When Sen. John McCain makes his acceptance speech this week as the Republican presidential nominee, he would advance his own political fortunes and those of the United States, too, if he abandons his objection to setting a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
While McCain has been reinforcing his image as the premiere militarist with slogans such as "I know how to win wars" and his claims that a withdrawal timetable would be tantamount to "surrender" and "defeat," the Bush administration and Iraq officials have indeed been working on a timetable. The year 2011 is now a tentative target date, closely paralleling the 16-month time frame that Democratic nominee Barack Obama has suggested.
American troops and taxpayers have done their best in Iraq. The military has suffered more than 4,000 dead and many thousands wounded. Taxpayers have pumped nearly $700 billion into the country to salvage it, while enduring a certain amount of ingratitude from Iraq.
For example, Iraq has been sitting on a trove of oil revenues as U.S. taxpayers continue to ladle out more.
The magnitude of the burden on Americans in continuing this folly is suggested by the rampaging of Hurricane Gustav and the impending arrival of three more—Hannah, Ike and Josephine.
FEMA ratcheted up more tens of millions of dollars in costs to evacuate thousands of Gulf Coast residents. Local governments as well as telephone and electric utilities up and down the Gulf area will spend other millions of dollars to repair damage. Atlantic Coast communities face similar bad news with arrival of the other hurricanes.
Happily, FEMA was prepared this time and acted quickly, unlike the hapless reaction to Katrina three years ago. Buses were available promptly and citizens took evacuation orders seriously this time.
Americans are struggling. Whole areas have been flooded and residents driven into homelessness. Jobs have been lost. Mortgages foreclosed. Their ability to foot more bills or interest on more loans to continue financing the expedition in Iraq is utter folly.
Large problems at home beg for the next president's attention—problems of health care, education, rebuilding dilapidated public service systems and rehabilitating an Army broken by overuse and mismanagement, to name just a few.
If John McCain has the judgment to be commander-in-chief as he claims, then he'll agree to a troop withdrawal timetable that will indeed focus on country first.
