McCain predicts Iraq war won by 2013

COLUMBUS, Ohio, May 15 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., predicted Thursday the Iraq war will be won by 2013 but said he thinks the Taliban threat in Afghanistan will still be active.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee made his predictions in a Columbus, Ohio, speech in which he also forecast Osama bin Laden's capture or death by 2013, CNN said.

McCain, in going over some of the goals he hopes to accomplish during his first term if elected, said he believes the United States will have a smaller but mostly non-combat military presence in Iraq. Most of American military personnel will be home by January 2013, McCain said.

He also said he believes that in 2013, there still won't have been a "major terrorist attack in the United States since September 11, 2001."

McCain said he also hopes to see "a reluctant Russia and China" cooperating in "pressuring Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions and North Korea to discontinue its own," because of "concerted action by the great democracies of the world."

Copyright 2008 by United Press International