The issue erupted after Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.) said in an interview with NBC‘s “Today” show that the timetable for U.S. forces to come home from Iraq is not of great concern as long as U.S. casualties in the Middle East fall to levels comparable to those in allied countries where U.S. forces have been stationed for decades without incident.

“That’s not too important,” McCain said, when asked by host Matt Lauer if he could better estimate when U.S. forces would come home. “What’s important is the casualties in Iraq,” he said. “Americans are in South Korea, Americans are in Japan, American troops are in Germany. That’s all fine.”

McCain has long emphasized bringing U.S. military casualties down in Iraq to bolster the American public’s commitment to stabilizing Iraq. But even if McCain’s statement yesterday differed little from his past pronouncements, it came at a delicate diplomatic juncture. The Bush administration is trying to hammer out bilateral agreements governing the future status of U.S. forces in Iraq, to take effect when the current U.N. mandate expires at the end of December. The two accords — a status-of-forces agreement and a broader security “framework” — have come under sharp criticism in Iraq because of administration proposals to retain unilateral control over U.S. military operations as well as the ability to detain Iraqi citizens while providing legal immunity for U.S. security contractors. Iraqi politicians have also charged that the United States plans to maintain up to 60 military bases there.

I guess I am looking at it differently, if the US pulled forces from Korea, Germany or Japan there would be NO violence, but I guess that is part of the argument, that if we had left too early from aforementioned countries they would not be as stable as they are today…..Now I am looking at other statements…like the US has a duty to bring stability to Iraq..well yes and no..first we caused this massive f/up so there can be a position made that we need to fix it.  But also, the US cannot bring something that the people do not want.  It depends on your thought process.  There is NO easy answer to the Iraq situation.  My biggest problem with the war is that the squandered funds that could be more expertly used in the US.  I also have a problem with this war because they were told what would happed if the US invaded, especially by Dr. Zbig (and I wish I could spell his last name), when on the day of the invasion he told the media what would be the outcome.  Everything else is hindsight and once again the powers that be do not have foresight.