COLUMBUS, Ohio — Republican John McCain declared for the first time Thursday that the Iraq war can be won by 2013, although he rejected suggestions that his talk of a timetable put him on the same side as Democrats clamoring for full-scale troop withdrawals.
The Republican presidential contender, in a speech that also envisioned Osama bin Laden dead or captured, said that only a small number of troops would remain in Iraq by the end of a prospective first term because al-Qaeda will have been defeated and Iraq’s government will be functioning on its own.
“By January 2013, 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,” McCain told an audience in Columbus, the capital city of a general-election battleground state.
Later, as the Arizona senator drove to the airport on his campaign bus, McCain was peppered by reporters with questions about the timetable. He and his aides insisted there was a difference between ending the war and bringing troops home and, as they criticize the Democrats, announcing a withdrawal upfront without regard for the military endgame.
“It’s not a timetable; it’s victory. It’s victory, which I have always predicted. I didn’t know when we were going to win World War II; I just knew we were going to win,” he said.
Democrats challenged Mc Cain’s comments. In a statement, Hillary Rodham Clinton said McCain “promises more of the same Bush policies that have weakened our military, our national security and our standing in the world.”
The Barack Obama campaign said that although the candidate agrees with some of McCain’s sentiments, “you cannot embrace the destructive policies and divisive political tactics of George Bush and still offer yourself as a candidate of healing and change.”
In his remarks, McCain peered through a crystal ball to 2013 and envisioned an era of bipartisanship driven by weekly news conferences and British-style question periods with joint meetings of Congress.
The senator conceded he cannot make the changes alone but said he wanted to outline a specific governing style to show the accomplishments it can achieve.
