Troop surge in Iraq rescued US mission, McCain asserts

Calls promises to withdraw forces irresponsible

Senator John McCain toured the National WWI Museum in Kansas City, Mo., yesterday. The presumptive Republican nominee asserted that the Democrats' promise for a phased withdrawal in Iraq was motivated by ambition rather than honesty (Dave Kaup/Reuters)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - John McCain asserted yesterday that last year's troop buildup in Iraq pulled the country back from the "abyss of defeat" and "opened the way for something approaching normal political and economic life for the average Iraqi."

On the eve of the long-awaited appearance before Congress today of General David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, the presumptive Republican nominee also portrayed calls from his Democratic presidential rivals to withdraw US forces from Iraq as a "failure of leadership."

Addressing the Veterans of Foreign Wars, McCain insisted that despite a recent outbreak of heavy fighting and a US death toll that has surpassed 4,000, pulling out now would jeopardize recent gains.

"To promise a withdrawal of our forces from Iraq, regardless of the calamitous consequences to the Iraqi people, our most vital interests, and the future of the Middle East, is the height of irresponsibility," McCain said of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. "It is a failure of leadership."

McCain, who is closely tied to the unpopular, five-year-old war, was a vocal advocate of the troop increase strategy eventually adopted by President Bush, and is seeking to convince people the strategy is working.

Clinton and Obama, still battling for the Democratic nomination, dispute the claims of success, arguing the war has failed to make the United States safer.

"It's a failure of leadership to support an open-ended occupation of Iraq that has failed to press Iraq's leaders to reconcile, badly overstretched our military, put a strain on our military families, set back our ability to lead the world, and made the American people less safe," Obama said yesterday.

In a statement, Clinton stood firmly behind her position, saying, "Senator McCain's Groundhog Day approach to Iraq means four more years of the Bush-Cheney-McCain policy of continuing to police a civil war while the threats to our national security, our economy, and our standing in the world mount. . . . It is time to end this war as quickly, as responsibly, and as safely as possible."

For his part, McCain suggested the Democrats' promise for a phased withdrawal was motivated by ambition rather than honesty. Americans deserve a candid assessment of progress in Iraq as well as of the serious difficulties that remain and of the consequences of hasty withdrawal, he said.

"These likely consequences of America's failure in Iraq would, almost certainly, require us to return to Iraq or draw us into a wider and far costlier war," the Arizona senator said. He highlighted a sharp drop in violence in recent months. From June 2007 until last month, when McCain visited Iraq, violence fell, he said, by 90 percent, and deaths of civilians and coalition forces fell by 70 percent.

"Much more needs to be done, and Iraq's politicians need to know that we expect them to show the necessary leadership to rebuild their country," McCain said. ". . . But there is no doubt about the basic reality in Iraq: We are no longer staring into the abyss of defeat, and we can now look ahead to the genuine prospect of success."

Despite the positive numbers he cited, 2007 - the year of the troop buildup - was the deadliest yet. McCain insisted he could rally support from the majority of Americans, even though, according to public opinion surveys, they believe the war is going badly and the troop buildup has not helped. "If we are honest about the opportunities and the risks, I believe they will have the patience to allow us the time necessary to obtain our objectives," he said.