[Mb-civic] McCain cautions on use of force in Iran FT

[Michael Butler]

McCain cautions on use of force in Iran
 >By Krishna Guha and Andrew Gowers in Davos and Demetri Sevastopulo in
Washington
 >Published: January 28 2005 20:23 | Last updated: January 28 2005 20:23
 >>

John McCain, the influential US senator, on Friday gave voice to resistance
in the Republican party to the use of force in Iran, signalling that the US
had no appetite to fight ³two wars².

Force should not be ruled out as a last resort against the country's
suspected nuclear facilities, he said, but cautioned: ³I do not think it
would be successful. There is no guarantee we would get all these
facilities. If you have a strike and leave them with nuclear capability, you
have got a hell of a challenge on your hands.²

Mr McCain, a Republican and a senior member of the Senate armed services
committee, said he was hopeful that a solution to the proliferation crisis
could be reached through joint US-EU diplomacy.

Coming amid signs of growing concern in Washington over Tehran's nuclear
ambitions, Mr McCain's comments, in an interview with the Financial Times at
the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, illustrate the opposition
within the president's own party to any attempting military intervention.

Speculation that George W. Bush would consider a military attack on Iran if
it crosses the nuclear threshold was stoked by the president's inaugural
address, which committed US foreign policy to ending tyranny and supporting
democratic dissent.

His speech followed a report in the New Yorker strenuously denied by the
Pentagon that Bush administration officials are exploring military options
in Iran. Iranian exiles have been seeking to push a bill that explicitly
commits the US to ³regime change² in Tehran. And Dick Cheney, the
vice-president, last week said that if Iran developed a nuclear weapons
site, Israel might be incited to attack the facility.

Mr McCain, echoing later remarks by the president, said the pledge to
promote democracy around the world should not be interpreted as a threat to
remove authoritarian regimes such as that of Iran by force.

³Everybody knows we are not going to have two wars [at once],² he said.

BOEING

Mr McCain, chairman of the airland subcommittee of the Senate armed service
committee, said he intended to review Pentagon arms procurement.

In a worrying development for Boeing, the prime contractor for the $100bn
Future Combat Systems, he questioned the wisdom of handing management
responsibility for such a vast programme to a single company.

Separately, in a letter to Donald Rumsfeld, defence secretary, he had
alleged that the Pentagon has tampered with documents, withheld information
and acted to obstruct his Congresssional investigation into the now
cancelled $23.5bn Boeing tanker deal. The Department of Defence, he wrote,
was ³not acting in good faith²

According to one person familiar with his plans, Mr McCain intends to ask
the Government Accountability Office, the oversight arm of Congress, to
examine the structure of the FCS deal, including cost overruns.

In a recent interview with the FT, James Albaugh, head of Boeing's defence
business, said of the 26 main FCS contracts, the company has won only one.
³We reviewed thousands of proposals from hundreds of contractors and awarded
several dozen contact. There was not one protest.

³There was one letter of concern that was withdrawn the next day. Give me 20
government procurements where there weren't any protests.²

RUSSIA

Renewing criticisms of Vladimir Putin's increasingly authoritarian rule, Mr
McCain warned of a ³creeping coup² in which ³any semblance of democracy in
Russia is being gradually dismantled².

He called on the Group of Eight leading industrial countries to tell Mr
Putin ³Russia is not welcome at G8 meetings² as long as it continues on his
current path.

The US still had to do business with Mr Putin as the two countries shared
important common interests. But Mr Putin's behaviour ³certainly should
change the atmosphere².

In a move likely to raise suspicions in Moscow, he said he had met Mikheil
Shaakashvili, president of Georgia in Davos and was due to meet Victor
Yuschenko, the new president of Ukraine. Both are pro-western leaders who
have attempted to exert greater independence from Russia. Mr Putin was
invited to Davos, but declined to attend.

Mr McCain blasted Mr Putin's attempts to keep Georgia and Ukraine under
Russia's wing: ³This policy of maintaining Russian troops in Georgia is just
damned foolishness.² Mr Putin, he added, was ³propping up [Aleksandr]
Lukaschenko in Belarus, who is nothing more than a thug².

IRAQ

No let-up was likely in violence in the immediate aftermath of elections on
Sunday, Mr McCain warned. He would ³not be surprised² if US troops were
still in the country in five years' time.

He repeated a call for more US troops, the aim being not be to get out as
soon as possible, but to alleviate American casualties. ³We made mistakes,
and we are paying for them," he said.

He added that he was ³very, very concerned" about the effect of extended
tours of duty on the National Guard and Reserves, but warned against setting
a timetable for withdrawal.

Mr McCain was angry to read in the media about Pentagon plans to beef up its
intelligence-gathering capacity. Better battlefield intelligence was needed
to tackle the insurgency.

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