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US can win war 'within 4 yrs'
15/05/2008 15:25 - (SA)
Columbus - Republican presidential
candidate John McCain said on Thursday he believes the Iraq war
can be "won" within four years, leaving a functioning democracy
there and allowing most US troops to come home.
The Arizona senator's two Democratic rivals for the White
House, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, are running on a
pledge to begin bringing US troops home right away and have
linked McCain's policies on the unpopular war to those of
President George W Bush.
The Democratic candidates also charge McCain wants to keep
the United States entangled in Iraq for 100 years.
McCain says any decades-long presence of US troops would
be aimed at maintaining stability in the region and has likened
it to the US military presence in Japan, South Korea and
Germany.
McCain, running in the November election to succeed Bush in
2009, described a scenario he thought he could achieve within
his first four-year term.
"By January 2013, America has welcomed home most of the
servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly so that
America might be secure in her freedom," McCain said in
prepared remarks from a speech he was to deliver in Columbus,
Ohio, on Thursday.
"The Iraq war has been won. Iraq is a functioning
democracy, although still suffering from the lingering effects
of decades of tyranny and centuries of sectarian tension.
Violence still occurs, but it is spasmodic and much reduced,"
McCain said.
'Reckless' pullout from Iraq
The Republican senator said that although the United States
would still have a troop presence in Iraq, those soldiers would
not need a "direct combat role" because Iraqi forces would be
capable of providing order.
McCain has argued that Obama and Clinton are promising a
"reckless" pullout from Iraq, a pledge he says they would never
be able to keep once they face the realities.
The unpopularity of Bush and the Iraq war has taken a toll
on the political fortunes of McCain's Republican
colleagues.
Republicans, who lost control of Congress to Democrats in
2006 elections, have suffered some losses in special election
contests this year, including a race in Mississippi on Tuesday
where Democrat Travis Childers won a US House of
Representatives seat in Mississippi.
Vice President Dick Cheney had campaigned against Childers
and Republican ads tried to link him to Democratic presidential
front-runner Obama, viewed by many Mississippians as too
liberal.
McCain, who has tried to distance himself from Bush on some
policies like the environment, told reporters on Wednesday he
recognised his party's battered image would pose difficulties
for his presidential bid.
"We've got a lot of work to do," McCain said. "I have a lot
of work to do. I understand the challenge. I'm confident at the
end of the day that my vision and plan for action for this
nation will gain a majority of the votes. But I have no
illusions."
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