AMID signs of deepening division in Washington over a strategy for the war in Iraq, Senator John McCain, the leading Republican contender for the White House in 2008, is sticking to his demand for an increase in American troops in the region, writes Tony Allen-Mills.

This is despite a potentially agonising family dilemma for him: his youngest son may be among them. The latest batch of recruits to graduate from US marine boot camp this month included Jimmy McCain, 18, who will report for duty next month to the marine base at Camp Pendleton, California.

After several more weeks of infantry training the younger McCain will be eligible for deployment to Iraq and could be in Baghdad by June.

Jimmy’s decision to volunteer for possible combat is in keeping with a long family tradition of military service — his father was a highly decorated Vietnam veteran who was tortured as a prisoner of war in Hanoi; both his grandfather and great-grandfather were admirals who commanded US forces in war.

Yet the emergence of yet another prospective McCain warrior has come at a difficult moment for the 70-year-old Arizona senator. His outspoken calls for a beefed-up US military presence in Iraq have been criticised by Democrats and disillusioned Republicans and are likely to become a serious issue in both parties’ presidential primary campaigns.

McCain has attempted to shield his son from media attention and has repeatedly insisted that his political opinions are based on what is good for America, not what is best for his family.

Nor is it the first time that a McCain has had to worry that his military policies might endanger his son’s life. Admiral John McCain, the senator’s father, commanded US forces in the Pacific during the Vietnam war and authorised the bombing of Hanoi while his son was imprisoned there.

As both parties prepare for what are likely to be hard-fought campaigns to succeed President George W Bush, McCain has staked out what is already looking like an increasingly lonely position in arguing for a fresh injection of troops to bring sectarian violence under control.

After a visit to Baghdad before Christmas, McCain said he believed that a “surge” deployment of 15,000- 30,000 more US troops was needed as “the least bad option” to avert a chaotic defeat.

“The American people are confused, they are frustrated, they are disappointed by the Iraq war, but they also want us to succeed if there’s any way to do that,” he said.

He was promptly criticised by Democratic leaders, among them Tom Vilsack, governor of the key primary state of Iowa, who declared: “McCain’s patriotism is admirable but his position on sending more troops to Iraq is flat-out wrong.”

There have also been signs of Republican dismay at the prospect of further US military casualties. “I for one am at the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way, being blown up by the same bombs day after day,” said Senator Gordon Smith, an Oregon Republican.

Smith said that the war in Iraq was beginning to remind him of British generals during the first world war, “sending a whole generation of British men running into machineguns”.

Election strategists in both camps say the fact that McCain’s son may be sent to Iraq may earn the senator sympathy and respect for his honesty and patriotism, but an opinion poll released this month showed that only 11% of Americans support his call for more troops to be sent. More than half want an American withdrawal within a year.

McCain, whose older son, Jack, attends the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, has spoken to the media only once about Jimmy, when Time magazine first reported in the summer that he had joined the marines. “I’m very proud of my son but also, understandably, a little nervous,” McCain said.

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