WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. John McCain, a front-runner among GOP presidential contenders for said Sunday the U.S. must send an overwhelming number of troops to stabilize Iraq or face the possibility of more attacks in the region and on American soil. "I believe the consequences of failure are catastrophic. It will spread to the region. You will see Iran more emboldened. Eventually, you could see Iran pose a greater threat to the state of Israel," said McCain, R-Ariz.
"We left Vietnam. It was over. We just had to heal the wounds of war," said McCain, who spent 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war after his Navy plane was shot down in 1967. "We leave this place, chaos in the region, and they'll follow us home. So there's a great deal more at stake here in this conflict, in my view, a lot more.
McCain said he based his judgment partly on the writings of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaida leader in Iraq who was killed in a U.S. air raid, and of Osama bin Laden.
"The consequences of failure are so severe that I will exhaust every possibility to try to fix this situation. Because it's not the end when American troops leave. The battleground shifts, and we'll be fighting them again," McCain said. "You read Zarqawi, and you read bin Laden. ... It's not just Iraq that they're interested in. It's the region, and then us."
With about 141,000 U.S. troops in Iraq more than 3 1/2 years into the war, the American military has strained to provide enough forces while allowing for adequate rest and retraining between deployments.
Democrats poised to take control of the House and Senate are pressing for a substantial reduction of U.S. troops in Iraq and a timetable for their withdrawal.
"As a practical matter, there are no troops to increase with," said incoming House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. "Our objective was to remove Saddam Hussein and create an environment in which a democracy could be established. That has been done."
But Hoyer said Democrats would continue funding the existing troop levels.
"That's not an option, of not supporting our troops in the field and making sure they're as safe as we can make them," he said. "Very frankly, their lack of numbers exposes them on a daily basis to danger and death, unfortunately. But clearly, we're going to have discussions going forward as to how we change this policy and change it in the short term, not the long term.
Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander for the Middle East, told the Senate Armed Services Committee last week that believes troop levels should remain steady for now. He said it was possible to add 20,000 troops for a short time, but it would be unrealistic to raise troop levels as proposed by McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
Abizaid said the American military in Iraq is stretched too thin already, and sending over a bigger, more permanent presence would undercut efforts to force Iraqis to take on more responsibility.
McCain disagreed, saying it was time to use decisive force with a clear exit strategy.
"You've got to ask yourself some questions. One, are we winning? And I think the answer is no. The other is, what are the consequences of defeat?" McCain said. "Can we still win? Yes, I believe we can. It'll be tough, but we need to do it."
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said he thinks U.S. general have been put "in a a very, very difficult position."
"What I don't have confidence in is the policy. And General Abizaid is giving us a diagnosis that is based on the current policy. But that policy has to change, and it can change."
Kerry spoke on "Fox News Sunday," while McCain and Hoyer appeared on ABC's "This Week."
