One of the defining contrasts between John McCain and Barack Obama has been Obama's desire for a timetable to withdraw US troops from Iraq. Apparently there is no longer a contrast.
Flip
There are so many quotes to choose from where McCain expresses his disdain for any sort of timetable for withdrawal, so we'll go with an old classic.
"The point is it's American casualties. We've go to get Americans off the frontlines, have the Iraqis as part of the strategy, take over more and more of the responsibilities, and then I don't think Americans are concerned if we're there for one hundred years or a thousand years or ten thousand years."
On CNN's "Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer, McCain drastically changed his tune.
Here's the transcript, with the video below:
BLITZER: Why do you think [Maliki] said that 16 months is basically a pretty good timetable?
MCCAIN: He said it's a pretty good timetable based on conditions on the ground. I think it's a pretty good timetable, as we should -- or horizons for withdrawal. But they have to be based on conditions on the ground. This success is very fragile. It's incredibly impressive, but very fragile. So we know, those of us who have been involved in it for many years, know that if we reverse this, by setting a date for withdrawal, all of the hard-won victory can be reversed.
We're not ready to do that. Too many brave young Americans and their families have sacrificed too much. But we will be out and the difference is we'll be out with victory and honor and not defeat. Sen. Obama has said there is a possibility under his plan we may have to go back. I guarantee you, after they withdraw under what we are doing, we'll never have to go back.
Note that McCain himself used the word "timetable" several times before correcting himself with the alternative introduced by the Bush administration.
This is clearly one of the biggest by McCain we've witnessed and hope that it will shared appropriately.
