U.S. & World

WASHINGTON (AP) ― John McCain, his presidential bid faltering and his support for the unpopular Iraq war unflinching, is seeking to convince Americans that the conflict is "necessary and just."

"I know the pain the war causes," the Arizona senator and former Vietnam prisoner of war says in a speech to be delivered Wednesday. "But it's the right road."

All three leading Republican presidential candidates back President Bush's decision earlier this year to dispatch additional troops to Baghdad. But McCain is the only one directly linked to the policy, and, by extension, the war.

"We have a long way to go, but for the first time in four years, we have a strategy that deals with how things really are in Iraq and not how we wish them to be," he said, urging patience.

McCain is staking his presidential candidacy on the war's outcome -- for better or worse. "I would rather lose a campaign than a war," he said.

In his speech at the Virginia Military Institute, McCain stresses the consequences of failure in Iraq and explain his staunch support of the war, now in its fifth year, which has caused more than 3,200 American deaths.

"Our defeat in Iraq would constitute a defeat in the war against terror and extremism and would make the world a much more dangerous place," McCain said, chastising Democrats in Congress pushing for withdrawal for advocating what he equated to surrender.

While McCain embraces the war, his top GOP rivals, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney are positioning themselves as leaders on foreign policy as they vie for the support of hard-core Republican voters.

In his own speech Tuesday in Texas, Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, said: "Running away from Iraq now would embolden our enemies, giving them the sanctuary they need to plan more devastating attacks against our country."

The troop increase, Romney said, "deserves a chance to succeed."

McCain, once the chief GOP critic on how the United States was waging the war, has been out front for years in calling for more troop levels. In January, he became Bush's top Senate pitchman to sell skeptics on the increase and his political fate became entwined with it.

Most Americans have turned against the four-year-old conflict that has claimed more than 3,200 U.S. lives. The latest Associated Press-Ipsos poll showed that a majority of Americans say the United States made a mistake going to war in Iraq and half call it a hopeless cause.

However, support remains strong among Republicans. Roughly three in four say the United States made the right decision in going to war and nearly the same numbers say the war is a worthy cause.

That means McCain's steadfastness actually could help him in the GOP primary even as it turns off independents and Democrats in a general election.

His Iraq speech is the first of three major policy addresses McCain plans to give as he seeks to inject much-needed momentum into his campaign.

While visiting Iraq last week, McCain said he was encouraged by signs of progress and cautiously optimistic about security improvements in Baghdad even as he toured the capital under heavy military guard. Iraqis mocked his characterization as too rosy, and he faced criticism at home of being out of touch with reality.

The episode threatened to undercut McCain's credibility on one of his signature issues -- defense. A former Navy pilot held captive in Vietnam for nearly 6 years, McCain is the only top-tier Republican candidate to have served in the military. He is the senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

At the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in Texas on Tuesday, Romney proposed increasing defense spending and adding 100,000 troops to the armed forces. He called for supporting U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and criticized Democrats in Congress for considering cutting off funding. "This is a grave error," he said.

Romney also stressed the dangers posed by radical Islam, saying "many of us still fail to comprehend the extent of the threat" and, understandably, focus on Iraq and Afghanistan only.

"For radical Islam, there is one conflict and one goal -- replacing all modern Islamic states with a caliphate, destroying America, and conquering the world," Romney said.

The former governor served only one term but recently has traveled the world to boost his foreign policy portfolio. The speech was part of that effort.

Giuliani, a two-term mayor of New York City, also is emphasizing his foreign policy experience and is casting himself as the most qualified candidate to deal with threats against the country.

He tells voters he knows how to remain on offense against terrorists.

"It's a thing that I understand better than anyone who is running for president of the United States. And it's not because I lived through September 11," he said in West Des Moines, Iowa, last week. "I've been dealing with things like terrorism, and, to some extent, terrorism for many, many years, before September 11 and since September 11."

He emphasized his years as a U.S. attorney, his work in the Justice Department and his years as mayor.

(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)