McCain: Opposition to Iraq Withdrawal ‘Seminal Event’ in History
John McCain, shown here talking with reporters after a campaign stop in Exeter, N.H., Wednesday, defended his conservative credentials in an interview with FOX News. (AP Photo)
John McCain cast his opposition to a troop withdrawal date in Iraq in historic terms Thursday during a FOX News interview, saying he would continue to fight anybody trying to end the war prematurely “every step of the way.”
“I think one of seminal events historians will look at in this whole struggle against radical extremism was our ability to beat back the Democrats’ effort to set a date for withdrawal, which I believe would have been chaos,” McCain said.
In the hour-long interview with FOX News’ Sean Hannity, the GOP nominee-in-waiting also firmly defended his conservative credentials and attempted to close the book on a long-standing story that he flirted with joining the Democratic Party years ago.
Though he’s come under fire from some in his party for sometimes siding with Democrats on immigration, campaign finance and taxes, McCain defended his votes and said his campaign in the November general election against Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama will be a pitched battle of right vs. left.
“This is a fundamental clash between a liberal Democrat and a conservative Republican,” McCain said, declining to respond to Democratic quips that he’s running for a third Bush term. “I relish the combat. … I do not underestimate the challenge.”
McCain dismissed reports that he flirted with leaving his party in 2001, when he met with Senate Democratic leaders.
“They asked to meet with me, and I met with them, and I said categorically, ‘Absolutely not,’” McCain said in the FOX News interview. “No one arranged it that I know of. The fact is I thought it was incredible. I am a proud Republican conservative and I made that very clear.”
Such reports seem a sore subject for McCain. The Arizona senator snapped at a New York Times reporter last week who asked him about his 2004 conversation with Sen. John Kerry on becoming Kerry’s running mate on the Democratic presidential ticket.
McCain has been dogged throughout the campaign by conservative leaders and talk show hosts who question his faith in conservative principles, and the clamor rose the closer McCain got to winning enough delegates to lock down the nomination.
On his initial opposition to President Bush’s tax cut initiatives, McCain told FOX News he wouldn’t recant his vote, explaining the Bush fiscal packages didn’t show enough spending restraint. Yet he lamented the continued growth of government and said he’d reject new taxes if he is elected president. He said the current Bush tax cuts should be made permanent.
He wouldn’t say whether he’d endorse another version of the immigration reform bill he and Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy backed, a bill decried as amnesty by many conservatives.
“It’s not gonna be there,” he said when asked if he’d sign the legislation as president. “The lesson is they want the borders secured first. … My friend, we failed.”
McCain emerged the victor of the GOP primary season after a heated and bitter race with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. McCain pointed to the support of his former rivals, including Romney, as evidence the party is rallying behind him, but McCain declined to give any clear indication whom he favors as a running mate.
“(Romney) was very gracious to me. … He’s earned a place in the Republican Party that’s very important. Rudy (Giuliani) I’ve loved for years and I mean it. … and Governor (Mike) Huckabee has really earned himself — so we’re just starting a process, but obviously there are people who are highly qualified.”
Romney said Tuesday on FOX News that he would feel honored if asked to be McCain’s running mate.
It isn’t clear yet how much the Iraq war will become an issue in the general election, but McCain spoke confidently about his role in the war effort.
“I am proud of the effort some of us were involved in that stopped this effort to set a date for withdrawal,” McCain said. “It came very close, it came very close, and a lot of us put everything on the line, because we knew that if there’s a date for withdrawal, that’s surrender, Al Qaeda wins and there’s chaos and genocide, and we’re back and they follow us home.”
McCain also responded to criticism from the Democratic presidential candidates that he intends to stay in Iraq for “100 years.” McCain said he’s only talking about “American presence.”
“This war will be won if we stay with it, and then it’s a question of American presence. We have troops in South Korea as a result of the Korean War, we have troops in Germany and Japan … so that’s an agreement. We have troops in Kuwait as a result of the first Gulf War,” he said, adding that nobody is protesting the U.S. troop presence in those countries.
IF I AM GOING TO CARE ENOUGH AND WRITE RESPONSES TO THIS SITE, I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE MY RESPONSES BEING POSTED!!!
THANK YOU
“This war will be won if we stay with it”
thats a joke right? i hope this old warrior doesnt make it….where would this end ?
Alas the dear Senator will get captured and spend the war in another prison cell. We are like the French Foreign Legion now paying these kids tens of thousands of dollars to do what. Drop five hundred pound bombs on an idea. We cannot identify the rerrorist from anyone else so wwe either kill everyone [ande get tried for it] or we get blown away because the terroist looked so innocent.
John McCain is unrealistic, Iraq is Middle East, not Midwest, they aren’t talking about Homecoming game proposition, with his plan, for example, how will WFP (World Food Programme) will handle and manage their Hiv-AIDS improvement and to continue Jerusalem’s international refugee centre service and support program? John McCain has no answer since they are non-U.S. but I don’t think thats responsible Presidential candidate approach to the UN collaboration issue.
Let us hope that the American people will vote out the Bush Republicans,put in a sane democrat in office so that we may regain the respect of the world.
That McCain who was tortured as a POW would not adhere to the Geneva convention is unreal.
McCain is a two-faced, power-hungry jerk — and if we are stupid enough to elect him, the ignorant majority “wins” further destruction of our country. He believes our presence in Iraq is necessary, eh? Did he believe our presence in Vietnam was as necessary — or has he forgot, so conveniently, about his POW experience? Yes, I do we will be subject to a “Bush the third” term if McCain is elected. Please, people — wake up! Don’t you see what he is doing? Don’t you see what has happened to him? He will put this country further into a recession, and further into a war that no one wants or supports. He will further alienate other countries who used to respect us. America, please, wake up!
These comments do not met my thoughts at all
THIS IRAQ PRESENCE IS NOT ABOUT DEMS VS. REPS.
THIS IS ABOUT HAVING AN OIL PRESENCE IN THE MIDDLE EAST!
As a conservative, this war has been won already. Extremists have
successfully crippled our economy, forcing us to suffer here in our
own country in the “name of securing America.”
It’s now moved into the nonsense of the Bush philosophy of a Brave
New World.
This is not a conservative position. If it was, we’d remove ourselves
from Iraq, and beat the crap out of these ancient mindsets through our
continued leadership in monetary terms.
We need McCain to learn to let go of this distorted elitist perversion, and
see the light of Free Market to resolve this Bush created cespool.
E Pluribus Unum!
THIS IS NOT ABOUT DEMS VS. REPS.
THIS IS ABOUT HAVING AN OIL PRESENCE IN THE MIDDLE EAST!
As a conservative, this war has been won already. Extremists have
successfully crippled our economy, forcing us to suffer here in our
own country in the “name of securing America.”
It’s now moved into the nonsense of the Bush philosophy of a Brave
New World.
This is not a conservative position. If it was, we’d remove ourselves
from Iraq, and beat the crap out of these ancient mindsets through our
continued leadership in monetary terms.
We need McCain to learn to let go of this distorted elitist perversion, and
see the light of Free Market to resolve this Bush created cespool.
E Pluribus Unum!
http://tank.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTJhNmU2ZWI0MzI4NzhjOWNlMDY0NTJiNjQ1NzAwZTg=
Dear Fox Team, can someone please take a look at the disgusting media lie yesterday that the Pentagon report showed “no links” between Saddam and al Qaeda and then the report came out showing the opposite?
Here is one link to start at
http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2008/03/only_connected.asp
The report shows Saddam’s Iraq supported at least 6 al Qaeda affiliated groups all over the world, ran car bomb factories, IED factories, had a branch of the government to recruit foreign suicide bombers and had car bombs, missile launchers, etc. in their foreign embassies. It’s really worth an honest look and ABC and the other networks aren’t going to do that because they are too invested in Bush hatred to tell the truth.