Then and now...

It was a shameful thing to ask men to suffer and die, to persevere through god-awful afflictions and heartache, to endure the dehumanizing experiences that are unavoidable in combat, for a cause that the country wouldn’t support over time and that our leaders so wrongly believed could be achieved at a smaller cost than our enemy was prepared to make us pay. No other national endeavor requires as much unshakable resolve as war. If the nation and the government lack that resolve, it is criminal to expect men in the field to carry it alone.

Those eloquent words are from the introduction to The Best and the Brightest [via C&L], the historic book that told the story of America's folly in Vietnam. That introduction was written by a U.S. Senator and POW during that war, a man who knew first-hand how "a great and good nation can lose a war and see its worthy purposes and principles destroyed by self-delusion."

The man who wrote the above words, John McCain, once wrote so beautifully and soberly on the dangers of unwise, poorly executed, unsupported and elective wars has changed his tune... What does he have to say now?



BONUS:
This isn't the only time McCain has contradicted his earlier statements...