Candidate McCain: We Want to See an End to the Iraq War

Candidate McCain–we want to see an ‘exit’ out of Iraq

John McCain, the 72-year-old senior veteran senator, who is often called a “maverick”, has been nominated as the presidential candidate for the U.S. Republican Party.

“We face many threats in this dangerous world, but I’m not afraid of them. I’m prepared for them,” he declared in his acceptance speech. The speech illustrated his confrontational attitude towards Barak Obama, the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party.

McCain’s background epitomizes the American tradition of patriotism. Born in a Marine family, he went to the front during the Vietnam War and survived five and a half years as a prisoner of war. As a politician, he was a “lone wolf” who took on the moderate conservative bases but opposed his party’s mainstream on political funds control and illegal immigrants.

He raced against President George W. Bush on the Republican Party nomination 8 years ago and did not get along with the pro-Bush evangelical right. He has popularity beyond party lines, and he received an offer to run for the U.S. vice president with John Kelly Democratic presidential nominee 4 years ago.

The Republican Party provokes a backlash due to the unpopularity of President Bush. McCain is a card to play in order to bring in the Independence voters.

Another surprising card came from the nomination of Mr. McCain’s vice president. A 44-year-old Alaskan Governor, Sarah Palin, is a mother of five children including one with Down syndrome. The Democratic Party has once nominated a female nominee for the vice president, but she is the first one from the Republican Party. It is positive that the American society has broken another “glass ceiling.”

However, Woman Palin’s view against abortion and gun control is the exact reverse of Democratic Mrs. Clinton’s supporters’. She was welcomed by the conservatives with enthusiasm, but it is doubtful whether she could captivate women’s support widely. Her inexperience on diplomacy is undeniably worrying, too.

Mr. McCain himself has experience of diplomacy as well as security policies. There is something worrying about that as well, nonetheless- his attitude toward the Iraq War. In his acceptance speech, he emphasized only the success of the reinforcement of the American troops but did not specify plans to end the war, or the timing of withdrawal.

Mr. McCain proposed attacking Iraq from the beginning. He sharply criticized mismanagement during the occupation but he consistently agreed on reinforcement of the U.S. Army.

Mr. Obama, on the other hand, has pledged that he will withdraw the combat troops within 16 months after the inauguration of the President as the war in Iraq is just a mistake itself.

Security in Iraq is certainly improving. However, the decline of a number of American soldiers killed does not justify a war without just cause and the policies toward Iraq since the beginning of the war. It is troubling if Mr. McCain is going to carry on the ‘preemptive attack’ mentality of the Bush administration.

Restoring America’s leadership is an important challenge for the next administration. To do that, it is imperative to envision schemes to end the Iraq War. That is what the world is looking for.