Bluffton, S.C. – Republican presidential candidate John McCain says the war in Iraq has been mismanaged for years and that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will be remembered as one of the worst in history.
“We are paying a very heavy price for the mismanagement – that’s the kindest word I can give you – of Donald Rumsfeld, of this war,” the Arizona senator told more than 800 people Monday at a retirement community near Hilton Head Island, S.C.
McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, complained that Rumsfeld never put enough troops on the ground to succeed in Iraq.
“I think that Donald Rumsfeld will go down in history as one of the worst secretaries of defense,” McCain said to applause.
The comments were in sharp contrast to the senator’s statement when Rumsfeld resigned in November. “While Secretary Rumsfeld and I have had our differences, he deserves Americans’ respect and gratitude for his many years of public service,” McCain said then.
On a two-day campaign swing in South Carolina, McCain fielded questions from the crowd for more than an hour and said the U.S. can succeed in Iraq with additional troops and a new strategy. He is a strong proponent of using more troops and favors Bush’s increase of about 21,500 U.S. forces in the nearly 4-year-old war.
McCain’s 2000 bid for president was sidetracked in South Carolina after a win in New Hampshire. George W. Bush won the primary and, later, the White House.
