Ignoring McCain's "greeted as liberators" assurance WaPo credits him with prewar "foresight"

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http://mediamatters.org/items/200704300011?f=h_top

Ignoring McCain's "greeted as liberators" assurance, Wash. Post editorial credited him with prewar "foresight"

Summary: A Washington Post editorial praised Sen. John McCain's "foresight and consistency about how the {Iraq} war should have been waged"; however, in the days immediately before and after the invasion, McCain echoed Bush administration statements that U.S. forces would be greeted as "liberators." Since then, McCain has made apparently contradictory statements on the administration's management of the Iraq war.

An April 29 Washington Post editorial titled "Reality Show" praised Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) for his "foresight and consistency about how the {Iraq} war should have been waged." The editorial singled out his statements during his April 25 speech officially announcing his presidential candidacy that the Iraq war "has not gone well" and that the United States "did not meet {its} responsibility initially" to plan and conduct the war properly, asserting that McCain "has been making these points since before the invasion." In fact, as Media Matters for America has noted, in the days immediately preceding and following the invasion McCain affirmed Bush administration statements that U.S. forces would be greeted as "liberators."

Moreover, while McCain has criticized the planning for and conduct of the war, at other times, he issued rosy predictions about the war and praised the Bush administration's conduct of the war.

From the Post editorial, subtitled "Sen. McCain injects some useful truths into the presidential campaign":