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Obama, McCain sharpen their dispute over Iraq war

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-07-16 08:35

In reply, McCain belittled his younger rival, who he said was speaking about the war before traveling overseas and talking to Gen. David Petraeus, the overall commander on the ground.

"In my experience, fact-finding missions usually work best the other way around: First you assess the facts on the ground, then you present a new strategy," McCain said.

Obama said he stands by his longtime proposal to withdraw US combat troops. "We can safely redeploy ... at a pace that would remove them in 16 months" from the time he takes office, he said. "We will make tactical adjustments as we implement this strategy — that is what any commander in chief must do," he said.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain (center) visits US troops based in Haditha, western Iraq on March 16 2008. [Agencies]

Later, in an interview with PBS, Obama said one of the issues he wants to discuss with Petraeus and others while in Iraq concerns the resources they will seek to carry out a post-combat mission of protecting US personnel and bases, training Iraqi forces and conducting counterinsurgency attacks against al-Qaida.

Obama's aides billed his speech as a major address, and in it the Illinois senator sketched a foreign policy for a new administration.

Apart from ending the war in Iraq, he cited finishing the fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban, securing all loose nuclear weapons and materials, achieving energy security and rebuilding international alliances.

Yet, he stressed that ending the war in Iraq was essential.

"This war distracts us from every threat we face and so many opportunities we could seize," he said.

Obama salted his speech with criticism of McCain, who frequently cites his Senate experience on matters of defense and foreign policy.

"I opposed going to war in Iraq. Sen. McCain was one of Washington's biggest supporters of the war," he said.

"I warned that the invasion ... would fan the flames of extremism and distract us from the fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban. Sen. McCain claimed that we would be greeted as liberators."

McCain's campaign theme for the day was the economy, but he decided that Obama's remarks were too important to go without a rebuttal.

Speaking in New Mexico, he said Obama's assessment of the increase is troop strength was wrong. "The surge has succeeded. And because of its success, the next president will inherit a situation in Iraq in which America's enemies are on the run and our soldiers are beginning to come home."

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