This may be the worst example yet of McCain's slow descent into hypocrisy.
Back during the Clinton administration, McCain said the following about his efforts to end the deployment of US forces in Somalia:
Our continued military presence in Somalia allows another situation to arise which could then lead to the wounding, killing or capture of American fighting men and women. We should do all in our power to avoid that.
I listened carefully to the President's remarks at a news conference that he held earlier today. I heard nothing in his discussion of the issue that would persuade me that further U.S. military involvement in the area is necessary. In fact, his remarks have persuaded me more profoundly that we should leave and leave soon.Dates certain, Mr. President, are not the criteria here. What is the criteria and what should be the criteria is our immediate, orderly withdrawal from Somalia. And if we do not do that and other Americans die, other Americans are wounded, other Americans are captured because we stay too long--longer than necessary--then I would say that the responsibilities for that lie with the Congress of the United States who did not exercise their authority under the Constitution of the United States and mandate that they be brought home quickly and safely as possible. . . .
I know that this debate is going to go on this afternoon and I have a lot more to say, but the argument that somehow the United States would suffer a loss to our prestige and our viability, as far as the No. 1 superpower in the world, I think is baloney. The fact is, we won the cold war. The fact is, we won the Persian Gulf conflict. And the fact is that the United States is still the only major world superpower.
I can tell you what will erode our prestige. I can tell you what will hurt our viability as the world's superpower, and that is if we enmesh ourselves in a drawn-out situation which entails the loss of American lives, more debacles like the one we saw with the failed mission to capture Aideed's lieutenants, using American forces, and that then will be what hurts our prestige.
We suffered a terrible tragedy in Beirut, Mr. President; 240 young marines lost their lives, but we got out. Now is the time for us to get out of Somalia as rapidly and as promptly and as safely as possible.
I, along with many others, will have an amendment that says exactly that. It does not give any date certain. It does not say anything about any other missions that the United States may need or feels it needs to carry out. It will say that we should get out as rapidly and orderly as possible.
Here is what he is saying today:
John McCain just told Harry Reid and Dick Durbin that it's impossible to support the troops unless you support the mission. "A vote of no confidence is a vote of no confidence in the men and women who are serving in the military," MCCain just said. "It doesn't sell." Warner now out there coming to the defense of his resolution.
most things are not black and white, but this is. Unless McCain is willing to admit on the record that his efforts to force the previous president to redeploy our forces out of Somalia was a "a vote of no confidence" in the men and women who were serving in the military at that time, there is no way to reconcile these two statements. None.
Given that I can predict with absolute certainty that he will not do that, I can only come to one conclusion: the man is both a liar and a hypocrite
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