I Picked The Wrong Day To Tell Everybody We're Winning In Iraq

John McCain gave another "sound and fury signifying nothing" speech today, the centerpiece of which being his belief that we're winning in Iraq. Only problem was that it happened as Iraq literally goes up in flames amongst fighting between Shi'a factions, and MSNBC LITERALLY broke away from his speech to show some of the carnage. Crooks and Liars has the video.

The speech itself, including a call to kick Russia out of the G-8 and restart the Cold War, and a smily happy depiction of Iraq as a grand paradise while bombs are raining down on the Green Zone and everywhere else, was an exercise in ignorance. The speech showed a reliance on military action to solve any global problem, and was such boilerplate that he recycled large portions of a pro-war column he wrote in OCTOBER 2001.

This is the same kind of ignorant rhetoric that characterizes the Pentagon's position that the current chaos in Iraq is a sign of the surge's success (tell that to the 70 dead and 300 wounded since yesterday). More of the same, McSame as Bush.

When you actually hear a real perspective from Iraqis and those who know the region, the platitude of "we're winning" becomes nothing more than a mockery. Yes, Iraq IS worse off after five years of occupation, and such a statement shouldn't be rejected out of hand because it's not "serious" as defined by foreign policy elites who have been wrong about everything in this war and occupation. McCain is wedded to these ignorant statements and a warped sense of "honor" that demands more and longer wars. The public will NOT stand for it.