page_title: United States Senate career of John McCain, 2001–2014
section_title: Iraq and national security
hierarchical_section_title: United States Senate career of John McCain, 2001–2014 / Activities during second Bush term, 2005–2008 / Iraq and national security
context_page_description: John McCain ran for US president in the 2000 presidential election, but failed to gain the Republican Party nomination, losing to George W. Bush in a campaign that included a bitter battle during the South Carolina primary. He resumed his role representing Arizona in the U.S. Senate in 2001, and Bush won the election. Bush was President of the United States from 2001 to 2009. McCain won re-election to the Senate in 2004, 2010 and 2016.
context_section_description: Owing to his time as a POW, McCain was recognized for his sensitivity to the detention and interrogation of detainees in the War on Terror.  McCain was an opponent of the Bush administration's use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" in the War on Terror, and specifically referred to waterboarding as torture.  On October 3, 2005, McCain introduced the McCain Detainee Amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill for 2005. On October 5, 2005, the United States Senate voted 90-9 to support the amendment.  The amendment prohibits inhumane treatment of prisoners, including prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, by confining interrogations to the techniques in FM 34-52 Intelligence Interrogation.
  Although Bush had threatened to veto the bill if McCain's language was included, the President announced on December 15, 2005 that he accepted McCain's terms and would "make it clear to the world that this government does not torture and that we adhere to the international convention of torture, whether it be here at home or abroad."  Bush made clear his interpretation of this legislation in a signing statement, reserving what he interpreted to be his Presidential constitutional authority in order to avoid further terrorist attacks.  He said that he intended to "immediately close" the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp.
  In February 2008, despite his earlier statements against waterboarding, McCain voted against a ban on the technique's use by the CIA.  The bill in question contained other provisions to which McCain objected, and his spokesman stated: "This wasn't a vote on waterboarding. This was a vote on applying the standards of the [Army] field manual to CIA personnel."
  When the USA Patriot Act was up for renewal, McCain voted in favor of a compromise renewed act in March 2006 that gained large majority support.
  McCain continued questioning the progress of the war in Iraq.  In September 2005, he questioned Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers' habit of optimistic outlooks on the war's progress: "Things have not gone as well as we had planned or expected, nor as we were told by you, General Myers."  In August 2006 he criticized the administration for continually understating the effectiveness of the insurgency: "We [have] not told the American people how tough and difficult this could be."  From the beginning McCain strongly supported the Iraq troop surge of 2007; the strategy's opponents labeled it "McCain's plan" and University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato said, "McCain owns Iraq just as much as Bush does now."  The surge and the war were quite unpopular during most of the year, even within the Republican Party, as McCain's presidential campaign was underway; faced with the consequences, McCain frequently responded, "I would much rather lose a campaign than a war."  In January 2008, when a questioner said, "President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq for 50 years," McCain responded, "Make it a hundred. We've been in Japan for 60 years, we've been in South Korea for 50 years or so. That'd be fine with me as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed. That's fine with me. I hope it will be fine with you if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where Al Qaeda is training, recruiting, equipping, and motivating people every single day."
  In spring 2008, McCain engaged in legislative conflict with fellow Naval Academy graduate and Vietnam veteran Jim Webb, regarding the latter's Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act. McCain thought it too bureaucratic and that it would weaken retention of service members, and proposed alternate legislation instead.
caption: President George W. Bush presenting birthday cake to Senator McCain. Luke Air Force Base, August 29, 2005.
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