SOUTH PORTLAND – The United States has a new mission: To become energy independent, Republican presidential nominee John McCain told a crowd filled with veterans Monday.

During his speech outside the Maine Military Museum, which featured exhibits of the Vietnam War, McCain offered two main points. As president he’d work to make the country energy independent through coal, solar, wind, and tidal power and 45 new nuclear power plants that would employ 700,000.

The country “is succeeding in Iraq,” he added, but faces a “titanic struggle against radical Islamic extremism, a struggle that will consume us for a long time.” Troops will be pulled from Iraq, but he’d send more to Afghanistan, McCain said, adding that the effort will take sacrifice.

For five years during the Vietnam War, McCain was a prisoner of war after his aircraft was shot down. “I had the privilege of serving in the company of heroes,” McCain said, adding he saw “1,000 acts of courage, compassion and love” by other POWs.

He acknowledged the veterans. “I’d rather be here at the Maine Military Museum than any place on Earth,” McCain said. “I’m so proud to see all these individuals with their hats on who served our country.”

He asked veterans to raise their hands. An army of arms shot up. The crowd applauded.

Among those in the crowd was Vietnam veteran John Schlaack of Lisbon Falls and American Legion Post 66, who came with Bill Barr.

“We’re here because we support John McCain for president,” Schlaack said. “I’m also here because I served on the same aircraft carrier with John McCain, the USS Forrestal. I didn’t know him,” Schlaack said. “I admire what he did when he was a POW.”

Surviving without giving information to the enemy, even when tortured, “is very difficult,” he said.

Today people talk about water boarding, “but can you imagine being put in a 4-foot by 3-foot hole, no where to go to the bathroom, no way to stand up, no way to move, no food, for a week?” he asked. “That’s what they did.”

Reginald Emery Sr. of Auburn said he came to see the Maine Military Museum, but was with the crowd waiting for McCain.

Emery said he was a prisoner of war in Korea, and called McCain “a great man. I stand behind him as a veteran. I just don’t vote Republican.”

In a statement, Maine Democrats challenged McCain, linked him to George W. Bush, and applauded Democrat Barack Obama’s energy plan.

“Maine residents can’t afford four more years of President Bush’s failed policies through John McCain,” Maine House Speaker Glenn Cummings, D-Portland, said. For nearly 30 years, McCain has been part of Washington’s failure on energy policy, Cummings said, complaining that unregulated speculation has artificially driven up the price of energy.

“Having voted time and again to deny home heating assistance to Mainers in need, it is clear that John McCain is out of touch with the challenges facing Maine families,” Cummings said.

McCain acknowledged that high gasoline and oil costs are hurting people. The low-income drive the oldest vehicles and can barely afford to drive to work.

Becoming energy independent isn’t just an economic issue, it’s one of national security, McCain said. “We are sending $700 billion a year to countries that don’t like us very much. Some of that money ends up in the hands of terrorist organizations. I will end this dependence on foreign oil” through renewable energy, coal and nuclear.

Nuclear energy is controversial, but the Navy has sent ships around the world for 60 years with nuclear power plants “and we’ve never had an accident,” McCain said. “It is doable.”

On war, McCain said just as the war in Iraq is being won, American troops will prevail in Afghanistan “with our allies this time. … I hate war. The veteran hates war.” But “I know how to win wars.”

Loud protesters across the street were chanting, opposing McCain and war. The country is divided about the war, McCain said. “I can hear some of our citizens who disagree with me. That’s what America is all about.”

A year ago when McCain supported more troops in Iraq, “everybody said my campaign was dead.” Obama said more troops “wouldn’t work,” McCain said, adding he’s proud he was right. “That’s what judgment is all about. That’s why I’m qualified to lead. I don’t need any on-the-job training.”