NEOLA &#8212 Republican John McCain said Monday although the political process has been frustrating in Iraq, he plans to fight for President Bush’s war strategy when senators debate the consequences of next week’s highly anticipated progress report on the war.

“I will fight to let this strategy continue to succeed. I will fight against a date for surrender,” the presidential hopeful and lead Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee said Monday. “If we set a date for withdrawal we will see chaos, we will see genocide and it will follow us home.”

McCain’s strategy to generate support for Bush’s plan while campaigning for the Republican nomination carries a risk with the majority of the U.S. public against the war.

“I am fully aware that this may cost me politically,” McCain said. “It’s far more important to me that we convince a significant number of the American people that this strategy is succeeding and we ought to let it get a chance to succeed.”

McCain spoke to hundreds in this small Western Iowa town as it dedicated a bronze statue as a veterans memorial, the first of 14 proposed similar monuments in the county.

“This one is for all the veterans. I take my hat off and say, ‘Thank you,'” said the statue’s teary-eyed artist, Russell Christensen, as McCain and his wife, Cindy, looked on.

Cindy Hensley mouthed the words of “Proud to be an American” with the crowd as the statue of an eagle draped in a flag was unveiled.