Coming Home from Iraq: "Not Too Important"

John McCain reminds us once again of his idea about staying in Iraq for a hundred years or more. He seriously thinks it's no big deal. You go to war and you stay there. You go to war and you never get back to peace. You can't leave because things are too unstable, but then when you get it stable you also can't leave.

So today his newest outrage, his latest gaffe is this: That it's "not too important" to ever bring the troops home. As far as McCain cares, leave them there forever. What does he care?

When Does The Hundred Years Begin?

I'm a stickler for detail. If someone like John McCain -- a straight-talker if ever there was one -- tells me the Iraq war needs to go on another hundred years, I want the facts. Such as, just a thought here, when does the hundred years begin? I can figure out when it ends, essentially at some distant point when we're all long gone.

Has the 100 years already started? So if we've already had five or six, can we subtract that from the 100 and celebrate the optimistic truth that we're practically there? Only 90-some to go?

This might be like on Seinfeld. Where it's four or five days, but today is already half over, the weekend goes fast, and you're out early on Monday. It's like a blink of an eye, hardly any time at all.

Of course 100 years, even if it's only 90-some to go, does take a while in terms of the way we reckon time by the passing of our lives. Meaning the veterans we have from the Iraq war will be doing like the guys from Normandy do every decade, going back over to salute and look around, and get together with aging Iraqi friends, etc. The big difference, unfortunately, is the war will still be raging around them. So they'll have to salute, then immediately get back in the vehicle and skedaddle out of there.

Let's say a veteran is 25 today, he's back over there when he's 75, so that's only 50 years from now. He'll be over there saluting and skedaddling, sorrowful no doubt, and thinking to himself, "Only 50 more years to go, which I'll never see." And really, most of us like to actually see the end of projects or actions we had some part in. But nevermind that in this case. There's no end in the traditional sense of things.

The milk is spilt, no reason to cry. Just need to clean it up, even if it takes a century to do so. Thank you, John McCain, for your visionary abilities, your straight-talk, and your desire to end this foul war, even if we never live to actually see it done.

Chicken Being Barbecued

It's spring and we have something good going on the grill, chicken, with some kind of BBQ sauce on it, I think Cookie's. It's been going for about 45 minutes and I'm hoping it will be ready in the next 15 minutes. It ought to be. They're not the biggest, hugest, thickest pieces, so they'll probably be OK. And good.

(I don't want to brutalize John McCain too much for his 100-year war plans (no, I don't want to much), but if he were grilling chicken, it'd probably take him 12 or 13 years to get it done. But if he were making an entire meal, you wouldn't want to get your bib out yet, because it wouldn't be on the table for another 35 years at the very least!)

Maybe A Hundred 2

It's unbelievable that this is the best the Republicans have to offer us, maybe 100 more years in Iraq. But that's what the Straight-Talking John McCain said, even offering at some point "a million" years as an option.

But at least there's an end in sight! And by the time the Jetsons or Captain Kirk are actually born, we'll be there! Then we'll be fighting the Romulans, Klingons, or Attack of the Robot Maids.

So, buy those war bonds today, and let your great-great-great-great-great grandchildren cash them in.

Maybe A Hundred

McCain's 100-Year Timetable

It's been real refreshing for Senator John McCain to tell us the Iraq war will be over in 100 years. Finally, we can all breathe a sign of relief, now that we know the end is in sight.

But I have one big concern, and I think it could be fatal. As we all know from the past few years, we've resisted setting a timetable for withdrawal. President Bush has repeatedly said that the terrorists then would simply wait us out, then take over. So, if we said we'll be out by Jan. 20, 2009, they clearly could just sit tight till then, then come out of hiding on the 21st.

Now that McCain -- perhaps foolishly -- has told us 100 years, we are torn. Of course we're relieved to know the end is in sight. He surely wants us to have that assurance, and the more credit to him for that attitude. I say "perhaps foolishly" because now the terrorists have a date to work with. The saving grace, slight as it is, is that the current breed of terrorists will be dead by then. But there's nothing to say that they won't pass on this news to future generations. If they, let's just say, write it on a slip of paper -- something as small as that -- and put it in a time capsule, to be opened, say, in 98 years... I'm starting to think the risk is too great.

So, anyway, we have time to deal with the situation, I'm not saying we don't. After all, Mr. McCain probably won't live another 100 years, and it's equally likely that he won't be in office as president at the end of that span. In those years -- and I hate to take away the benefits of his no doubt heartfelt assurances to us -- we will just have to hope (and pray) that we have a president (or a few) who will make the end of the war less definite. We generally like wars to end, that's typical. But we cannot end this one because of the danger that the enemy might want to keep it going!