Associated Press - McCain Says Progress In Iraq Is Measured By Democrats' Silence

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Associated Press - McCain Says Progress In Iraq Is Measured By Democrats' Silence

By Philip Elliott, AP
November 18, 2007

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain said Sunday he can tell the U.S. troop increase in Iraq is having an effect on the violence there.

How? Democrats, who generally oppose the war, have stopped linking him to the troop build-up, he says.

President Bush sent thousands of additional troops to Iraq earlier this year in an effort to control violence. McCain, an Arizona senator and the senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, had long called for sending in more troops.

''When I first advocated this path to success, people like Senator (John) Edwards called it 'the McCain strategy,' 'the McCain surge.' It wasn't and it isn't. But I notice he doesn't say that any more,'' McCain said.

McCain also notes, especially for anti-war voters, that he was an early critic of the war strategy waged by former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

''The strategy was going to fail with Rumsfeld. I fought against. I spoke against,'' he said. ''I said the strategy that we are using now is what we needed to succeed and it is succeeding.''

McCain was on the third day of a four-day campaign trip to New Hampshire. Polls show him in third place behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

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