McCain says U.S. can win Iraq war within four years

By Caren Bohan

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain said on Thursday he believes the Iraq war can be won within four years, leaving a functioning democracy there and allowing most U.S. troops to come home.

It was the first time the Arizona senator has put a date on when U.S. troops could be withdrawn from Iraq.

The five-year war is unpopular with the U.S. public and McCain's Democratic rivals for the White House, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, have pledged to begin bringing U.S. troops home right away.

McCain has called such promises reckless. He has rejected withdrawal timetables and agrees with President George W. Bush that troop levels should be governed by conditions on the ground.

McCain, who will run against either Obama or Clinton in November to succeed Bush in January 2009, laid out a scenario he thought was achievable within his first four-year term.

"By January 2013, America has welcomed home most of the servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly so that America might be secure in her freedom," McCain said in a speech in Columbus, Ohio.

"The Iraq war has been won. Iraq is a functioning democracy, although still suffering from the lingering effects of decades of tyranny and centuries of sectarian tension. Violence still occurs, but it is spasmodic and much reduced," McCain said.

Under that scenario, U.S. troops would still be present, but those soldiers would not play a "direct combat role" because Iraqi forces would be capable of providing order.