The new "McCain Unit" - four more years then success in Iraq

Here is Juan Cole’s comment on McCain's prediction of "success" in Iraq by 2013:

William Lind explains why McCain's fantasy of victory is highly unlikely to be fulfilled. Lind calls Iraq a 'fourth generation war' in which there is no real state capacity on which the US can build, and in which the enemy is shadowy and slips away before conventional forces (as in Basra, where rightwing commentators have mistaken the Mahdi Army's ability to melt away and lie low as a victory for the [non-existent] state). The US really only controls the ground on which its soldiers tread, and that reality may well not change during the next 4 years. If Lind is right, McCain is hanging US policy on a set of ideas out of the 1940s that have no application in Iraq today.

The "McCain unit" is already a public relations bust. It sounds like a timetable to Democrats. It is too far off for most people to take seriously. The beauty of the Friedman unit was that it seemed relatively near, but people could be depended to forget about its last use before it was invoked again. The "McCain unit" will tax the public's patience too much, not to mention their pocket books. His unit probably has a $1 trillion tax bill attached to it all at once. And his unit is too specific, calling for "victory." The Friedman unit was deliberately vague about what exactly would happen in the next six months that was "crucial" for Iraq.

McCain just loves war. Every problem that he can recognize has war as its solution. His solution to the mistaken and overlong war in Iraq is, of course, more war. and if war is not the solution to a problem, then McCain does not view that as a problem the government can deal with. S we get the McCain fantasy that after just one more McCain Unit, or four more years, of war America will find success in Iraq. Of course, other than to declare "Victory" after four more years of struggle. McCain does not say what America will have won, either.

America has nothing to gain in Iraq that is worth the cost. The usual trope is that if the U.S. leaves Iraq then al-Qaeda in Iraq will win, so we have to stay (forever?) but al-Qaeda in Iraq is a foreign-led ragtag group of Sunnis. The Maliki government will brutally destroy any al-Qaeda elements that remain in Iraq within weeks of the departure of U.S. troops. Maliki only permits them to exist as bait to induce the Bush administration and any following Republican administration to keep troops in Iraq and strengthen the hold the Maliki government has on Iraq. Maliki wants to be the new dictator of Iraq, replacing Saddam, and that's all four more years of American troop presence will gain.

The name "McCain" has become a synonym for "clueless."