By SEN. JOHN MCCAIN…We must be honest about the war in Iraq. Without additional combat forces we will not win. We must clear and hold insurgent strongholds, provide security for rebuilding local institutions and economies, arrest sectarian violence in Baghdad and disarm Sunni and Shia militias, train the Iraqi army, and embed American personnel in weak and often corrupt Iraqi police units. We need to do all these things if we are to succeed. And we will need more troops to do them.
They will not be easy to find. We should have begun to increase significantly the size of the Army and Marine Corps the day after 9/11. But we did not. So we must turn again to those Americans and their families who have already sacrificed so much in this cause. That is a very hard thing to do. But if we intend to win, then we must.
It is not fair or easy to look a soldier in the eye and tell him he must shoulder a rifle again and risk his life in a third tour in Iraq. As troubling as it is, I can ask a young Marine to go back to Iraq. And he will go, not happily perhaps, but he will go because he and his comrades are the first patriots among us. But I can only ask him if I share his commitment to victory.
The voters might not always agree with us, but when they see us act on principle, see us tackle the hardest problems and risk our personal ambitions, they will draw the right conclusion: that we are acting on their behalf, not just our own. Inspirational leadership challenges people. Be honest and determined to place the country’s interests before anything else, and the people will give us our chance.
- clear and hold insurgent strongholds
- provide security for rebuilding local institutions and economies
- arrest sectarian violence in Baghdad
- disarm Sunni and Shia militias
- train the Iraqi army
- embed American personnel in weak and often corrupt Iraqi police units
He’s still caught up in the fantasy that we could go into a volatile, deeply divided country where we are hated and depose their government, hunt down a deck of cards full of officials, and then turn it into an American democracy. The things he suggests can’t be done in a lifetime. But more to the point, the Iraqis are obviously not interested in doing these things. Where’s the incentive? The only reason for us to even try is to make our venture in going there in the first place look like a good idea.
It wasn’t.
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