McCain says U.S. needs 10,000 more troops in Iraq

Reuters ^ | 4/23/04

[areafiftyone]

WASHINGTON, April 22 (Reuters) - The United States needs at least 10,000 more troops in Iraq and must curb domestic spending to pay for the war, John McCain, a Republican senator and former rival of President George W. Bush, said on Thursday.

McCain, calling the Iraq conflict the "test of a generation", said the United States would pay dearly if it left Iraq before establishing a new order based on freedom and democracy.

The Arizona senator is a Vietnam war hero whose relations with Bush have been testy since he lost out in the race for the party's 2000 presidential nomination.

In a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations he called the deteriorating security situation In Iraq a "wake-up call" for Washington and said policymakers must show bipartisan resolve to prevail.

Bush has promised to hand over sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30, formally ending an occupation which began after President Saddam Hussein's fall last April, although a big U.S. force will stay on to try to keep order. A surge in bloodshed has clouded the run-up to the transition.

"America faces today our biggest foreign policy test in a generation," McCain, an outspoken member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said.

President Bush must be "perfectly frank," making clear to the American people that bringing peace and democracy to Iraq "will be very expensive, difficult and long," McCain said.

TOUGH DECISIONS

"We need to make tough decisions about where our wartime priorities lay and this means that we have to reassess our domestic priorities ... we simply cannot have it all -- tax cuts, pork for the special interests, ever-growing entitlement programs and war in Iraq," he said.

"Congress cannot demand discipline and sacrifice only of the men and women fighting in the desert. We need it at home as well," he said.

The president, facing a tough re-election fight in November, has promised to go ahead with further tax cuts, which Democrats say will further push up growing budget deficits.

The White House has said that given the cost of fighting an upsurge in violence, it might rethink a vow not to seek more money for the Iraq operation until after the election.

McCain called for more troops to be sent to the battlefield on top of 135,000 already there. "At least another full division and probably more" is needed, he said. A division is roughly 10,000 troops.

McCain criticized the administration for not yet having a political strategy for transferring sovereignty to Iraqis on the target date of June 30.

The United States must stay in Iraq because "if we leave, violence will fill the vacuum as groups struggle for political power and we risk all-out civil war," he said.

"If we succeed, we send a message to every despot in the region that their day is done," he added.

[chambley1]

McCain needs 10,000 more marbles to fill his empty Ronald Reagan jelly bean jar.

[John Lenin]

McCain becomes a general, someone put a sock in his mouth, he lost his mind when he lost to Bush in 2000. I would hope McCain would want to spend more time with his sick wife and that he will retire as soon as possible.

[goldstategop]

I haven't always agreed with the Senator from Arizona but he makes sense. Our national security is at stake and I applaud his initiative to pay for our Iraqi operations by cutting domestic spending. Its about time we got serious.

[anoldafvet]

My dog told me we need 15,000 more troops in Iraq. I believe him about as much as McInsane.

[aft_lizard]

This is ridiculous, McCain of all people should know the dangers of letting politicians run a war, unless Myers or Abizaid ask for more troops then let the staus quo be.

[You Dirty Rats]

I don't have a problem with most of what he says either. Iraq has to be considered a priority and whatever is needed to get the job done has to be provided.

More important than just "sending another division over there", or more, is the question of whether we have enough active divisions. I'm not a military expert, but the extensive use of reserves over the past few years is in my opinion a pretty clear indication that we need to add more active divisions to the Army or Marine Corps. I don't think we need to go back to Cold War levels, but rescinding a couple of the reductions makes sense, and we don't need a draft to do that.

As long as Senator McCain is speaking out in favor of supporting our effort in Iraq, he's OK by me. I don't trust him, of course, but right now he's more of an asset than a liability -- at least on this issue.

[LADY J]

"Congress cannot demand discipline and sacrifice only of the men and women fighting in the desert."

Practice some of that discipline and keep your big mouth shut, McCain.

Nobody put you in charge of the war. You have already done enough damage with your stupid McCain/Feingold fiasco.

[kellynla]

Bring the troops out of Japan, Korea and Germany.
I think we've bought enough merchandise from these countries over the years that they can finally afford to defend themselves for a change without our help.

[ElectricStrawberry]

Since when should I, an ex-infantry Sgt., listen to a fly-boy that spent the better part of a decade as a prisoner? What makes him the source for advice on how to run a ground war.

If they'd change the ROE to remove the handcuffs of those on the gorund, things would go a helluva lot better. Guess politicians haven't learned to keep out of the battles in the past 40 years.

[biblewonk]

Bring em home!

[areafiftyone]

True - we don't need our troops in those countries.

[areafiftyone]

No your dog said we need 15,000 more milkbones in Iraq. You didn't hear him right. ;-)

[familyop]

McCain got something right for once. What's nutty is seeing that some people don't want to cut our social programs for assault against the family (which social programs for adultery and ripping off our troops will push retention and enlistments lower) in order to increase our military.

[isthisnickcool]

QUESTION: What was the main reason people consider John McCain to be a war hero today?

ANSWER: Gravity.

[ex-snook]

"I haven't always agreed with the Senator from Arizona but he makes sense. Our national security is at stake and I applaud his initiative to pay for our Iraqi operations by cutting domestic spending. Its about time we got serious. "

Putting in more troops will greatly increase our force strength and will win the war on terrorism faster and save the lives of those fighting. And as long as we still have to do Syria, Iran and North Korea, and the long slog war on terrorism, we better get started on the draft.

Don't worry about the cost either. That is being passed on to the next generation.

[LS]

Don't we have 10,000 troops in Germany and Kosovo? Let's start there.

[BibChr]

I'd vote for your dog first.

At least he's probably loyal.

Dan

[ravingnutter]

More important than just "sending another division over there", or more, is the question of whether we have enough active divisions.

We do, they are just spread all over the place. I thought about this last night. What we need to do is negotiate with the {chickens**t} countries that are pulling out of Iraq and have them take over the basic peacekeeping and construction activities in the other nations so we can concentrate our troops in Iraq.

[meenie]

Form a battalion out of the congresscritters and administration cabinet officers so they make the correcrtions needed from their personal experience.

[jwalsh07]

President Bush should give Generals Abizaid and Sanchez every soldier and piece of equipment they need and he should tell politicians who want to run the war from Washington to STFU.

[cksharks]

Screw that POS.

[pepperhead]

ANSWER: Gravity.

Well I thought the answer is that he married a rich woman. The press loves gigolos.;)

[DiscoStu1979]

This is ridiculous, McCain of all people should know the dangers of letting politicians run a war, unless Myers or Abizaid ask for more troops then let the staus quo be.

Politicians always run wars. Remember that the militiary initially asked for 400,000 troops for the invasion. All Presidents put constraints on the military.