Does McCain Really Want to Make Foreign Policy Judgment The Central Theme Of His Candidacy?

All signs point to yes, but his Veterans of Foreign Wars speech today is basically him walking into a trap. F’rinstance:

Thanks to the courage and sacrifice of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines and to brave Iraqi fighters the surge has succeeded. And yet Senator Obama still cannot quite bring himself to admit his own failure in judgment. Nor has he been willing to heed the guidance of General Petraeus, or to listen to our troops on the ground when they say — as they have said to me on my trips to Iraq: "Let us win, just let us win." Instead, Senator Obama commits the greater error of insisting that even in hindsight, he would oppose the surge. Even in retrospect, he would choose the path of retreat and failure for America over the path of success and victory. In short, both candidates in this election pledge to end this war and bring our troops home. The great difference is that I intend to win it first.

But the failure in judgment is in invading and occupying Iraq. The idea that the proper response to a hellish war is to stay until it’s less-hellish is not worthy of a serious presidential candidate. Obama can make mincemeat out of this by simply pointing to this other war, and the deterioration of this other country, that happen to be, like, you know, where al-Qaeda actually is. (Oh and for good measure, McCain has no intention of actually bringing the troops home from Iraq, nor does he have any idea how to win in Iraq, nor even what winning means.)