CONCORD, N.H. -- Just after calling for complete victory in Kosovo, even if it means using U.S. ground forces, Arizona Sen. John McCain announced Thursday that he is temporarily suspending his presidential campaign because of the escalating military conflict.
"It's not appropriate at this time to launch a political campaign," McCain said.Aides to the 62-year-old Republican senator stressed that McCain was not having second thoughts about his bid for the White House in 2000.
"Absolutely not," said Howard Opinsky, McCain's press spokesman. "There's a war going on."
McCain's announcement that he was postponing next week's presidential announcement tour came just after he made some of his harshest comments to date concerning the Clinton administration's handling of the Kosovo conflict.
"I strongly recommend that we not rule out the option of ground troops," McCain said Thursday during a news conference at Sky Harbor International Airport. "Which is what the administration, for all intent and purpose, has done."
Yugoslavia President Slobodan Milosevic should not be given any assurances that ground troops wouldn't be used, McCain said.
Even if it caused U.S. casualties -- "and pain to American families" -- ground troops should be used if that what it takes to win, he said.
"The consequences of failing to win this conflict are severe and would then entail a much larger sacrifice of American blood, not only there but in other parts of the world," McCain said. "They pay attention in Pyongyang, North Korea, and Baghdad, Iraq, and other places in the world."
American credibility is at stake, he said.
A recent CNN poll showed that 57 percent of Americans opposed using U.S. ground troops in Kosovo and that 54 percent approved so far of how President Clinton is handling the situation.
McCain said Clinton has failed to explain to the public the importance of the conflict and why U.S. ground forces could be necessary.
"We have to make the American people aware that this is a very difficult situation we are in now," McCain said. "There are no good options. . . . You have to go to the American people and explain to them what is at stake here, then I believe the American people will understand."
Although McCain said he did not think the military campaign has been achieving its goals, the bombing should continue.
"We do it until it has lost any effectiveness that it might obtain, and at the same time plan to, if necessary, send in ground troops," McCain said.