McCain foreign policy speech calls for global engagement

WASHINGTON -- John McCain urged more U.S. engagement with the world on Wednesday, including the creation of a new global warming plan and a global "League of Democracies."

"We cannot build an enduring peace based on freedom by ourselves," McCain said in an address to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council.

In a speech that covered the world scene, McCain also defended the Iraq war, condemned torture of terrorism suspects, advocated free trade, urged Russian's expulsion from the G-8 alliance of nations, and said "dealing with a rising China will be a central challenge for the next American president."

Russia should be expelled from the G-8 because of its rollback of democracy, McCain said, while rising economic powers Brazil and India should be invited in.

The former Navy pilot and Vietnam POW also stressed his desire for peaceful relations among nations, telling the crowd, "I detest war."

McCain also defended the war in Iraq, and said the question of whether the al-Qaeda terrorist group operated there before the war is "immaterial," because they are there now and will use a U.S. withdrawal to proclaim victory.

"Civil war in Iraq could easily descend into genocide, and destabilize the entire region as neighboring powers come to the aid of their favored factions," McCain said.

The Arizona senator and presumptive Republican presidential nominee only mentioned Iran in connection with North Korea, saying the United States should block the nuclear ambitions of both nations. He did describe Iran as "a nation whose president has repeatedly expressed a desire to wipe Israel from the face of the Earth."

McCain also skipped over some recent events, such as China's crackdown on Tibet. He said the United States has "numerous overlapping interests" with the communist nation. "But until China moves toward political liberalization, our relationship will be based on periodically shared interests rather than the bedrock of shared values," McCain said.

He devoted most of his speech to "the transcendent challenge of our time: The threat of radical Islamic terrorism."