The contortionist Iraq politics of "kneepads" McCain

McCain staked out the "more troops" position awhile back thinking it was politically strong, would never happen, and allowed him to explain his previous support for the war.

Now, hidden in the holiday weekend, he adds a brilliant new wrinkle.

"I believe victory is still attainable," the Arizona Republican says. "But without additional combat forces we will not win this war."

In carefully scripted language, McCain then adds: If the country does not have the will to do what it takes to win in Iraq -- send in more forces -- then U.S. troops should not be made to serve more tours of duty.

"As troubling as it is, I can ask a young Marine to go back to Iraq," he said last week. "What I cannot do is ask him to return to Iraq, to risk life and limb, so that we might delay our defeat for a few months or a year. That is more to ask than patriotism requires.

"It would be immoral, and I could not do it," the former Vietnam prisoner of war added.

If we win, "I was all for more troops, I told you it would work," but if we lose, "I would never have sent the troops in. It was immoral."

(By the way, I am unilaterally imposing the nickname "kneepads" on McCain after watching him get down on his knees to court the same people who knifed him in 2000.)