War on war

Politics: Candidates spar over Iraq as the once-dominant campaign issue takes a backseat to domestic troubles | Mindy Belz

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On a chilly April 11, 2007, Sen. John McCain delivered a speech at Virginia Military Institute that became emblematic not only of his stand on the war in Iraq but his often out-of-step, ponderous style.

Results from a just-begun surge in Iraq were not yet in, and Democrats and Republicans were talking about withdrawal timetables, but McCain was dogged. After all, he'd been calling for upping troop levels in Iraq since 2004. "Will this nation's elected leaders make the politically hard but strategically vital decision to give General Petraeus our full support and do what is necessary to succeed in Iraq?" he asked the cadets. "Or will we decide to take advantage of the public's frustration, accept defeat, and hope that whatever the cost to our security the politics of defeat will work out better for us than our opponents?" The next sentence was to become a signature line of his campaign: "For my part I would rather lose a campaign than a war."