WTF Alert: McCain Surrogate (Wilson) Suggests Troops Could Come In Fewer Than 16 Months

McCain Surrogate Suggests Troops Could Come In Fewer Than 16 Months

22 Jul 2008 02:45 pm

That's the word from Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM).

She was speaking on the now daily Scheunemann-McCain campaign policy call.

(Listen here.) ---> http://blip.tv/file/1103611

"He’d like troops to come home earlier than 16 months if the conditions allow it," she said.

Now, put aside the politics. One of the reasons why McCain opposes a 16 month timetable to remove all combat troops is because it would be next to impossible to arrange the logistics, or so say the commanders on the ground. (See ABC News's report here).

This tells us that under no circumstances would most combat troops be redeployed within sixteen months if McCain were president. And if Obama were president, 16 months would be too ambitious a task.

A McCain aide had this to say:

Wilson was simply making a rhetorical point. John McCain would like to get U.S. troops out of Iraq tomorrow, but any withdrawal must be based on conditions on the ground and our commanders have made fairly clear that they do not believe that 16 months, even under ideal conditions, would allow for a safe and responsible withdrawal of all American troops and their equipment. Even Barack Obama does not intend to pull all U.S. forces out of Iraq in 16 months, but has committed to maintaining in Iraq a "residual force" of unspecified size for an undetermined length of time.

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/07/mccain_surrogate_suggests_troo.php