A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

One does get more than a little sick and tired of claims on the part of both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that John McCain wants to keep Americans in Iraq for "100 years." Honest reporting just does not bear these claims out.

The Washington Post calls out the Obama and Clinton claims for the nonsensical statements that they are:

Take a look at what McCain actually said in Derry, N.H., in January. Cutting off a questioner who talked about the Bush administration's willingness to keep troops in Iraq for 50 years, the Republican senator said: "Make it a hundred." He then mentioned that U.S. troops have been in Germany for 60 years and in South Korea for 50 years, and added, "That's fine with me, as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed."

Democrats seized on McCain's remarks. At one time or another, both Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton have said that the presumptive Republican nominee is willing to fight a 100-year war in Iraq. When challenged about this assertion on Monday, Obama referred journalists to the YouTube version of the Derry meeting. But the YouTube clip does not back up his case.

Whether the conflict is winnable is a separate question. But there is a difference between fighting a war and occupying a country. World War II lasted nearly six years (3 1/2 years in the case of the United States), but a significant U.S. troop presence still remains in Germany.

There are a lot of other organizations jumping on the Obama and Clinton statements as well. Here is FactCheck.org on the issue:

Obama twisted the words of Republican John McCain, saying he has suggested "war" might "go on for another 100 years." McCain expressly said otherwise. He said a 100-year presence would be acceptable in the absence of violence against U.S. troops, and later said "the war will be over soon."

And here is the Columbia Journalism Review piling on:

Ever since John McCain said at a town hall meeting in January that he could see U.S. troops staying in Iraq for a hundred years, the Democrats have been trying to use the quote to paint the Arizona senator as a dangerous warmonger. And lately, Barack Obama in particular has stepped up his attacks on McCain's "100 years" notion.

But in doing so, Obama is seriously misleading voters--if not outright lying to them--about exactly what McCain said. And some in the press are failing to call him on it.

Well, that failure needs to come to an end, now doesn't it? John McCain isn't arguing for 100 years more of war in Iraq. He is using the postwar Germany, Japan and Korea templates to describe the possible future status of American troops in the region. Now that the facts regarding this issue are fully out, it is safe to assume that any candidate misrepresenting those facts is indeed lying about what McCain really said, isn't it? Either that, or Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are the most utterly misinformed people on the planet.