Republican Senator John McCain is planning to accuse his Democratic presidential rivals of making promises they cannot keep with regard to Iraq in a speech that kicks off a week in which the war returns to center stage of the US presidential campaign.
McCain was scheduled to tell an audience of veterans yesterday that the US can look ahead to success in the war, but a hasty withdrawal of troops would go against both US and Iraqi interests.
“Our goal is an Iraq that no longer needs American troops. And I believe we can achieve that goal, perhaps sooner than many imagine,” McCain will say, according to excerpts of his speech.
“But I do not believe that anyone should make promises as a candidate for president that they cannot keep if elected,” he will say.
“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. It is a failure of leadership,” McCain will say.
Democratic presidential hopefuls senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have promised to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq soon after taking office.
Obama promises to start immediately, and Clinton has said a drawback could begin within 60 days of her becoming president.
McCain is expected to challenge either Obama or Clinton in November elections to succeed US President George W. Bush.
His speech comes amid renewed violence in Baghdad and ahead of congressional testimony from General David Petraeus, the US commander on the ground in Iraq.
All three presidential candidates are scheduled to return to Washington to be present for the general’s testimony tomorrow.
A lauded Vietnam War veteran, McCain has staked his candidacy on his support for an increase in US troop levels in Iraq, a policy dubbed the “surge.”
McCain will insist that last year’s US troop buildup brought a glimmer of “something approaching normal” in Iraq, despite a recent outbreak of heavy fighting.
“We are no longer staring into the abyss of defeat, and we can now look ahead to the genuine prospect of success,” McCain was expected to say.
McCain planned to highlight a sharp drop in violence in recent months in his speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars at the National World War I Museum.
Obama and Clinton have criticized McCain for indicating the US could keep troops in Iraq for 100 years, but McCain hit back on Sunday, saying his comments were made within the context of US troops maintaining a presence in countries such as Japan and South Korea.
“Senator Obama and anyone who reads that knows that I didn’t think we were in a 100-year war,” McCain told Fox News Sunday.
Meanwhile in Baghdad, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in an interview aired yesterday that he was unfazed by the Democrats pledges to withdraw troops quickly from Iraq.
“No, I am not concerned at all,” Maliki told US network CNN in an interview when asked if he was worried Obama might reduce US troop numbers very quickly if he won office.
“I believe our troops are very strong and God willing, this year we will have the rest of our capabilities,” he added, referring to plans to increase Iraq’s security forces, which already exceed 500,000 personnel.
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