What's Important 8

Eighth in a series.

I picked the the Guardian and the LA Times of the various places you can find it, but he said it on the Today show Wednesday, answering Matt Lauer's questin, "Do you now have a better idea on a timetable for bringing the troops home?" that

"No, but that's not too important," McCain said. "What's important is casualties in Iraq. Americans are in South Korea. Americans are in Japan. American troops are in Germany. That's all fine. American casualties, and the ability to withdraw. We will be able to withdraw. ... But the key to it is we don't want any more Americans in harm's way."

As the Guardian said,

Former Navy secretary Richard Danzig said McCain's remarks contribute to the "jihadi narrative" about US ambitions in the region.

"It's very unfortunate that when we are being accused of planning to have permanent bases and to occupy Arab lands … to have an aspirant for the presidency of the United States to say it wouldn't be at all important if we stayed there indefinitely," Danzig said.

Frankly, I have to agree with John Kerry that the "it's the casualties - we're in Korea & Germany - that's fine - because it's the casualties" argument is - precisely - senseless.