McCain: Dem Iraq Plans "A Significant Step on the Road to Disaster...Empower the Insurgency"

Sen. McCain argued on the Senate floor today that Democratic troop withdrawal plans would only strengthen the insurgency and allow Zawahiri to achieve his top priority to "expel the Americans" from Iraq. Democratic plans would also repeat the mistakes we made in pre-9/11 Afghanistan, where we abandoned that nation to the Taliban and al Qaeda. McCain also dismissed so-called "strategic redeployment" plans pushed by folks like Howard Dean as "nonsense" and added that American policy should be "win the war," not run for exits.

Some highlights from Sen. McCain's speech:

The amendment we are debating now states the sense of Congress that the President should begin the phased redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq this year, and that he should submit to Congress a plan with dates for this redeployment. Such a move would be, I believe, a significant step on the road to disaster….

By signaling that an end to the American intervention is near, we will alienate our friends, who fear an insurgent victory and tempt undecideds to join the anti-government ranks.

Not every member of this body agreed with the decision to topple Saddam Hussein. But when our country went to war, we incurred a moral duty to not abandon the people of Iraq to terrorists and killers. If we withdraw prematurely, risking all-out civil war, we will have done precisely that….

In pre-9/11 Afghanistan, terrorists found sanctuary to train and plan attacks with impunity. We know that there are today in Iraq terrorists who are planning attacks against Americans. We cannot make this fatal mistake twice….

Whether or not members of this body believed that Iraq was part of the war on terror in 2003, it is simply incontrovertible that the war on terror is being fought there today. Al-Qaeda is present in Iraq. Jihadists continue to cross the borders. Suicide bombers target American troops, government personnel, and civilians. If we leave Iraq prematurely, the jihadists will interpret the withdrawal as the triumph of their brutal tactics against our power. And I do not believe they will stop with Iraq….

The letter released last year from Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's lieutenant, to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, draws out the implications. The Zawahiri letter is predicated on the assumption that the United States will leave Iraq, and that al Qaeda's real game begins as soon as we abandon the country. In his missive, Zawahiri lays out a four stage plan - establish a caliphate in Iraq, extend the "jihad wave" to the secular countries neighboring Iraq, clash with Israel - none of which shall commence until the completion of stage one: expel the Americans from Iraq. Zawahiri observes that the collapse of American power in Vietnam, "and how they ran and left their agents," suggests that "we must be ready starting now."

We can't let them start, now or ever. We must stay in Iraq until the government there has fully functioning security forces that can keep the insurgents at bay, and ultimately defeat them. Some argue that it is our very presence in Iraq that has created the insurgency, and that if we end the occupation, we end the insurgency. But, in fact, by ending military operations, we are likely to empower the insurgency. The fighting is not simply against coalition forces; rather, the insurgents target the Iraqi government, opposing militias, and various sects and ethnicities….

A few observers have argued that the U.S. has an option of somehow pulling our troops from Iraq but still managing things from afar. But this is nonsense. The United States will have no leverage to manage things once we have left the country. The battle in Iraq, which is likely to remain counterinsurgency in character, is ill-suited to the extensive use of airpower, which would be the foremost instrument available to us from outside. We could no more prevail in Iraq from outside than we could win the war in Vietnam by continuing to bomb the North. As tempting as it is to seek a solution that would let us both draw down our troops and preserve our military options in Iraq, that solution does not exist. The options on the table have been there from the beginning. Withdraw and fail, or commit and succeed….

America's first goal in Iraq is to win the war - and that all other policy decisions support, and are subordinate to, the successful completion of our mission.

No one should have any illusions about the costs of this conflict, as it has been waged thus far or as it will be waged as we move ahead. But neither should anyone have illusions about the role of Iraq in the war on terror today. It has become a central battleground in our fight against those who wish us grave harm, and we cannot wish away this fundamental truth.