McCain's response to 9/11 hints at future crisis actions

WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain arrived late at his Senate office on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, just after the first plane hit the World Trade Center.

”This is war,“ he murmured to his aides.

Within hours, McCain, the Vietnam War hero and famed straight talker of the 2000 Republican primary, had taken on a new role: the leading advocate of taking the American retaliation against al-Qaida far beyond Afghanistan.

In a marathon of television and radio appearances, McCain recited a short list of other countries said to support terrorism, invariably including Iraq, Iran and Syria.

”There is a system out there or network, and that network is going to have to be attacked,“ McCain said the next morning on ABC News. ”It isn't just Afghanistan,“ he added, on MSNBC. ”I don't think if you got bin Laden tomorrow that the threat has disappeared,“ he said on CBS, pointing toward other countries in the Middle East.

Within a month he made clear his priority. ”Very obviously Iraq is the first country,“ he declared on CNN. By Jan. 2, McCain was on the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt in the Arabian Sea, yelling to a crowd of sailors and airmen: ”Next up, Baghdad!“

Now, as McCain prepares to accept the Republican presidential nomination, his response to the attacks of Sept. 11 opens a window onto how he might approach the gravest responsibilities of a commander in chief.

Like many, he immediately recalibrated his assessment of the unseen risks to America's security. But he also began to suggest that he saw a new ”opportunity“ to deter other potential foes by punishing not only al-Qaida but also Iraq.

”Just as Sept. 11 revolutionized our resolve to defeat our enemies, so has it brought into focus the opportunities we now have to secure and expand our freedom,“ McCain told a NATO conference in Munich, Germany, in early 2002, urging the Europeans to join what he portrayed as an all but certain assault on Saddam Hussein. ”A better world is already emerging from the rubble.“

To his admirers, McCain's tough response to Sept. 11 is at the heart of his appeal.

His critics charge that the emotion of Sept. 11 overwhelmed his former cool-eyed caution about deploying U.S. troops without a clear national interest and a well-defined exit, turning him into a tool of the Bush administration in its push for a war to transform the region.

”He has the personality of a fighter pilot: When somebody stings you, you want to strike out,“ said retired Gen. John H. Johns, a former friend and supporter of McCain who disagreed with him over the Iraq war. ”Just like the American people, his reaction was: Show me somebody to hit.“