By Frank Morris
KANSAS CITY, MO – Sen. John McCain says Democrats who offer a quick withdrawal from Iraq aren't being honest about the consequences of defeat there. McCain spoke to a group of veterans at the National World War I Museum in Kansas City today.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain says that four years under a flawed military strategy in Iraq, brought the U.S. almost to the point of no return. But he argues that the troop surge led by General David Petraeus has brought a measure of normalcy and order to Iraq. That's something he says his rivals, Senators Clinton and Obama, refuse to acknowledge.
"We are no longer staring into the abyss of defeat, and can now look ahead to the genuine prospect of success," McCain says.
McCain says establishing Iraq as a peaceful, democratic, stabilizing force in the region will be a long, hard process. But he says speedy withdrawal could uncork a civil war, boost Iran's stature, and possibly draw U.S. forces into an even more costly, wider war in the Middle East.