Washington, D.C. ? Sen. John McCain says a proposed resolution opposing President Bush’s Iraq war strategy amounted to a demoralizing “vote of no confidence” in the U.S. military.

The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and 2008 presidential candidate was seeking to weaken support for the resolution; an early test vote is tentatively set for today.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate to say that you disapprove of a mission and you don’t want to fund it and you don’t want it to go, but yet you don’t take the action necessary to prevent it,” McCain said. “I do believe that if you really believe that this is doomed to failure and is going to cost American lives, then you should do what’s necessary to prevent it from happening rather than a vote of ‘disapproval,’ which is fundamentally a vote of no confidence in the troops and their mission.”

A fellow Vietnam veteran, GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, disagreed with McCain’s assessment. Hagel said the resolution would make clear the Senate’s belief that Bush’s policy is misguided. Hagel said the proposal also lays out alternatives such as moving troops away from the sectarian violence and closer to the Iraq border to provide “territorial integrity.”