LEXINGTON -- Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain told cadets at Virginia Military Institute on Wednesday that the fate of Iraq is too important to allow it to fall prey to politics.

McCain chastised congressional Democrats for adding "to the burdens our troops carry" by insisting a timeline be attached to federal funding for a military surge in Iraq.

"This is an historic choice, with ramifications for Americans not even born yet," McCain said. "Let's put aside for a moment the small politics of the day. The judgment of history should be the approval we seek, not the temporary favor of the latest public opinion poll."

After the speech, McCain said during a news conference that he believes the outcome of the war in Iraq outweighs any potential advantage to be gained politically.

"Many Democrats view this as a political opportunity, and many Republicans view it as a political burden. I think it should be neither," the Arizona senator said. "We should be most concerned about the future of this nation as it relates to failure or success in Iraq."

That disregard for politics includes, he said, his own campaign for president.

"My political ambitions are nothing as compared to what these young people have already served and sacrificed," McCain said.

Those young people include the couple hundred cadets who watched the McCain speech intently. Clad in gray and white uniforms, some of the cadets in attendance could well end up in Iraq in the future.

Eight VMI alumni have been killed in Iraq, as well as two others in the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. And the front rows of Jackson Memorial Hall were filled with former cadets who have served stints in Iraq.

The cadets offered McCain polite applause but afterward several of them expressed doubts with the way the war was being handled.

"I really don't know where I stand," said Nick Matson, a sophomore from Roseville, Calif. "I just think we need a new leader."

Jonathan Pool, a senior from Crawfordsville, Ind., said he opposed the war from the beginning. "But we are there now, and we have to finish the job," he said.

Pool, who will be commissioned into the Army after he graduates, said he would like to see the American military help in conflict zones such as Darfur, in Sudan.

"World hunger and poverty," he said. "Those are the sort of things that cause political instability in countries."

But Barrett Luxhoj, a sophomore from Richmond, said he backed the war "110 percent."

Stephen Anderson, a sophomore from Yorktown, said he was "sad and frustrated" to see that the American people had turned against the war. But that hasn't tempered his support, he added. "I believe that we shouldn't be fighting a war based on public opinion."

McCain's speech comes on the heels of a much-publicized visit to Baghdad last week. He said he saw signs that American troops in Iraq are making progress, particularly with a new counterinsurgency strategy implemented by Gen. David Petraeus, who in January was appointed to command U.S. forces in Iraq.

McCain said he opposed the way the war was handled initially but now wants to give the new strategy a chance.

"We have a long way to go, but for the first time in four years we have a strategy that deals with how things really are in Iraq and not how we wish them to be," McCain said.

McCain only once referred to President Bush, whose approval ratings have hovered below 40 percent since the fall.

But McCain's reasons for wishing to avoid defeat in Iraq mirrored those of the man he hopes to replace.

McCain said leaving Iraq now would embolden terrorists who might seize the chance to plan an attack in America. Also, he said, withdrawing troops could result in more instability in the Middle East, escalating oil prices and a deflated economy.

He went on to cite a list of American goals in the Middle East -- preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, stabilizing Afghanistan, protecting Israel's stability and battling against extremists for the future of numerous countries in the region -- and said defeat in Iraq would hamper all those efforts.

The speech was the first of three policy statements scheduled by McCain for coming weeks. Statements on economic and domestic policy issues are scheduled for later this month.

The half-hour speech eschewed political rhetoric and fiery oratory for policy details.

McCain, once considered the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, has fallen to third place in a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll, and is running behind former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Fred Thompson, an actor and former senator who has not officially entered the race.

Giuliani leads the field of announced and potential contenders with support from 29 percent of Republican primary voters surveyed, followed by Thompson with 15 percent and McCain with 12 percent.

The poll of 1,373 people was conducted April 5-9. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

McCain spoke in VMI's Jackson Memorial Hall in front of a canvas depicting the May 15, 1864, Battle of New Market in the Civil War, in which Confederate commanders sent VMI cadets into battle. Ten cadets were killed during the battle and 47 wounded.

The cadet charge, however, broke Union army lines, resulting in a federal retreat from the Shenandoah Valley.

The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.

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