We sang songs of liberty, kinda takes the sting out of occupation

Iraq's democratically elected leaders are making it clear that they want us out.

What did John McCain say about this in 2004?

Questioner: Let me give you a hypothetical, senator. What would or should we do if, in the post-June 30th period, a so-called sovereign Iraqi government asks us to leave, even if we are unhappy about the security situation there? I understand it's a hypothetical, but it's at least possible.

McCAIN: Well, if that scenario evolves, then I think it's obvious that we would have to leave because— if it was an elected government of Iraq— and we've been asked to leave other places in the world. If it were an extremist government, then I think we would have other challenges, but I don't see how we could stay when our whole emphasis and policy has been based on turning the Iraqi government over to the Iraqi people.

McCain is dodging the issue currently, refusing to give a straight-forward answer when asked to comment on this development. Given McCain's withering attacks on anyone who even mentions a time-table I am sure that this latest development has him squirming.

On the television I'm watching Republicans explain that things are going so well that we can't leave. For years now they've told us that we can't leave because conditions would utterly collapse if we did. Now things are going so well (a debatable point to be sure) that we can't leave. If that makes sense to anyone please raise your hand.

The truth of the matter is that the Bush administration and John McCain have, from the beginning of this war, planned for dozens of permanent military bases in Iraq. This is about subjugating a pliant Arab nation that just so happens to be floating on an ocean of oil. No more, no less. Everything else you hear is spin, plain and simple. The truth has leaked out bit by bit over the last couple of years - this war is and always has been a war for oil.

It was a theory that no respectable pundit, prognosticator or journalist dared to utter for the first 5 plus years of this war. But I guess once Alan Greenspan let the cat out of the bag polite society could finally discuss the raison d'être that dare not speak its name. When the news broke that, surprise!, the companies that formerly comprised the Iraq Petroleum Company would receive no-bid contracts to service Iraq's oil fields the jig was officially up.

If Iraq is a sovereign nation as Bush, McCain and conservatives have long argued then we'll listen to the Maliki government and we'll begin to withdraw. If we do not then it's time to drop the charade and the democratic kabuki and start discussing this for what it is - an occupation of a sovereign foreign nation and a colonization to control the world's 2nd largest oil reserves.

UPDATE: I wrote this post earlier today and scheduled it's posting for this evening. Now I see that Karen Tumulty of Time has pressed McCain on this development. His response is essentially, I don't care who is requesting timetables our withdrawal will be based on "conditions on the ground" and nothing else. So there you have it, John McCain showing complete and utter contempt for the democracy our soldiers are supposedly fighting and dying for. In John McCain's eyes Iraq is now a U.S. colony.

Post title borrowed from the song "You Should Be Glad" by Widespread Panic.