Gramm credits McCain with winning in Iraq

WASHINGTON, July 10 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, says that without John McCain, the United States "would have lost the war on Iraq."

McCain, the probable GOP presidential nominee, made the difference by speaking out repeatedly against the way U.S. President George Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ran the war, Gramm told editors of The Washington Times at a breakfast meeting Thursday.

He said that by the time Bush adopted the surge in military forces that McCain advocated, it was no longer Bush's war, but had become "McCain's war."

Gramm criticized Bush's foreign policy handling and what he called needed vetoes on spending proposals.

"We've had eight years of ever-increasing growth in government and in levels of spending," which blurred the difference between the two parties, Gramm said.