Can't Senator McCain distinguish between the War in Iraq and the (forever probably) War on Terror?

As much as I admired the Senator's father thirty-five years ago (he was the CINCPAC while I was in Hawaii and Nam), some of Senator John McCain's (JM Junior -- left) views on Iraq defy understanding.

He believes that to achieve "victory," we must send more troops into Iraq. Victory over what? Admittedly, we have brought Al-Qaeda into Iraq as a result of our having toppled Saddam Hussein, but even were we to clean up the Al-Qaeda element now there ... and stop the Sunni-Shi'ite squabble at the same time ... we would not have achieved 'victory." We would only make our leaving more palatable for the period of time until Al-Qaeda re-emerged or we were faced with a new Shiite-led terrorist organization that was capable of connecting the Shiite Crescent (and likely headed by Iran).

My personal view is that "what will be will be" in Iraq and in the Middle East over the next decade or so, whether we stay and die ... or not. Better for us if we leave quietly and maintain air forces and special ops forces nearby to keep a closer eye on Iran.