by Mark Silva
Sen. John McCain, facing criticism from Democratic opponents that his election as president represents a third term for President Bush, said today that he could not rule out a pre-emptive military strike against enemies such as the one that Bush launched against Iraq.
The presumptive Republican nominee was asked at one of his signature “town-hall” styled campaign appearances in Westport, Conn., if he, as president, would reject “the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive war.”
“I don’t think you could make a blanket statement about pre-emptive war, because obviously, it depends on the threat that the United States of America faces,” the senator from Arizona told his audience at Bridgewater Associates, a global investment firm.
He did say that the U.S. must stand ready to defend against a hostile nation’s attack: “If someone is about to launch a weapon that would devastate America, or have the capability to do so, obviously, you would have to act immediately in defense of this nation’s national security interests,” said McCain, noting that he would consult more closely and carefully with Congress — “not with every member of Congress, but certainly the leaders of Congress.”
But it is the question of pre-emptive strikes that McCain faced most directly today. The question arose as President Bush prepares to announce his plans for the way forward in Iraq with a late-morning address from the Cross Hall of the White House on Thursday.
Bush first will host an early breakfast for Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of multinational forces in Iraq who testified before House and Senate committees this week that the “surge” of forces which Bush ordered last year in Iraq is working. Maintaining that the security gains made in Iraq are “fragile” and reversible,” Petraeus is seeking a 45-day pause this summer in further troop drawdowns after the roughly 20,000 surge combat forces are withdrawn, to assess the situation before any further changes are made. Bush, in launching the 2003 invasion of Iraq, had called it necessary to forestall possible future attacks from a country developing weapons of mass destruction — though those weapons never were found. McCain, who has maintained that he would “rather lose an election than lose a war,” is supporting Bush’s latest war strategy.
Following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Bush approved a new national security strategy in 2002 that allowed the United States to strike first against enemies believed to be prepared to use weapons of mass destruction against America. In an October 2002 speech, Bush made the case for invading Iraq, with this warning: “Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof — the smoking gun — that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.”
The president must consult more closely with members of Congress, so that the government can act in unison if a threat is imminent, McCain said Wednesday. “In normal times,” he said, “as you see a looming threat … I think you need to consult more closely and more carefully not with every member of Congress, but certainly the leaders of Congress.”
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Tribune wire services contributed to this report.