One of the reasons I feel so strongly that John McCain has the potential to be one of our great Presidents is that he has consistently throughout his career taken stands on principle regardless of the political consequences to himself. He is very different from many politicians in that he appears to be completely unwilling to throw aside his convictions for personal or political gain. He is a man of integrity and character.

He will also stand his ground when all others stand against him. He hasn’t won a lot of friends in the Senate for those stances, but he has won the respect of most. When he is wrong, he owns up to it. When he is right, he won’t bend his principles to the pressure from his peers.

I was looking for something completely different when I ran across this article from a couple of years ago.

December 8, 2006 — WASHINGTON - Sen. John McCain yesterday slammed the report by the Iraq Study Group, warning the recommendations would lead the United States to a historic failure and endanger thousands of American troops.

“There’s only one thing worse than an overstressed Army and Marine Corps, and that’s a defeated Army and Marine Corps,” said McCain, a Vietnam POW for five years and a likely GOP candidate for the White House.

“I believe this is a recipe that will lead to our defeat sooner or later in Iraq,” said the Arizona senator, a former Navy fighter pilot whose father and grandfather were both four-star admirals.

The study’s chief authors - former Secretary of State James Baker and former Rep. Lee Hamilton (R-Ind.) - could only listen as McCain eviscerated their plan at a packed Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

McCain, who favors sending more troops to Iraq to crush the insurgents, ridiculed one of the panel’s key suggestions - that thousands of American troops withdraw and instead “embed” forces within retrained Iraqi units.

He said the idea would “put at risk a large number of American advisers.”

Only a fraction of Iraqi units are now considered reliable.

Hamilton immediately acknowledged that McCain had a point on embedding troops.

“You’re absolutely right about that,” he said. “There is no blinking the fact that that’s a risky mission and a difficult mission, and we should not slide over it, as you have not in your comments,” Hamilton told McCain.

But Hamilton said the United States would have enough combat forces there to protect its embedded troops.

McCain also mocked the commission’s idea of seeking peace talks with terrorist states Iran and Syria, saying, “I don’t believe that a peace conference with people who are dedicated to your extinction has much short-term gain.”

Another thing that has resulted in my enthusiastic support of John McCain for President is that he will unequivocally support our Troops. He will not put them in untenable situations (embedded with Iraqi Troops!) without the proper support needed to minimize American casualties and to ensure American victory.

I believe that John McCain will not settle for anything less than victory in any conflict we have with our enemies foreign and domestic. He obviously has an abiding respect for our Troops and will do whatever is necessary to protect them from becoming political pawns. He obviously loves America and will do whatever is necessary to see that we are not humiliated by defeat in order to further someone’s political career or a political party’s agenda. He obviously understands how incredibly high the stakes are for the United States in the Battle of Iraq. He obviously doesn’t have a problem swimming against the tide to see that we do not leave Iraq until our Troops can leave there victorious and with their heads held high.

A precipitous withdrawal from the Battle of Iraq would have consequences that we can barely even imagine.

Crossposted at Blue Star Chronicles