A commenter below has a very good catch: He notes that John McCain's current call for more troops to be sent to Iraq is more than a little disingenous, because it turns out that nearly a year ago, McCain told Tim Russert on Meet the Press that the sending of more troops is "not going to happen." McCain suggested it wasn't going to happen due to the strain placed on the military by the current troop levels there. More after the jump.

Here's McCain on Meet the Press on December 4, 2005:

MR. RUSSERT: Should we send more American troops and do we have the troops to send?

SEN. McCAIN: I've wanted to send troops. I still think we should have more troops there. But it's not going to happen. And that's just reality. It's not going to happen. But we really needed to expand the size of the Marine Corps and the Army so we didn't have this terrific strain on our Guard and Reserve, particularly our Guard units.

As noted yesterday on Election Central, here's an Op-ed piece by McCain which was just published in the Manchester Union Leader, in the all-important Presidential primary state of New Hampshire:

We must be honest about the war in Iraq. Without additional combat forces we will not win. We must clear and hold insurgent strongholds, provide security for rebuilding local institutions and economies, arrest sectarian violence in Baghdad and disarm Sunni and Shia militias, train the Iraqi army, and embed American personnel in weak and often corrupt Iraqi police units. We need to do all these things if we are to succeed. And we will need more troops to do them.

Note that the "not going to happen" component of McCain's line has mysteriously vanished now that the midterm election is over and McCain's gotten serious about using his call for more troops to differentiate himself from his GOP rivals and from President Bush in preparation for the GOP primary.

Why is McCain aggressively calling for something he himself thinks is "not going to happen"? If McCain thinks "we will not win" the war if more troops aren't sent, and he also thinks the sending of more troops is "not going to happen," then isn't it time for him to proclaim the war lost?