Special Comment: Context For McCain

   Once more unto the breach.
   As Senator McCain explains tonight that his "position on the war in Iraq has been very very clear," and his people insist we all know what he meant by answering a question about when the troops will be ransomed from Iraq by saying "that's not too important," I will examine exactly what his position on Iraq has been, primarily using his own words.
   And in this Special Comment I hope also to provide the Senator the context his supporters claim that quote was taken out of.

   

     Thoughts, offered more in sorrow, than in anger.
     For two full days now, the Senator and his supporters have been outraged at what they see as the subtraction of context from this extraordinary remark.
     This is, sadly, the excuse of our time, for everything.
     Still. If the Senator claims truncation, we will correct that, first.

      You have attested to: a fairly easy success; an overwhelming victory in a very short period of time; in which we would be welcomed as liberators; which you assured us would not require our troops stay for decades but merely for years; from which we could bring them all home, since you noted many Iraqis resent American military presence; in which all those troops coming home will also stay there, not being injured, for a hundred years; but most will be back by 2013; and the timing of their return, is... not... that... important.
    That, Senator McCain, is context.

    I'm also going to hit the overlooked part of the McCain answer, and what it says about the candidate.
    Plus, he first reference to more sorrow than anger is deliberate: this one is not about screaming. Except, perhaps, in pain.