More on that 100 years thing

Even if one accepts McCain's analogy, that we've been in Japan for 60 years and South Korea for 50, and that he only wants that if American troops aren't being targeted for death every time they leave the Green Zone (or, lately, stay in it), why? We know why we're in Japan and South Korea (the former's to keep our back yard -- the Pacific Ocean -- nice and clean, and the latter's to keep South Korea from being overrun by the -- I think -- fourth largest standing army in the world; why we're still in Germany is unclear to me, of course).

What would a century's long occupation of Iraq be there to do? Stymie al Qaeda in Iraq? Well, endless surge propaganda has convinced me that Iraqis are more than capable to do that. To keep Iran out of Iraq? Right. To keep the Russian horde from invading, perhaps. That complies with McCain's world view.