McCain to Iraqis: You Can't Tell Us to Leave!
On NBC's Meet the Press this morning John McCain told host Tim Russert that the Democrats' plan of setting a date for withdrawal from Iraq "would lead to ... an enormously challenging situation as a result."
"But, Senator," Russert countered, "the Iraqi parliament, a majority of the Iraqi parliament, has signed a petition asking for a date certain for withdrawal of American troops. If the Iraqi parliament wants it, a majority in the Congress want it... then why do you stand there and say, 'No, you can't have it'?"
McCain replied that he understands "that if the American people don't continue to support this effort that [the US] will be forced to withdraw" but his job as a senator is to tell the American people that his assessment is that withdrawal would be "catastrophic."
Staying in Iraq, he said, is the best course of action "in our nation's national security interest."
"But the duly elected people's bodies, the U.S. Congress and the Iraqi parliament, say they want a troop withdrawal," pressed Russert. "That's more than a poll. Isn't that the voice of the people?"
"Well, the--as far as the Iraqi parliament is concerned, the Iraqi government obviously doesn't feel that way, their--the representatives in their government," replied McCain, seemingly dismissing the Iraqi parliament's ability to govern its own country.
"Second of all," he continued, "there is some, a certain amount of domestic political calculations involved there in what the Iraqi, quote, 'parliament' said. The Iraqi parliament has their ability to, to voice their views, and I respect them."
Later, when asked if he would be "in favor of a referendum amongst the Iraqi people to make a decision as to whether US troops should stay or leave," McCain appeared to contradict himself.
"No, no more than I should--would have a referendum in the United States of America as to whether Iraqi troops should leave, or whether we should be in or out of NATO, or any other issue. The Iraqi government is an elected government, and they are functioning," he said, implying that the parliament he had mocked earlier as able only to give opinions was fully functional.
