McCain Sees Troops out of Iraq by 2013

John McCain thinks he can end the Iraq war and bring most troops home within his first term as president, he says in the text of a speech, obtained by the Los Angeles Times, to be delivered this morning. McCain’s doesn't acknowledge a policy change, but includes a list of what he expects to accomplish in his first term: “By January 2013, America has welcomed home most of the servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly."

He also envisions that the Iraq war has been won, civil war prevented, al-Qaeda in Iraq defeated, militias disbanded, and Iraq as a functioning democracy. McCain once pounced on Mitt Romney for even suggesting a timetable for ending the US combat role in Iraq, but now he seems eager to show America a light at the end of the tunnel, and deflect Democrat attacks that he is a Bush rerun. In the new speech, he envisions American troops maintaining a small, non-combat presence in Iraq. (More Iraq stories.)