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McCain Names Drawdown Date

Troop Withdrawal
Predicted by 2013
Amid Victory in Iraq

By LAURA MECKLER
May 16, 2008; Page A4

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- John McCain said that if elected president, he would win the Iraq war and bring most U.S. troops home by January 2013, offering his first date for withdrawal and refuting Democratic charges he would keep the U.S. mired there indefinitely.

Sen. McCain said that by the end of his first term, there would be only "spasmodic" violence in Iraq and a small contingent of U.S. forces would remain in a noncombat role. Until now, he had repeatedly refused to attach any sort of date for the end to combat operations.

Associated Press

McCain spoke at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio, outlining potential achievements of his possible presidency.

His prediction came in a speech in Ohio, a key swing state, where he outlined a string of promises for a McCain administration: a less-partisan Washington, a new League of Democracies to solve world problems, solvent Medicare and Social Security, and conservative judges populating the nation's courts.

The Arizona Republican also continued his effort to distance himself from President Bush, saying he would end Mr. Bush's policy of issuing statements that undercut the intent of a law he has just signed. "I will not subvert the purpose of legislation I have signed by making statements that indicate I will enforce only the parts of it I like," he said in a direct critique of the president.

The effort highlights the challenge for Sen. McCain in a year when Republicans are viewed so poorly that they have lost three special elections for the House, all in Republican-leaning districts. Although he is more popular than his party, the candidate has acknowledged the tough task ahead.

Sen. McCain has tied his future to Iraq more than to any other issue, having supported the original invasion, criticized the subsequent management of the war and urged the surge in troops. Thursday, he laid out his vision for the future.

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"By January 2013," he predicted, "America has welcomed home most of the servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly so that America might be secure in her freedom. The Iraq war has been won."

He reinforced the message in an email to supporters, with the promise regarding Iraq highlighted in bold.

With the war in its sixth year, the unofficial Republican presidential nominee is responding to voter concern that the U.S. is stuck in an unending conflict, even as he condemns Democrats who want to begin troop withdrawals right away. There are about 155,000 U.S. military personnel in Iraq today.

In April, a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that 55% of registered voters favor withdrawing most troops by 2009, while 40% say the U.S. should remain until the situation is stable.

With polling numbers on their side, Democrats have pounced on Sen. McCain for saying it would be fine with him if U.S. troops were in Iraq for 100 years or longer. Sen. McCain has said this scenario assumes Iraq will be stable and peaceful.

For his part, Sen. McCain has hammered Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for their promises to withdraw troops. Last month, he said that promising a withdrawal from Iraq is "a failure of leadership."

During the Republican primary season, Sen. McCain also attacked rival Mitt Romney for having said that U.S. and Iraqi leaders should have private "timetables" for progress. Sen. McCain accused him of setting a date for withdrawal, a charge Mr. Romney denied.

Thursday, Sen. McCain insisted he wasn't setting a timetable for withdrawal, and he said his promise to bring troops home in victory is different from the Democrats' promise to withdraw troops no matter what. Sen. McCain said he would withdraw troops only when the war was won and al Qaeda in Iraq defeated. He said he was confident that would be the case by the end of a first presidential term.

"It's not a timetable," he told reporters on his bus after his speech. "It's victory; victory which I have always predicted."

Under his administration, Sen. McCain predicted, Iraq will have a functioning democracy by January 2013, with only "spasmodic and much reduced" violence; Iraqi security forces will be competent and in command; and al Qaeda in Iraq will be defeated. McCain adviser Mark Salter, who wrote the speech, said that was Sen. McCain's definition of victory.

The senator's comments bring him closer in line with many senior U.S. military officials, who generally believe the U.S. troop presence in Iraq needs to fall by tens of thousands to reduce growing manpower strains on the armed forces.

In recent months, senior U.S. officials, including Gen. David Petraeus, a McCain favorite who is the top commander in Iraq, have also begun talking about gradually moving U.S. forces out of direct combat and into a so-called overwatch role, where they would support the Iraqi security forces but no longer undertake regular operations designed to protect Iraqi civilians.

Sen. McCain didn't use the overwatch term in his speech, but he seemed to be making a clear reference to such an approach when he said the U.S. military would have a "much smaller" presence in Iraq in 2013 and no longer "play a direct combat role" there.

Sens. Obama and Clinton both have promised to withdraw roughly one combat brigade per month and leave a residual force, roughly 30,000 to 50,000 soldiers, to help secure Iraq's borders, protect the U.S. embassy and continue the fight al Qaeda in Iraq.

Sen. Clinton said Thursday that Sen. McCain is promising to continue Mr. Bush's failed policies in Iraq. "John McCain said that four more years of the same strategy will produce victory in Iraq, though he provided no new approach or new proposals," she said in a statement. "Our country cannot afford more empty promises on Iraq."

The Obama campaign declined to comment on Sen. McCain's Iraq comments.

Also Thursday, Sen. McCain made a series of promises aimed at making Washington a more productive, less partisan place.

He vowed to appoint Democrats to his cabinet, to hold weekly news conferences and to appear before Congress to take questions, much like the British prime minister does at the House of Commons. He said he would end what has become "the era of the permanent campaign" in Washington, where he said partisanship reigns and politicians act from their own ambition rather than the public interest.

"This mindless, paralyzing rancor must come to an end," he said. "We belong to different parties, not different countries. We are rivals for the same power. But we are also compatriots."

--Yochi J. Dreazen contributed to this article.

Write to Laura Meckler at laura.meckler@wsj.com