WASHINGTON -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Thursday promised to bring most American combat troops home from Iraq by the end of his first term in the White House, telling U.S. voters the war-torn nation would be a "functioning democracy" within five years.
In a speech offering Americans a vision statement for a McCain White House, the presumed GOP nominee also deliberately distanced himself from President George W. Bush on major areas of domestic and foreign policy.
John McCain: airs new Iraq war plan
The 71-year-old senator vowed an end to the "hyper-partisanship" that has divided the nation and said the "political leadership of the United States will change significantly."
But it was McCain's decision to offer a timetable for withdrawal that amounted to his sharpest policy reversal.
"By January 2013, America has welcomed home most of the servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly so that America might be secure in her freedom," McCain said.
"The Iraq war has been won. Iraq is a functioning democracy, although still suffering form the lingering effects of decades of tyranny and centuries of sectarian tension."
The Arizona lawmaker until now has repeatedly warned against setting an "artificial deadline" for an end to the war, warning it would encourage terrorists and insurgents in Iraq to lay in wait until the U.S. left the country.
McCain has been a steadfast ally of President George W. Bush on Iraq war policy, last year by endorsing the Pentagon's surge of 30,000 new troops into the country.
But while overall levels of violence in Iraq are down since the surge began, election-year polls show a large majority of Americans still believe the war was a mistake.
The anti-war sentiment poses a significant political problem for McCain because his likely opponent, Barack Obama, says he would bring troops home within 16 months of taking office.
Without offering a specific plan for victory, McCain said he expected by 2013 that al-Qaida in Iraq would be "defeated," Shiite militias "disbanded" and the Iraq government capable of "imposing its authority in every province of Iraq and defending the integrity of its borders." The U.S. would maintain "a military presence there, but a much smaller one, and it does not play a direct combat role."
-- Canwest News Service
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