The Century Long McCain War

Josh Marshall strikes on a comment made by John McCain at yesterday's Iowa debate. The Maverick looked into his magic 8 ball and predicted:

"I also firmly believe that the challenge of the 21st century is the struggle against radical Islamic extremism. It is a transcendent issue. It is hydra-headed. It will be with us for the rest of the century."

Think long and hard about that statement John McCain firmly states that America will be fighting Al-Qaeda and like-minded Islamic terrorist groups for another 93 years. Marshall makes a valid point how it is difficult for people to predict a year into the future. Let alone decades. McCain has no expertise in Middle Eastern culture or as a futurist. That doesn't stop him from stating that America will be in be in a state of perpetual war. The longest war in history was fought between Britain and France 1337 to 1453. No war has been near that length.

Marshall writes about about the length of political movements hostile to America.

Consider too that fascism, which was no walk in the park, was around for roughly a quarter century (I'm a 'small fascism' man: the copycats in South America in the latter 20th century don't count and I don't think even Franco's regime in Spain does out past the 1950s). And communism, which also had a pretty good run, was around for about three-quarters of a century.

Will Al-Qaeda have an endless supply of suicide attackers for another 93 years? It's doubtful. There are other unanswered questions about how the Middle East will change socially or economically over the course of the century. It is imperative that Muslims have free speech, human right rights are not educated in ideologically-driven mosques and have the opportunity to make a decent wage. Making the quality of like better for Muslims is a good starting point to halt to next generation of terrorists.

I'm curious as how McCain can think the streets of Baghdad are safe, but we will never see the end of warfare in the Middle East in our lifetime. McCain actual believes the silliness he utters. The Middle East is a physics problem that goes over McCain's head. He still hasn't figured out that that Al-Qaeda wasn't in Iraq before the war he voted to give President Bush the authorization to wage.