thedrifter
10-24-06, 06:41 AM
McCain hawkish, and lonely, on Iraq
Few GOP hopefuls support strategy
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | October 24, 2006
WASHINGTON -- As Senator John McCain travels the nation on behalf of Republican candidates, his proposal to send tens of thousands of additional US troops to Iraq is making things awkward for some of the congressional candidates he's campaigning for. His stance is also shaping the early stages of the 2008 presidential campaign.
As public support for the war dwindles, it is hard to find any Republican candidates who publicly agree with McCain, an Arizona Republican who is among the party's brightest hopes for the presidency in 2008. While staunch military supporters such as Virginia's Republican senators, John W. Warner and George Allen, have begun to suggest a change of course in Iraq with fewer US troops, McCain's proposal to add troops has distanced him from the mainstream of his party.
McCain aides say the senator, a Vietnam veteran and former POW who remembers serving in an unpopular war, is acting on the courage of his convictions without regard to the political ramifications. Since the war began, he has repeatedly urged the Bush administration to send more troops to Iraq, and he says he still believes that is the best way to secure the country.
"My view -- which is clearly a minority view -- has been, for a long period of time, that we need more troops on the ground," McCain said last week while campaigning for a GOP House candidate in Iowa. "We need to put down what is now a classic insurgency."
But establishing himself as perhaps his party's biggest Iraq hawk has increasingly isolated McCain within the GOP ranks, and could harm his 2008 presidential prospects if the war remains as unpopular as it is now, political analysts say.
"What McCain is doing now is suicidal," said Alan Wolfe, a political science professor at Boston College. "There's just no chance that in 2008 we're going to have a democratic, peaceful Iraq that's saying, 'Thank you so much for sending those extra 100,000 troops.' He wants to be admired as Mr. Integrity, but he's hurting himself with many independent voters, and many Republicans."
McCain has not said specifically how many troops should be deployed, saying he would follow the advice of military commanders before determining precise deployment figures. But he has called for increasing the size of the military by at least 100,000 , then deploying some portion to Iraq to supplement the 141,000 American soldiers who are already there.
President Bush maintains he is giving commanders in Iraq all the troops they say they need, but McCain and others say the commanders have said privately that they need more personnel.
Candidates love stumping with the popular senator -- few Republicans draw larger crowds or heftier campaign contributions -- but such talk on the war has occasionally left them in uncomfortable situations. Earlier this month, when McCain visited Rhode Island on behalf of Senator Lincoln D. Chafee, reporters swarmed Chafee afterward to ask if he agrees with McCain about the war.
"We'll have to have some discussions on that," said Chafee, who voted against the war and joined up with Democrats this summer when they tried to force the White House to schedule troop withdrawals by the end of this year. Chafee's answer prompted Sheldon Whitehouse, his Democratic rival, to accuse Chafee of a flip-flop; Chafee's campaign later said that the senator does not support McCain's proposal.
McCain's position has also made him a target for Democrats' political attacks. On "This Week," ABC's Sunday political talk show, Senator John F. Kerry -- a Massachusetts Democrat and a longtime friend of McCain's who is considering making another run for the presidency in 2008 -- called it a fantasy for McCain to expect that more US forces in Iraq will make a difference.
"They concentrated the troops in Baghdad, and they have failed miserably," Kerry said, referring to a recent attempt to stem the deadly violence. "Our own generals tell us the solution in Iraq is not military. If it's not military, don't talk, as John McCain does, about putting more troops in. Talk about how you resolve the political and diplomatic dilemma and sectarian dilemma between Shia and Sunni in the region."
Though most GOP presidential contenders say they support Bush's policies in Iraq, none publicly agree with McCain's proposal. Indeed, many long time Iraq hawks -- including Warner, a former Navy secretary and the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, -- want Bush to press the new Iraqi government to take more responsibility for the country's security.
Shortly after the Nov. 7 congressional elections , a blue ribbon commission headed by former secretary of state James Baker is expected to recommend ways for the United States to change its strategy in Iraq. Even the White House has strongly signaled that a fundamental change in course could be forthcoming.
McCain has steadfastly supported the US mission in Iraq but has criticized the Bush administration's war plans. In August 2003, just five months after the US-led invasion, McCain blasted the administration for not sending more troops to secure the country.
He continues to contend that only more troops can stop the ongoing violence, thereby creating the conditions necessary for long-term stability. Some military strategists have called for similar steps, saying that demonstrating that peace is possible in Iraq is a precondition for the political compromises necessary for US troops to leave.
But Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat who serves with McCain on the Armed Services Committee, said McCain is wrong to assume that troops alone can transform the central dynamic in Iraq.
Reed said he agrees more troops would have helped early in the conflict, to secure ammunition dumps and send a psychological message to the Iraqi public that the United States was in control. But now, Reed said, sending a significant number of soldiers and Marines isn't a realistic solution.
"One of the failures that's been consistent of the Bush approach is that we've had troops on the ground but we've never matched them with the diplomats and the efforts to rebuild," Reed said. "While we've waited, the country politically has fallen apart."
By dint of his résumé and his reputation, McCain, 70, will be defined in large part on his position on issues of national security if he runs for president. A Navy pilot in Vietnam, he spent more than five years as a POW in a North Vietnamese prison camp. He's in line to assume the chairmanship of the Armed Services Committee next year if Republicans hold on to the Senate, giving him an unmatched perch in Congress from which to shape military policy.
McCain's position could help him among Republican Party regulars who are generally more supportive of the Iraq war, as well as advancing a priority he believes in, said Loren Thompson, a defense specialist at the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va.
"On the one hand, no one will ever accuse him of being part of the 'cut and run' crowd," Thompson said. "On the other hand, calling for more troops makes him an army of one" among other ambitious Republicans.
Bryan Bender of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Ellie
Few GOP hopefuls support strategy
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | October 24, 2006
WASHINGTON -- As Senator John McCain travels the nation on behalf of Republican candidates, his proposal to send tens of thousands of additional US troops to Iraq is making things awkward for some of the congressional candidates he's campaigning for. His stance is also shaping the early stages of the 2008 presidential campaign.
As public support for the war dwindles, it is hard to find any Republican candidates who publicly agree with McCain, an Arizona Republican who is among the party's brightest hopes for the presidency in 2008. While staunch military supporters such as Virginia's Republican senators, John W. Warner and George Allen, have begun to suggest a change of course in Iraq with fewer US troops, McCain's proposal to add troops has distanced him from the mainstream of his party.
McCain aides say the senator, a Vietnam veteran and former POW who remembers serving in an unpopular war, is acting on the courage of his convictions without regard to the political ramifications. Since the war began, he has repeatedly urged the Bush administration to send more troops to Iraq, and he says he still believes that is the best way to secure the country.
"My view -- which is clearly a minority view -- has been, for a long period of time, that we need more troops on the ground," McCain said last week while campaigning for a GOP House candidate in Iowa. "We need to put down what is now a classic insurgency."
But establishing himself as perhaps his party's biggest Iraq hawk has increasingly isolated McCain within the GOP ranks, and could harm his 2008 presidential prospects if the war remains as unpopular as it is now, political analysts say.
"What McCain is doing now is suicidal," said Alan Wolfe, a political science professor at Boston College. "There's just no chance that in 2008 we're going to have a democratic, peaceful Iraq that's saying, 'Thank you so much for sending those extra 100,000 troops.' He wants to be admired as Mr. Integrity, but he's hurting himself with many independent voters, and many Republicans."
McCain has not said specifically how many troops should be deployed, saying he would follow the advice of military commanders before determining precise deployment figures. But he has called for increasing the size of the military by at least 100,000 , then deploying some portion to Iraq to supplement the 141,000 American soldiers who are already there.
President Bush maintains he is giving commanders in Iraq all the troops they say they need, but McCain and others say the commanders have said privately that they need more personnel.
Candidates love stumping with the popular senator -- few Republicans draw larger crowds or heftier campaign contributions -- but such talk on the war has occasionally left them in uncomfortable situations. Earlier this month, when McCain visited Rhode Island on behalf of Senator Lincoln D. Chafee, reporters swarmed Chafee afterward to ask if he agrees with McCain about the war.
"We'll have to have some discussions on that," said Chafee, who voted against the war and joined up with Democrats this summer when they tried to force the White House to schedule troop withdrawals by the end of this year. Chafee's answer prompted Sheldon Whitehouse, his Democratic rival, to accuse Chafee of a flip-flop; Chafee's campaign later said that the senator does not support McCain's proposal.
McCain's position has also made him a target for Democrats' political attacks. On "This Week," ABC's Sunday political talk show, Senator John F. Kerry -- a Massachusetts Democrat and a longtime friend of McCain's who is considering making another run for the presidency in 2008 -- called it a fantasy for McCain to expect that more US forces in Iraq will make a difference.
"They concentrated the troops in Baghdad, and they have failed miserably," Kerry said, referring to a recent attempt to stem the deadly violence. "Our own generals tell us the solution in Iraq is not military. If it's not military, don't talk, as John McCain does, about putting more troops in. Talk about how you resolve the political and diplomatic dilemma and sectarian dilemma between Shia and Sunni in the region."
Though most GOP presidential contenders say they support Bush's policies in Iraq, none publicly agree with McCain's proposal. Indeed, many long time Iraq hawks -- including Warner, a former Navy secretary and the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, -- want Bush to press the new Iraqi government to take more responsibility for the country's security.
Shortly after the Nov. 7 congressional elections , a blue ribbon commission headed by former secretary of state James Baker is expected to recommend ways for the United States to change its strategy in Iraq. Even the White House has strongly signaled that a fundamental change in course could be forthcoming.
McCain has steadfastly supported the US mission in Iraq but has criticized the Bush administration's war plans. In August 2003, just five months after the US-led invasion, McCain blasted the administration for not sending more troops to secure the country.
He continues to contend that only more troops can stop the ongoing violence, thereby creating the conditions necessary for long-term stability. Some military strategists have called for similar steps, saying that demonstrating that peace is possible in Iraq is a precondition for the political compromises necessary for US troops to leave.
But Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat who serves with McCain on the Armed Services Committee, said McCain is wrong to assume that troops alone can transform the central dynamic in Iraq.
Reed said he agrees more troops would have helped early in the conflict, to secure ammunition dumps and send a psychological message to the Iraqi public that the United States was in control. But now, Reed said, sending a significant number of soldiers and Marines isn't a realistic solution.
"One of the failures that's been consistent of the Bush approach is that we've had troops on the ground but we've never matched them with the diplomats and the efforts to rebuild," Reed said. "While we've waited, the country politically has fallen apart."
By dint of his résumé and his reputation, McCain, 70, will be defined in large part on his position on issues of national security if he runs for president. A Navy pilot in Vietnam, he spent more than five years as a POW in a North Vietnamese prison camp. He's in line to assume the chairmanship of the Armed Services Committee next year if Republicans hold on to the Senate, giving him an unmatched perch in Congress from which to shape military policy.
McCain's position could help him among Republican Party regulars who are generally more supportive of the Iraq war, as well as advancing a priority he believes in, said Loren Thompson, a defense specialist at the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va.
"On the one hand, no one will ever accuse him of being part of the 'cut and run' crowd," Thompson said. "On the other hand, calling for more troops makes him an army of one" among other ambitious Republicans.
Bryan Bender of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Ellie