John McCain has mainted a consistent record on Iraq since the very beginning. As early as 2003, he was questioning the strategy and calling for more troops. Through his experience and years of leadership, John McCain recognized early on that there were serious problems with how the war was being conducted and was not afraid to call for change, even when it was not the popular thing to do.

In 2003, Sen. McCain Acknowledged Mistakes Made In Iraq, Pushed For Urgent Changes Or "We Are Facing A Very Serious Long Term Problem".

For the next three years, Sen. McCain would consistently advocate for a new strategy in Iraq. Below are just a few examples of John McCain's many statements.

August 2003
NBC's TIM RUSSERT: "What must be done in Iraq right now?" SEN. MCCAIN: "First, could I say, Tim, the men and women in the military are doing a superb job. ... The problem is that they don't have enough resources. There's not enough of them, and we are in a very serious situation, in my view, a race against time. We need to spend a whole lot more money to get the services back to the people. We need to get the electricity going, the fuel, the water. And unless we get that done and get it done pretty soon, we could face a very serious situation. ... Time is not on our side. People in 125-degree heat with no electricity and no fuel are going to become angry in a big hurry. The sophistication of the attacks on U.S. and allied troops have increased. And what we do in the next several months will determine whether we're in a very difficult situation or not, and there's still time, but we've got to act quickly." (NBC's "Meet The Press," 8/24/03)

August 2003
"Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said after visiting Baghdad last week that President Bush needs to level with the public about the need for more U.S. troops as well as dramatically more spending to make postwar Iraq peaceful enough for democracy to unfold. McCain said that when he returns from the Middle East he plans to mount a heavy campaign on the issue in meetings with national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and other White House officials and during hearings of the Senate Armed Services Committee. 'We need to tell the American people directly, and I think they'll support it,' McCain said from Islamabad, Pakistan. 'We must win this conflict. We need a lot more military, and I'm convinced we need to spend a lot more money.'" (Mike Allen, "McCain Says U.S. Needs More Money, Troops in Iraq," The Washington Post, 8/24/07)

November 2003
"To win in Iraq, we should increase the number of forces in-country, including Marines and Special Forces, to conduct offensive operations. I believe we must have in place another full division, giving us the necessary manpower to conduct a focused counterinsurgency campaign across the Sunni triangle that seals off enemy operating areas, conducts search and destroy operations and holds territory. Such a strategy would be the kind of new mission General Sanchez agreed would require additional forces. It's a mystery to me why they are not forthcoming. We cannot achieve our political goals as long as a strategic region of Iraq is in a state of fundamental insecurity." (Sen. John McCain, Remarks To Council On Foreign Relations, Washington, DC 11/5/03)

November 2003
"The simple truth is that we do not have sufficient forces in Iraq to meet our military objectives. I said this in August, after I returned from visiting Iraq, and before the security situation deteriorated further. It is even more obviously true today." (Sen. John McCain, Remarks To Council On Foreign Relations, Washington, DC 11/5/03)

November 2003
"We need more troops.... [W]e have to be much more robust and do and send whatever troops are necessary." (Fox News' "Fox News Sunday," 11/30/03)

April 2004
"I was there in last August and have said since then that we needed more troops, we need them very badly. We may be paying a price for not having had more troops there...."(Sen. John McCain, Remarks At Media Availability, Washington, DC, 4/11/04)

April 2004
"[W]hen I was there in Iraq in August, I talked to [the] British. I talked to sergeant majors. I talked to colonels and captains. And I came back absolutely convinced that we needed more boots on the ground. These people warned me. They said, 'Look, if you don't have more soldiers here, you're going to lose control of this situation and you're going to face an insurgency some months from now.' I begged and pleaded that we send more troops. Secretary Rumsfeld said, 'Well, our commanders on the ground haven't asked for them.' It's not up to the commanders on the ground. It's up to the leadership of the country to make these decisions. That's why we elect them and have civilian supremacy. We're now facing a terrible insurgency. We can prevail, but we've got to have more people over there to get the job done." (Fox News' "Hannity & Colmes," 4/14/04)

April 2004
"I have said since my visit to Iraq last August that our military presence is insufficient to bring stability to the country. We should increase the number of forces, including Marines and Special Forces, to conduct offensive operations. There is also a dire need for other types of forces, including linguists, intelligence officers, and civil affairs officers. We must deploy at least another full division, and probably more." (Sen. John McCain, Remarks To Council On Foreign Relations, Washington, DC, 4/22/04)

September 2004
"I think that we need more troops in Iraq. I've thought that for a long time, election or no election. ... [I]'ve been asking since a year ago last August. So I'm not sure that the elections have a lot to do with it, but I've been saying since a year ago August that we needed more boots on the ground...." (CNBC's "Capital Report," 9/23/04)

December 2004
"[T]he problem that we have here is that the Pentagon has been reacting to initiatives of the enemy rather than taking initiatives from which the enemy has to react to. Many of us, as long as a year and a half ago, said, 'You have to have more people there. You have to have more linguists. You have to have more special forces. You have to have' - and the Pentagon has reluctantly, obviously, gradually made some increases. And the problem, when you react, you have to extend people on duty there, which is terrible for morale. There's a terrific strain on Guard and reservists. If you plan ahead, then you don't have to do some of these things. The military is too small. The good news is we went into Fallujah and we dug then out of there. And I'm proud of the work. These men and women are magnificent. Their leadership is magnificent. The bad news is we allowed Fallujah to become a sanctuary to start with. So, yes, we need more troops. Yes, we have to win." (Fox News' "Fox News Sunday," 12/5/04)

December 2004
"I have strenuously argued for larger troop numbers in Iraq, including the right kind of troops - linguists, Special Forces, civil affairs, etc. ... There are very strong differences of opinion between myself and Secretary Rumsfeld on that issue." (Beth DeFalco, "McCain says He Has 'No Confidence' In Secretary Of Defense," The Associated Press, 12/13/04)

June 2005
"I think we need - I think we need more troops there ... because we're not staying once we attack and clear. We've got stay and expand." (MSNBC's "Hardball," 6/28/05)

June 2005
"I've thought for a long, long time, since the very beginning, that we needed more troops, and one of the reasons why we've experienced many of the difficulties we have is we didn't have enough boots on the ground...." (CNN's "American Morning," 6/29/05)

August 2005
"We not only don't need to withdraw, we need more troops there." (Fox News' "Fox News Sunday," 8/14/05)

August 2005
TIME's MIKE DUFFY: "Do you think we need more troops?" SEN. MCCAIN: "I've always said that ... I think we need more and I think they need to stay longer. The problem is, is that we didn't expand the size of the Army and the Marine Corps and we put enormous strains on the Guard and Reserves and on active duty personnel. We need to expand the Army and expand the Marine Corps, and have more troops over there for as long as is necessary. The irony here is that we could have had less troops here now if we had had more troops when they were needed where, in the view of literally every military person I talked to in Iraq, right after the victory." (CBS' "Face The Nation," 8/28/05)

November 2005
"Securing ever-increasing parts of Iraq and preventing the emergence of new terrorist safe havens will require more troops and money. It will take time, probably years, and mean more American casualties. Those are terrible prices to pay. But with the stakes so high, I believe we must choose the strategy with the best chance of success." (Sen. John McCain, Remarks To American Enterprise Institute, Washington, DC, 11/10/05)

November 2005
"To enhance our chances of success with this strategy and enable our forces to hold as much territory as possible, we need more troops. For this reason, I believe that current ideas to effect a partial drawdown during 2006 are exactly wrong. ... Instead of drawing down, we should be ramping up, with more civil-military soldiers, translators and counterinsurgency operations teams." (Sen. John McCain, Remarks To American Enterprise Institute, Washington, DC, 11/10/05)

June 2006
"You know, I've always said that we needed more troops over there. I have said that for years." (CBS' "Evening News," 6/20/06)

July 2006
"I think one of the biggest mistakes we made that we've paid a very heavy price for was not having enough boots on the ground. I said that three years ago." (CNN's "Larry King Live," 7/26/06)

August 2006
NBC's DAVID GREGORY: "But to do that, do you need more U.S. soldiers on the ground now?" SEN. MCCAIN: "I think so. I think so. We took troops from places like Ramadi, which are still not under control, to put them into Baghdad. We've had to send in additional troops as they are. All along, we have not had enough troops on the ground to control the situation. Many, many people knew that and it's - we're paying a very heavy price for it. But I want to emphasize that we cannot lose this. It will cause chaos in Iraq and in the region, and it's - I still believe that we, we must prevail." (NBC's "Meet The Press," 8/20/06)

October 2006
"I would increase the size of the Army and Marine Corps by some hundred thousand people, and I would send more troops over there where...." (CBS' "Evening News," 10/19/06)

November 2006
"I believe that there are a lot of things that we can do to salvage this, but they all require the presence of additional troops... I also said three years ago, if we don't have more troops over there, and we don't do what's necessary, we are going to be doomed to failure. I gave a speech to the Foreign Relations - Council on Foreign Relations - that said basically that, and I've been saying it all along in every hearing, and I've been saying, 'You are going to face this situation we're facing today if we didn't have a more robust presence and a better strategy,' and that's - I proved to be right in that respect." (NBC's "Meet The Press," 11/12/06)

December 2006
"We must have more troops over there. That has to be accompanied by a larger Marine Corps or Army. Maybe 20,000 more Marines and 80,000 more Army troops so that we can handle whatever is necessary. And we have to have a big enough surge that we can get Baghdad under control and then Anbar province under control." (Fox News' "Special Report With Brit Hume," 12/12/06)

January 2007
"To be of value the surge must be substantial and it must be sustained - it must be substantial and it must be sustained. We will need a large number of troops. During our recent trip commanders on the ground spoke of a surge of three to five additional brigades in Baghdad and at least an additional brigade in Anbar province. I believe these numbers are the minimum that's required - a minimum. We need more of the right kind of troops: civil affairs teams, special forces, translators, troops to conduct information operations, among others. The mission of these reinforcements would be to implement the thus-elusive hold element of the military's clear, hold, build strategy, to maintain security in cleared areas to protect the population and critical infrastructure, and to impose the government's authority: essential elements of a traditional counterinsurgency strategy." (Sen. John McCain, Remarks To American Enterprise Institute, Washington, DC, 1/5/07)

April 2007
"After my first visit to Iraq in 2003, I argued for more troops. I took issue with statements characterizing the insurgency as a few 'dead-enders' or being in its 'last throes.' I criticized the search and destroy strategy and argued for a counter-insurgency approach that separated the reconcilable population from the irreconcilable. That is the course now followed by General Petraeus, and the brave Americans and coalition troops he has the honor to command." (Sen. John McCain, Remarks To The Virginia Military Institute, 4/11/07)

May 2007
"The war was terribly mismanaged and we now have to fix a lot of the mistakes that were made." (Sen. John McCain, Republican Presidential Debate, Ronald Reagan Library, Simi Valley, CA, 5/3/07)

June 2007
New Hampshire WMUR-TV, CNN, and the New Hampshire Union Leader Debate, "This war was very badly mismanaged for a long time. And Americans have made great sacrifices, some of which were unnecessary because of this management of the war -- mismanagement of this conflict. I believe we have a fine general. I believe we have a strategy which can succeed, so that the sacrifice of your brother would not be in vain, that a whole 20 million or 30 million people would have a chance to live a free life in an open society, and practice their religion, no matter what those differences are. And I believe that if we fail, it will become a center of terrorism, and we will ask more young Americans to sacrifice, as your brother did. This is long and hard and tough. But I think we can succeed."

September 2007
Address to the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference ,"We have new commanders in Iraq, and they are following a counterinsurgency strategy that I have called for from the beginning, which makes the most effective use of our strength and doesn't strengthen the tactics of our enemy. This new battle plan is succeeding where our previous tactics failed. Although the outcome remains uncertain, we must give General Petraeus and the Americans he has the honor to command adequate time to salvage from the wreckage of our past mistakes a measure of stability for Iraq and the Middle East, and a more secure future for the American people.

October 2007
Address to International Relations Forum in Des Moines, "But, in the short run, we can and must prevail in Iraq to build a new regional order on the ashes of the old. Two generations of Americans have already fought wars in Iraq; we cannot condemn a third to the same fate by letting that country become a failed state in which we must again intervene to secure our vital interests. Anchoring Iraq in a stable, prosperous region must be the purpose of American grand strategy in the Middle East."