EmailABC News’ Bret Hovell reports: Republican White House contender Senator John McCain, will blast Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., a Democratic presidential candidate, for her views on the war in Iraq as he campaigns in Concord, New Hampshire on Friday.
McCain plans to call the war against radical Islamist extremists the "national security challenge of our time," according to excerpts of his speech released by the campaign.
McCain will also talk about al Qaeda’s role in the war in Iraq, and will name names when claiming that Democrats are ignoring that threat.
"They ignore the consequences of a US defeat at the hands of al Qaeda — and some ignore al Qaeda altogether," McCain’s speech reads. "Just this week, Senators Clinton and Byrd wrote an op-ed about the war in Iraq and never once mentioned al Qaeda or the terrorist presence in Iraq."
McCain will accuse Democratic presidential candidates of "defeatism" on the issue of Iraq.
"Democratic candidates for President will argue for the course of cutting our losses and withdrawing from the threat in the vain hope it will not follow us here." says McCain’s speech. "I cannot join them in such wishful and very dangerous thinking."
McCain will again concede that mistakes were made in the way the war in Iraq was handled, but his speech says, "they must not cause us self doubt. We must learn from them, as Americans have always learned from our mistakes, and fight smarter and harder."
McCain will also accuse the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki of "not functioning as it must."
"We see little evidence of reconciliation and little progress toward meeting the benchmarks laid out by the President … Iraqi political leaders must seize this opportunity. It will not come around again," reads the speech.
He will say that as president he would increase the size of an "overstretched and under-resourced" American military. And he will call for the creation of an "Army Advisor Corps," which he’ll describe as 20,000 soldiers that would work with friendly militaries abroad to teach the "right kind of skills to fight a global counterinsurgency."
McCain will hold a news conference Friday where he will face questions about his current campaign woes –- his campaign’s financial troubles and the recent major staff shake-ups.