SEN. McCAIN: I, I haven’t exactly ascertained that. My focus and efforts are the 2006 elections, which are going to be very tough for Republicans, and we all know that. And I spent yesterday, and I’m spending a lot of time going around and campaigning for Republicans, and that’s the focus of my efforts between now and next—and this November.

MR. RUSSERT: Reverend Falwell said that you had expressed a willingness to support a federal marriage amendment, which would define a union between a man and a woman. Is that true?

SEN. McCAIN: Reverend Falwell was asked again about that, and he clarified it; my position has always been that I will vote against a constitutional amendment, which will come before the Senate on, on this issue, because I think the states should decide. That’s the essence of federalism. In my state of Arizona, we have a ballot initiative on this issue, which I am supporting. And so—but if the courts, if the, if through the court process, they say that that’s not constitutional, then I would support a constitutional amendment.

MR. RUSSERT: During—before you go, last week, you talked about people raising your temper as an issue. I read an interview you gave Fortune magazine, “You lose battles in politics. I do get good and angry. Really angry! By God, I’m not going to let them beat me again. I don’t like to lose.”

SEN. McCAIN: I was laughing when I said that and I was joking. I spend every day saying to myself, “Stay calm. Stay cool. Be passionate. But neither get angry nor personal.” And that—those are two important lessons that I’ve learned over the years. I spent a lot of time burning bridges early in my political campaign, but—political life. Now I work to try to build bridges.

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MR. RUSSERT: And we’ll be watching. Senator John McCain, thanks for joining us and sharing your views.

SEN. McCAIN: I haven’t had so much fun since my last interrogation.

MR. RUSSERT: Coming next, the former commander of U.S. Central Command who warned against going into Iraq. General Tony Zinni is here with his new book, “The Battle for Peace,” right here on MEET THE PRESS.

(Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT: Former CENTCOM commander retired General Tony Zinni and his new

book, “Battle For Peace,” after this station break.

(Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT: And we are back.

General Zinni, welcome to MEET THE PRESS.

GEN. ZINNI: Thank you, Tim.

MR. RUSSERT: And we’re going to talk about your book, “Battle For Peace.”

Let me bring you back to 1998, and this is what General Tony Zinni had to say:

“I think a weakened, fragmented, chaotic Iraq - which could happen if this isn’t done carefully - is more dangerous in the long run than a contained Saddam is now. ... I don’t think these questions have been thought through or answered.” Is that what we have now?

GEN. ZINNI: I think so. I think we are paying the price for the lack of credible planning, or the lack of a plan. We’re throwing away 10 years worth of planning, in effect, for underestimating the situation we were going to get into, for not adhering to the advice that was being given to us by others, and, I think, getting distracted from Afghanistan and the war on terrorism that we were committed to when we took on this adventure.

MR. RUSSERT: If you were the president of the United States right now, what would you do about Iraq?

GEN. ZINNI: Well, unfortunately, Iraq is—we can’t let it fall apart. It is part of a whole myriad of issues that we have regarding stability in the Middle East. We’re committed to it now. We have to see this through. I think we have to get this government to form some sort of unity representative government. We keep pressuring them to do this. They keep avoiding the pressure, which I don’t understand. We have to, obviously, make a decision on the militias. They seem to be part of the problem that we’re not addressing. We’re, we’re trying to develop a military and a police force that can handle this problem. I think one of the elements that’s missing in this is building up the intelligence capability.

You know, the, the number of insurgents, so-called insurgents, although it’s a mixed bag of problems that we face, could be dealt with if the people turned against them. If, like General Casey said a week or so ago, 99.9 percent of the people are opposed to the violence and the perpetrators of these violence. Well, all those people have to do is call up on the phone and tell you where the insurgents are, tell you in the two to four provinces that everybody said this is concentrated in where the issues are, where the problems are, where the people that are doing this are, and you wouldn’t need much more than you have right now. And the security forces and the Iraqis would be able to handle it. We’re not fighting the Waffen SS here. You know, we’re fighting a bunch of ragtag people with AK-47s and IEDs and RPGs. They can be policed up if the people turn against them. We haven’t won the hearts and minds yet.

MR. RUSSERT: So they’re being enabled by the population.

CONTINUED

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