Republican presidential candidates largely agree that US must succeed in Iraq

WASHINGTON, Jan 25 (KUNA) — The Republican presidential candidates, debating in Florida Thursday night for the last time before a critical primary there in five days, largely said they supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq and believe the United States should continue its effort to succeed there.
Arizona Senator John McCain said the United States can sustain its effort in Iraq and “will be able to withdraw our troops over time if we succeed.” McCain, repeating a line he has been using during his campaign in Florida, attacked leading Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for advocating “surrender” in Iraq.
The United States will reduce its casualties in Iraq and gradually eliminate those casualties, he said. McCain said he was proud to have been a critic of the Iraq strategy of former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who invaded Iraq with too few troops, and a supporter of the year-old US troop surge in Iraq as executed by top US general in Iraq, David Petraeus.
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who was leading or running a close second to McCain for first place in recent Republican polls in Florida, called for adding 100,000 US Army troops to raise the total to 1.6 million.
Romney, who also criticized Hillary Clinton several times during the debate, said the Democrats “want to just get out” of Iraq, “and that is simply wrong.” The United States cannot turn Iraq over to Al-Qaeda, he said.
“I will not walk away from Iraq until we are successful,” Romney said.
Asked if the removal of Saddam Hussein in Iraq was worth it, McCain said it was because Saddam had used weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and was a threat to his neighbors. “The war was justified, but it was mishandled,” McCain said.
He concluded his answer by saying, “At the end of the day, we will have peace and success in the Middle East.” Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is counting on Florida to revive his slumping campaign, said the United States must succeed in Iraq, and that Iraq must “be stable and an ally of the United States.” Texas congressman Ron Paul, a libertarian, drew the only applause during the questioning on Iraq when he said, “The war was a bad idea and not worth it.
” The United States started the war “needlessly,” said Paul, who has outpolled Giuliani in several Republican primaries.
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee said he backed President George W. Bush when he decided to invade Iraq in 2003 because there was “a potential of WMD.” “It is easy to second-guess a president,” Huckabee said. “We need courage and resolve to stick” to the task in Iraq, he said.
Romney said it was the right decision to go into Iraq. “I supported it then, I support it now, but it was not well-executed,” he said. Romney said he backs the Petraeus approach in Iraq and warned of the possibility of Al-Qaeda establishing safe havens there. He said the call by Democrats to “run and retreat” is “a bad idea.” In a debate heavily focused on economic issues, the candidates largely backed the recent proposal from Bush and key congressional Democrats to issue tax rebates to Americans, but most said more was needed. The candidates agreed on Republican economic principles of reducing taxes, including corporate taxes, and restraining spending.
Romney, a wealthy businessman, said he has “the private sector in my DNA.” Asked how he would run against the political team of Hillary Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, who has taken a high-profile role lately in his wife’s campaign, Romney said, “I can’t imagine Bill Clinton back in the White House with nothing to do.” If Hillary Clinton is the Democratic presidential nominee, Romney said he would be campaigning against her, not her husband, adding, “We are not going to have a team running the White House.” Hillary Clinton is out of step with the American people on the issues of health care and taxes, Romney said, and her plans would cost trillions of dollars within 10 years.
Hillary Clinton “is exactly what is wrong with Washington,” Romney said, and “sending the same people back to Washington (the Clintons) is not the way.” Told that a recent poll showed that 44 percent of Americans believe a Mormon president would have difficulty running the country, Romney, a Mormon, said he did not believe Americans would choose a president “based on which church you go to.” The US Constitution says there will be no religious requirement for public office, he noted.