The US must start showing signs of success in Iraq, or risk losing support from people at home and other world nations that joined the fight, US Senator John McCain said in a speech laying out his suggestions for how to win the war.
Despite the Bush administration's efforts to get other countries, particularly NATO allies, to offer more help in Iraq, McCain said, the US likely will not be able to rely on that unless it can show clear progress toward stabilizing and rebuilding Iraq.
"Iraq is for us to do, for us to win or lose, for us to suffer the consequences or share in the benefits," the Republican said in a speech on Thursday at the American Enterprise Institute.
A possible candidate for president in 2008, McCain made his suggestions as many in the US and the world are questioning the future of the mission in Iraq. Last month, US deaths in the conflict exceeded 2,000, and the war has grown increasingly unpopular at home.
Some critics, including Cindy Sheehan, a California woman who camped outside US President George W. Bush's Texas ranch after her son was killed in Iraq, have called for the US to pull troops out.
McCain said that to win, the US must increase ground forces and enlarge the military. A proposal by former Democratic presidential candidate Senator John Kerry to draw down 20,000 US troops by the end of the year represents "a major step on the road to disaster," he said.
On Thursday, Kerry said he had suggested gradually withdrawing troops over a 12 to 15 month period tied to specific benchmarks and pursuing a political settlement with the goal of undermining the insurgency, which he said feeds on the notion that the US is occupying Iraq.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
RSS