Obama Discusses Duties of Fatherhood

McCain Meets With Iraqi Foreign Minister

Presumptive GOP nominee John McCain (Ariz.) met privately with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari for a half-hour at his campaign headquarters in Crystal City, with the men then calling in reporters as they complimented one another and voiced their shared faith that the war in Iraq is succeeding.

"It's very important that we not let any of this success slip away, and the relationship and partnership that has led -- and the new strategy that has led -- to the success that it has, I am confident will continue," McCain said.

Zebari told reporters: "I have said to the senator that . . . thanks to the surge strategy and to the growth of Iraqi military security capabilities, Iraq has the lowest level of violence since the last four years."

"And we, I think, have the right policies, we have the right personnel now and we are working together in fact to realize a democratic Iraq, a stable and peaceful Iraq and to be a partner to the United States."

Zebari said he would also make time during his U.S. stay to meet with Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and "explain the same situation to him in Iraq."

"It's in our interest, in fact, to brief both candidates on the reality of the situation, the way we see it from our perspective, from people who've been at the thick of this conflict," the foreign minister said.

Zebari said that he and McCain discussed how they both look forward to a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq, but that the moment has not arrived for that exit.

"Both agreed neither of us want . . . troops to stay there for indefinitely, forever in Iraq. And we look for the day when these forces will come back, with dignity and in a victorious manner, but still there is some time to realize that," he said.

McCain sidestepped a question about whether he would commit to defending Iraq indefinitely, which Iraqi officials have demanded, and which Obama has refused to do.

"Well, the fact is that the situation on the ground is that we have made enormous success and the surge has worked. Senator Obama was wrong when he said it would fail. Senator Obama was wrong when he said that we had to have an immediate date of withdrawal from troops from Iraq," McCain said. "He's just wrong. The facts on the ground clearly indicate that. As I've always said and the foreign minister just said, we have and can -- with the success of the strategy -- withdraw American troops. And that's success. That's the way wars end when you win, is that you succeed and then you withdraw."

-- Juliet Eilperin