WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Senator John McCain reaffirmed his support for the deployment of thousands of additional US troops in Iraq, a proposal expected to figure in President George W. Bush's upcoming reassessment of US strategy there.
"When I raise my hand and vote to send young men and women, American men and women into harm's way and fight a war, I am committing to accomplishing the mission," McCain, an early frontrunner for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, told MSNBC.US Senator John McCain, seen here in 2006, reaffirmed his support for the deployment of thousands of additional US troops in Iraq, a proposal expected to figure in President George W. Bush's upcoming reassessment of US strategy there.(AFP/POOL/File)
He said the fight against Islamic extremism must be joined with renewed fervor.
"The consequences of failure are chaos and disaster. And these people ... want to destroy the United States of America," McCain said.
His remarks came as Bush prepares to announce a shakeup of US Iraq policy, which reportedly could include sending tens of thousands of additional troops to supplement 140,000-strong US force already there.
But a troop surge has found little support in Congress, with McCain one of only very few voices speaking up in favor of such a policy.
McCain takes over this week as the top Republican in the Democrat-led Senate Armed Services Committee. The Democrats took control of the Senate and House of Representatives Thursday following their November elections triumph.
McCain said he believes US soldiers there are equally committed to the goal of fighting on in Iraq.
"I just recently visited them, including some who have been involuntarily extended," said McCain. "The morale is good. They understand what the mission is and they know what they need to do."
"I am convinced that if we leave and lose this conflict, the conflict will spread in the region, there will be chaos, and we will be sending in men and women into harm's way both in the region and other parts of the world," the former Navy pilot and former Vietnam prisoner of war told MSNBC.
"I've said for more than three years, it's long, hard, tough," McCain said.
"It's going to be very, very difficult. And we have to understand that. But we also have understand the sequences of failure."
I don't know what else I can say about this, than what I've already said here, or here. McCain is playing presidential politics, saying whatever he can to fulfill his own selfish goal of taking the White House in 2008. McCain will say and do anything that will help him get one step closer towards taking the Republican nomination for president. It is a complete courting of the Republican base, perhaps with a possible McCain fantasy of King George Bush transferring the White House crown to this extreme, ambitious heir. Indeed, I found this interesting MSNBC story, titled Sen. McCain taking criticism from all sides:
WASHINGTON - Everyone, it seems, is jabbing at John McCain these days — from a Republican rival for the presidential nomination to several potential Democratic candidates.
“When you’re the perceived front-runner, your head’s above the political trench and everyone takes shots at you,” said Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist and presidential campaign veteran.
McCain, considered by many to be the Republican to beat, has largely remained silent about the criticism, which is somewhat uncharacteristic for the outspoken Arizona senator. His presidential exploratory committee on Wednesday declined to comment on the spate of reproaches over his stands on gay marriage and the Iraq war.
“He doesn’t have to respond yet,” said Rich Galen, a Republican consultant. “If I were advising McCain, I’d say wait until somebody makes a dent.”
John McCain is the front-runner for the Republican presidential ticket--regardless of whether McCain announces his intention of running or not. McCain will run. It is just a question of when he announces his candidacy. The real problem for McCain is that the longer he keeps quiet on his presidential ambitions, the more contradicts himself as he continues to court the extreme right-wing of the Republican Party with hard-lined conservative views for the Republican nomination, at the expense of potential moderate and independent voters he may need in the 2008 general election. Consider this in the MSNBC story:
On his right flank, the 2006 midterm campaign was barely over when a potential aspirant for the GOP presidential nomination, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, called McCain “disingenuous” on gay marriage. McCain has irked social conservatives with his opposition to a federal constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. He says the issue should be left to the states.
“I believe in the sanctity and unique role of marriage between man and woman, but I certainly don’t believe in discriminating against any American,” McCain said in November. He added: “I believe that gay marriage should not be legal.”
Seeking to be seen as more conservative than McCain on issues dear to the right flank, Romney seized on the comments, saying: “That’s his position, and in my opinion, it’s disingenuous.
“Look, if somebody says they’re in favor of gay marriage, I respect that view. If someone says, like I do, that I oppose same-sex marriage, I respect that view. But those who try and pretend to have it both ways, I find it to be disingenuous,” Romney added.
And not only is McCain contradicting himself as he courts the right-wing of the Republican Party, but he's also targeting himself by the Democrats with his hard-lined support for the war. Also in the MSNBC story:
More recently, Democrats who are running for president have assailed McCain over his call for President Bush to send tens of thousands more U.S. troops to Iraq — a stance that conflicts sharply with public opinion about the unpopular war.
Just after announcing a second presidential run last week, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards criticized McCain’s position on Iraq — and gave it a name.
“It would be an enormous mistake to adopt the McCain doctrine and escalate the war,” Edwards said in Iowa, the first state to hold a presidential caucus. He later added that while he knows and likes McCain, the senator is “dead wrong.”
A few weeks earlier, Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack made the same argument in New Hampshire, home to the nation’s first primary, during his campaign kickoff, saying: “I fundamentally disagree with Senator McCain on this. I think he is wrong. We cannot afford to make a big mistake bigger.”
Vilsack also sent a letter to that effect to McCain.
And New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat who is considering a presidential run, has weighed in as well. In a speech in New Hampshire last month, he said McCain’s plan would only provoke sectarian violence.
“There is no military solution. There’s got to be a political solution,” Richardson said.
If the Iraq war continues to be a disaster later on this year--even after Bush sends his surge of 20,000 more American troops in Iraq--McCain is going to have an impossible time trying to explain himself with his support for increasing American forces in Iraq, if such an increase fails. Even more, how will McCain explain himself to an American public that is both against the war, and wants the U.S. to pull out of Iraq? McCain is painting himself into a corner here. And it is going to come back to haunt him next yea
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