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McCain urges changes in Bush's Iraq strategy

Posted on: Thursday, 10 November 2005, 19:56 CST

By Vicki Allen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Sen. John McCain, a major backer of the Iraq war, said on Thursday the Bush administration must make broad changes in its strategy to confront the insurgency in Iraq, and commit more troops and resources to the effort.

McCain, the Arizona maverick who challenged George W. Bush for the presidential nomination in 2000 and is considered likely to make another run, repudiated calls from many Democrats for a plan to start withdrawing troops from Iraq.

In his speech to the American Enterprise Institute, he also praised the resolve of Bush, whose poll ratings have plummeted partly on discontent over the Iraq war.

McCain stood firm in his dispute with the White House over legislation he has proposed outlawing torture or cruel and inhumane treatment of U.S. prisoners. Vice President Dick Cheney is working in Congress to exempt the CIA from such a formal ban.

"We're either going to have a blanketed uniform standard or we're not," McCain said in answer to a question. He said torturing to get information was immoral, was not effective and encouraged potential enemies to do the same to Americans.

A senior member of the Armed Services Committee, McCain said the administration must take a new approach in Iraq that he said would require more U.S. troops and would "take time, probably years, and mean more American casualties."

The United States has 150,000 troops in Iraq. More than 2,050 U.S. military personnel have been killed there.

Instead of trying to shift forces around the country to secure all of Iraq from insurgents, McCain said the Pentagon should concentrate on securing and then holding insurgent strongholds.

"Our forces cannot hold the ground indefinitely, and when they move on to fight other battles, the insurgent ranks replenish and strongholds fill again," McCain said. "Our troops must then re-enter the same area and refight the same battle."

Instead of focusing on killing and capturing insurgents, he said the Pentagon should protect local populations to create "secure areas where insurgents find it difficult to operate" and areas where "civil society can emerge" through reconstruction and political progress.

McCain criticized the Pentagon for rotating generals in and out of Iraq instead of benefiting from their knowledge and experience. He also said the Iraq effort had been too concentrated in the Pentagon, and should be shared among other key agencies.

To build Iraqi forces to eventually replace U.S. forces, McCain said the United States should insist units be diversified among ethnic groups to help unite the country, even though that would be more difficult and time-consuming.

He said the administration must redouble efforts to rebuild support for the war domestically, and more accurately portray events on the ground "even if they are negative."

Source: REUTERS

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