--- title: McCain: Iraq War Might Not Have Happened Had I Won In 2000 description: 'You'll find this surprising' canonical: https://time.com/3003299/john-mccain-iraq/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-18T01:26:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T09:13:11.856Z article:section: Politics og:title: McCain: Iraq War Might Not Have Happened Had I Won In 2000 og:description: 'You'll find this surprising' og:url: https://time.com/3003299/john-mccain-iraq/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf29ad3bf1aba01ea/69869c3f55a859dda9a81d83/john-mccain-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: John McCain Discusses The Situation In Iraq At American Enterprise Institute og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: McCain: Iraq War Might Not Have Happened Had I Won In 2000 twitter:description: 'You'll find this surprising' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf29ad3bf1aba01ea/69869c3f55a859dda9a81d83/john-mccain-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # McCain: Iraq War Might Not Have Happened Had I Won In 2000 > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Jul 18, 2014 1:26 AM UTC  Sen. John McCain in Washington on June 18, 2014. Sen. John McCain in Washington on June 18, 2014.T.J. Kirkpatrick—Getty Images by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Jul 18, 2014 1:26 AM UTC Arizona Sen. John McCain, once one of the most ardent defenders of American involvement in Iraq, said Thursday that had he been President in 2003 the U.S. might never have invaded. “You’ll find this surprising,” McCain said at an event hosted by CNN and National Journal Thursday in Washington, “but I think I would have been more reluctant to commit American troops.” The 2008 Republican presidential nominee and one of the chief proponents of the Iraq surge argued that his background in the military and his experience in Washington would have led him to see through “flimsy” evidence, had he defeated former President George W. Bush in the 2000 Republican primaries. “I think I would have challenged the evidence with more scrutiny,” McCain said. “I hope that I would have been able to see through the evidence that was presented at the time. “The guy named Curveball that we were relying on turned out to be some guy in a German prison that was an alcoholic,” McCain continued. “On the evidence—I think I would have challenged the evidence with greater scrutiny. But McCain added that he was not blaming the Republican President for his handling the run-up to the war, which polarized the nation and cost more than 4,400 American and tens of thousands of Iraqi lives. “I’m not blaming President George W. Bush. It’s not for me to critique my predecessors, especially those that I lost to,” he said. Interviewed by CNN’s Jake Tapper and National Journal’s Ron Fournier, McCain said he relied on the credibility of former Secretary of State Colin Powell for his vote in favor of the war. “In Iraq in 2003, the Secretary of State, one of the most respected men in America, went to the United Nations Security Council and alleged that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,” McCain said. “If I was presented with that same evidence today, I would vote the same way. I respected and trusted the Secretary of State Colin Powell. It’s obvious now that Saddam Hussein, though he had used weapons of mass destruction, did not have the inventory that we seemed to have evidence, that looking through with some hindsight was very flimsy.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3003299/john-mccain-iraq/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3003299/john-mccain-iraq/"},"headline":"McCain: Iraq War Might Not Have Happened Had I Won In 2000","datePublished":"2014-07-18T01:26:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:13:11.856Z","description":"'You'll find this surprising'","url":"https://time.com/3003299/john-mccain-iraq/","keywords":["Congress","Iraq War","John McCain"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf29ad3bf1aba01ea/69869c3f55a859dda9a81d83/john-mccain-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf29ad3bf1aba01ea/69869c3f55a859dda9a81d83/john-mccain-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"John McCain Discusses The Situation In Iraq At American Enterprise Institute","caption":"John McCain Discusses The Situation In Iraq At American Enterprise Institute","creditText":"T.J. 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