John McCain
Bio-Tour
Pensacola, FL 04/02/08

TRANSCRIPT:
JOHN MCCAIN: "My friends, I have long argued that we must significantly increase the size of our Army and Marine Corps. [applause] I think the security challenges we face today absolutely require it. The former secretary of defense disagreed. And we waited too long to begin that buildup. Had we begun to do it right after 9-11 as we realized we were now in a global struggle against a malicious enemy or as we embarked on two wars or even when it became clear to many of us that our flawed strategy and inadequate troop levels in Iraq were going to result in that conflict lasting far longer than anticipated, we would not be in the situation we are in today. [applause] I don't have to tell a lot of people in this audience that the strain our involvement in Iraq has placed on the readiness of our military would not be so acute. But, that's the past and while we can argue about it indefinitely it won't solve the problem we now confront. We must increase the size of our military and much more so than we have done to date. It is an urgent priority. Obviously, that's going to require greater numbers of Americans to serve than have recently showed a willingness to do. We can issue appeals to Americans to accept their responsibility to the country as previous generations have. We could institute a draft [one person clapping] but that's neither necessary, nor desirable."

LABEL: JM FL 04-02 (EW#2) RUCAZZ-Clip D

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