Politics | Iraq McCain Sees Troops out of Iraq by 2013 Senator envisions winning war in first term in text of speech By Kevin Spak Posted May 15, 2008 7:40 AM CDT Copied Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., speaks at Vestas Wind Energy Training Facility Monday, May 12, 2008, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu) John McCain thinks he can end the Iraq war and bring most troops home within his first term as president, he says in the text of a speech, obtained by the Los Angeles Times, to be delivered this morning. McCain’s doesn't acknowledge a policy change, but includes a list of what he expects to accomplish in his first term: “By January 2013, America has welcomed home most of the servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly." He also envisions that the Iraq war has been won, civil war prevented, al-Qaeda in Iraq defeated, militias disbanded, and Iraq as a functioning democracy. McCain once pounced on Mitt Romney for even suggesting a timetable for ending the US combat role in Iraq, but now he seems eager to show America a light at the end of the tunnel, and deflect Democrat attacks that he is a Bush rerun. In the new speech, he envisions American troops maintaining a small, non-combat presence in Iraq. Read These Next Her blood isn't compatible with anyone else's. Rubio says the fate of Iran's conversion facility is what matters. Some of the most explosive Diddy allegations are dropped. Iran's supreme leader makes first public comments since ceasefire. Report an error