McCain makes his case for defeating enemy in Iraq

NY Times:

Senator John McCain of Arizona today accused his potential Democratic presidential rivals of playing “small politics” in opposing the war in Iraq, saying withdrawal would lead to chaos across the Middle East, embolden Al Qaeda and expose the United States to “another 9/11 — or worse.”

Mr. McCain, a Republican presidential candidate whose candidacy has been shaken by his support of the war, spoke in vivid and even apocalyptic terms as he offered a forceful call for the United States to press on with the battle of Iraq. And he repeatedly portrayed Democrats as acting out of political opportunism — and Republicans as acting on principle — in the debate in Washington over the future of this war.

“America has a vital interest in preventing the emergence of Iraq as a Wild West for terrorists, similar to Afghanistan before 9/11,” he said in a speech before hundreds of cadets, clad in their grey-and-white uniforms, at the Virginia Military Institute here. “By leaving Iraq before there is a stable Iraqi governing authority we risk precisely this, and the potential consequence of allowing terrorists sanctuary in Iraq is another 9/11 or worse. “

“In Iraq today, terrorists have resorted to levels of barbarism that shock the world, and we should not be so naïve as to believe their intentions are limited solely to the borders of that country,” Mr. McCain said. “We Americans are their primary enemy, and we Americans are their ultimate target.”

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Mr. McCain’s presidential bid has been increasingly identified with his advocacy of the war in Iraq, a position that many Republicans have said has weakened him in the competitive Republican presidential field. Mr. McCain went to Baghdad last week where, trailed by a camera crew that showed him wearing a bullet proof vest and protected by a hundred soldiers with rifles. He offered a relatively positive appraisal of the situation there that was widely criticized, by local merchants as well as some of his prospective opponents.

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I guess it should not be too surprising that the NY times is out of touch with Republican politics, but if they were halfway paying attention they would have noticed that the other two leading Republican candidates also support winning the war in Iraq. In fact there is no antiwar Republican who rises above the level of an * in the polls, i.e. they have less than one percent in the polls. With that kind of disparity, your would think the Times would notice.

They might also notice that Giuliani and McCain lead Democrats in many of the early polls. Maybe the Democrats are the ones with a problem because of their position on the war.

Whatever McCain's problems are in the polls they have nothing to do with the war. The main place his position on the war has hurt him is with his media base, which like the Democrats is desperate to lose the war in Iraq and arrogantly assumes that the rest of the people agree with them.