The World According to John McCain

McCain knows that his candidacy will rise or fall on how the public sees Iraq and the larger War on Terror. "How people judge Iraq will have a direct relation to how they judge me," he recently told reporters on his campaign plane. "In some ways, it's out of my control." Last week, as violence scorched Baghdad and Basra, there were renewed questions about whether McCain even now "gets" Iraq and the delicate counterinsurgency campaign being run by Gen. David Petraeus. When he traveled there last year, appearing in a flak jacket in an open Baghdad market to demonstrate the success of the surge, "many of us were very uncomfortable," says a former member of the U.S. command in Baghdad who would reveal internal discussions only on condition of anonymity. "We felt he was pushing things too hard and too fast."

Despite McCain's nuanced record on the use of force, his team understands that he's got something of an image problem. Hence it was no surprise that the first lines of his remarks last week were designed to remove any lingering doubts that McCain is a warmonger, according to Salter. "I detest war," McCain declared. "When nations seek to resolve their differences by force of arms, a million tragedies ensue … Whatever gains are secured, it is loss the veteran remembers most keenly."

Still, McCain's Vietnam experience, not surprisingly, shapes him yet. "His position on Iraq is heavily influenced by his Vietnam experience," says Gary Hart, who was an usher at McCain's 1980 wedding. "I think that he has an emotional stake in not losing. He, like other veterans, believes that we could have 'won the Vietnam War,' but the politicians panicked and caved in to public sentiment and withdrew prematurely."

If there is one issue that haunts the reinvigorated McCain candidacy even more, it is whether he will start a new war with Iran. McCain told NEWSWEEK that he "will continue to exhaust every other option before committing young Americans to harm's way," but that "we cannot afford to have Iran acquire nuclear weapons." Lieberman says McCain is precisely the man to keep America out of a war. "He's going to do everything he can to avoid military confrontation with Iran," he says. "There's an old expression: the best way to achieve peace is to prepare for war." McCain has called for expanding the U.S. Army and Marines by about 100,000 service members, but he also understands that the global struggle against terrorists and their state sponsors is counterinsurgency writ large, requiring aid and the winning of "hearts and minds" as much as military ops. "In this struggle, scholarships will be far more important than smart bombs," he said in Los Angeles. If John McCain becomes president, which will be used more?

Editor's Note: In this story, Newsweek describes a meeting at the 2006 Munich security conference in which Sen. John McCain allegedly erupted at the German foreign minister, whom McCain thought was being insufficiently tough on the brutal regime in Belarus. There are, however, conflicting versions of the episode, and we should have made that clear. Other people who were in the room at the time dispute the account, and several of those who were there, including those who recall a brief flareup of anger from the senator (which the senator denies), believed the incident was minor, based on a misunderstanding caused by a translation problem, and was quickly cleared up. Sen. McCain should have been given an opportunity to give his version of events in the print version, and we regret that the piece did not note the different recollections of the moment, including the denials that there was any display of anger.

With Holly Bailey

© 2008