone, is not constitutionally empowered to act as "Commander in Chief" and enter into war. The same constitutional authority applies to the continuation of war, since the Congress controls the funding.

Congressional authority: "To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water; To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;"

Presidential authority: "The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States"

McCain doesn't understand this. "The Constitution of the United States designates the President of the United States as Commander-in-Chief. The Congress of the United States plays a role, and I believe that this process we are about to embark on is the appropriate role that Congress should carry out its responsibilities. But at the end of the day, the final, most serious responsibility of sending young American men and women into harm's way rests with the President of the United States."--John McCain, Oct 2, 2002

Clinton doesn't understand it. "So it is with conviction that I support this resolution as being in the best interests of our nation. A vote for it is not a vote to rush to war; it is a vote that puts awesome responsibility in the hands of our President and we say to him - use these powers wisely and as a last resort."--Hillary Clinton, Oct 10, 2002

Obama doesn't either. "As a candidate for the presidency, I know that I am running to be commander-in-chief -- to safeguard this nation's security. There is no responsibility that I take more seriously."--Barack Obama, Mar 12, 2008

The president is the commander of the military, not of the country. His or her judgment on entering into or continuing a war should not be at issue, unless we are content to have a dictator and scrap the US Constitution.