Really? Scroll down halfway through this CFR transcript from 2004 and you’ll find him saying that if they ask us to leave, we’ll leave. Michael Goldfarb reiterated that position on behalf of the campaign just a few weeks ago. McCain himself has said he expects to have most troops home within five years. It’s a good thing the left isn’t capable of fearmongering or else I’d be tempted to apply that term here.

“That’s not what we fought for,” the VoteVets spokesman says, referring to McCain’s supposed plan for perpetual occupation. Exit question: What did they fight for? To have troops yanked out before the country’s democratic edifice is strong enough to handle the security vacuum?