John McCain's Doublespeak on Iraq

John McCain, the Republican candidate running for Presidentship, has gained notoriety for being a flip flopper—he has consistently changed his views and opinions on a number of issues of national interest.

One such issue—over which he has frequently changed his position on—is Iraq. There was a time when McCain spoke in favor of redeployment of troops in Iraq. While conceding that there were no 'good options,' McCain proposed withdrawing troops to the borders, and maintaining bases in Kuwait and other countries, to try to stem interference from other countries.

Then, suddenly, he retracted his stand, saying that under no scenario would troops be withdrawn, even if the escalation efforts failed. He said withdrawal of troops would be considered only when “we have the situation under control”.







McCain has also criticized Vice President Cheney's view that there have been enormous successes in Iraq. He said he "bitterly disagreed" with what he called the "failed strategy", and claimed that this had been his position over the last three years. However, this is in sharp contrast to views he had expressed earlier. Only about a year ago, in 2005, he had said in an interview, “I think the situation on the ground is going to improve. I do think that progress is being made in a lot of Iraq. Overall, I think a year from now, we will have made a fair amount of progress if we stay the course. If I thought we weren’t making progress, I’d be despondent."