McCain needs us to tell him why to continue the war

[jmowreader]

In today's paper, there was an article about the two Republicans most in line with Bush's war plans, Sens. Lindsey Graham and John McCain.

Please note that both men are probably going to vie for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.

Anyway, in the piece Sen. McCain tried to dump the war onto the left. Said Mr. McCain, it is up to the people who oppose this war to explain the drawbacks of withdrawing. Said the senator, should we withdraw we'd be back but it would be a larger war.

Let's go him one better: Let's explain the drawbacks of staying.

Drawback 1: Expense. We spent $323 billion in direct expenditures on the War in 2006. That's about $27 billion a month, or $897 million a day. By comparison, the Department of Transportation has a $60 billion budget. A little over two months' spending on one of Bush's two wars would pay for that huge department. The Department of the Treasury gets $12 billion per year; two weeks of shooting Iraqis will more than pay for that department. We could talk about all the nice things that could be bought with $323 billion, such as a health insurance policy for every American, or a new prison to throw Shrub in so he can't cause any more damage, but it would be pointless. Let's just say the war is expensive as all get out and leave it at that.

Drawback 2: The longer we stay, the more terrorists we breed.

Drawback 3: Two to three Americans are dying on the battlefield every day. This doesn't include the soldiers who die in the hospital or on their way there. It doesn't count the wounded. All it counts are guys who leave the battlefield in rubber bags.

Drawback 4: The signature wound in this war used to be head injury. Now it's genital injury--troops riding around in vehicles without enough armor on the belly get their balls blown off when they hit the increasingly-powerful Iraqi landmines. I read an interview with a surgeon who had served temporary duty at the Army's huge Landstuhl General Hospital; this physician admitted to performing about ten genital amputations per day. Imagine having to tell a soldier who was transported from Iraq to Germany for major surgery, "son, we had to remove one of your eyes, one of your legs, and your penis."

Drawback 5: We don't have the equipment. Flat out. We're running the highest-technology military the world has ever known in the most-abrasive air known to man. We are destroying our equipment in Iraq by the simple act of using it, and we can't afford to replace it all.

Drawback 6: Eventually, the guys who come back to America from Landstuhl sans penis are going to start telling their stories to the papers. Soon thereafter, the most common way for a kid to tell a recruiter to fuck off is going to be "sorry man, but I need my dick."

Drawback 7: Approximately 100 percent of the progressive left believes George W. Bush is going to invade Iran in the next three months. It will be much harder for him to do it if the troops are not in Iraq.

Anyone want to add on?

[beltanefauve]

1. Need to find the link

but something like 80% of the Iraqi people don't WANT us there.

Good comipilation, jmowreader.

[jmowreader]

2. Try this

This isn't the whole Fayetteville Observer article--the local paper has put its content behind a wall you've got to pay to go through--but it's McCain's testimony before the Senate in which you find him dumping this on the Left.

http://mccain.senate.gov/press_office/view_article.cfm?ID=802