We’ve all had our various policy differences with Senator McCain but he is a great patriot and has made a very principled and courageous stand on Iraq. I just re-read the stirring speech he gave in April, and it’s worth another look for all the people suspecting he might do a 180. I don’t see why on earth anyone who read this speech and is familiar with his tenacity would think he may be about to fold.

The spinsters I’ve been hearing say that his out would be to conclude, after the latest trip, that Maliki’s government is not up to the task. But if you review what he’s been saying, the Iraq government’s performance is a very small part of it — that is, Maliki’s success or failure is not critical to McCain’s argument for why we need to see this through, which is to defeat this enemy … no matter who’s in charge of Iraq.

FWIW, I don’t agree with everything in McCain’s speech. Too much Wilsonian stuff for my taste and too much rose-tinted glasses about how wonderful Islam is and how small the terrorist faction of it is. But that’s beside the point. McCain knows the war is bigger than Iraq and that we can’t allow our nation to lose to al Qaeda. That ought to be something easy to agree on for all of us — including those of us who have always been skeptical about Maliki and the democracy project.

McCain says he’d rather lose a campaign than lose a war, and I, for one, believe and admire him for it. He’s never been afraid to take unpopular stands, and I’m betting he’ll be a lot more influenced by what’s said by people like Gen. Petraeus, Victor Davis Hanson and Michael Yon than Harry Reid, Richard Lugar, et al.