Editing John McCain (section)

==On the Iraq War==

'''Iraq War Will be Easy...Or Maybe Not'''

“I believe that success will be fairly easy.” [http://www.accuracy.org/release/1674-mccain-consistent-on-iraq-war/ (9/24/2002, CNN)]

"We're not going to get into house-to-house fighting in Baghdad. We may have to take out buildings, but we're not going to have a bloodletting of trading American bodies for Iraqi bodies. ... I don't think it's, quote, 'easy,' but I believe that we can win an overwhelming victory in a very short period of time." [http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=330 (11/29/2002, CNN)]

“The American people … were led to believe that this would be some kind of a day at the beach which many of us, uh, fully understood from the very beginning would be a very, very difficult undertaking.”
– John McCain (8/22/2006, CNN)

“I knew it was probably going to be long and hard and tough. And those that voted for it and thought that somehow it was going to be some kind of an easy task, then I’m sorry they were mistaken. Maybe they didn’t know what they were voting for.”
– John McCain [http://www.accuracy.org/release/1674-mccain-consistent-on-iraq-war/ (1/4/2007, MSNBC)]

'''Iraq Had WMDs'''

"We can make the case that it is obvious that Saddam Hussein continues this buildup of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons. But we are not the ones who are forcing this issue. The President of the United States in this resolution is not forcing the issue. It is Saddam Hussein who is forcing this issue." [http://web.archive.org/web/20080926092526/http://authforce.liberatedtext.org/021008/cr08oc02-142_01.html (10/8/2002)]

'''Iraqis Will Welcome Liberation'''

"Look, we're going to send young men and women in harm's way and that's always a great danger, but I cannot believe that there is an Iraqi soldier who is going to be willing to die for Saddam Hussein, particularly since he will know that our objective is to remove Saddam Hussein from power." (9/15/2002)

"Absolutely. Absolutely," in response to Chris Matthews, "you believe that the people of Iraq or at least a large number of them will treat us as liberators?" [http://www.blogforarizona.com/blog/2010/09/john-mccains-greatest-hits-wrong-on-iraq.html (3/12/2003)]

'''Mission Accomplished?'''

"Well, then why was there a banner that said mission accomplished on the aircraft carrier?" responding to assertion by Fox News' Neil Cavuto that "many argue the conflict isn't over." (6/11/2003)

"I have said a long time that reconstruction of Iraq would be a long, long, difficult process, but the conflict -- the major conflict is over, the regime change has been accomplished, and it's very appropriate." [http://www.blogforarizona.com/blog/2010/09/john-mccains-greatest-hits-wrong-on-iraq.html (6/11/2003)]

"We're going to win this victory. Tragically we're going to lose American lives but it will be brief. We're going to find out massive evidence of weapons of mass destruction and we're going to find the incredible brutalities that this dictator has inflicted on the Iraqi people." (2/21/03) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFNiad6US5U]

"Every intelligence agency in the world, including the Russian, French, including the Israeli, all had reached the same conclusion, and that was that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction." [http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/What-Happened-to-Iraq-s-WMD-How-politics-2558434.php]