McCain calls pulling out of Iraq 'reckless'

WASHINGTON -- John McCain put the Iraq War squarely in the middle of the presidential election on Monday, saying that Democrats' calls for withdrawal may be popular politically but would lead to another war down the line.

"It may appear to be the easier course of action, but it is a much more reckless one, and it does them no credit even if it gives them an advantage in the next election," McCain told the Veterans of Foreign Wars at their national headquarters in Kansas City, Mo.

The presumptive Republican nominee defended the Iraq war a day before Senate hearings that will include questioning from Democratic opponents Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

The hearings feature Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, who will give a status report on the war and recommendations for troop strength.

During his remarks McCain said Petraeus' strategy is reducing violence and giving the Iraq government a chance to get its act together.

Pulling out too soon would enable al-Qaeda terrorists to take over the country and use it as a base of operations, McCain said. It would also increase Iran's influence in Iraq and throughout the region, as Middle East countries "seek accommodation with Tehran as the expense of our interests."

"These likely consequences of America's failure in Iraq would, almost certainly, require us to return to Iraq or draw us into a wider and far costlier war," McCain said.

Sens. Clinton and Obama have both said the Iraqi government has failed to reconcile its Shi'a, Sunni, and Kurdish factions, and the government's performance does not justify continuing American support.

"It's a failure of leadership to support an open-ended occupation of Iraq that has failed to press Iraq's leaders to reconcile, badly overstretched our military, put a strain on our military families, set back our ability to lead the world, and made the American people less safe," Obama said Monday.

Other Democrats such as Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, have said that only a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops can force the Iraqis to accept their responsibilities.