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US cannot win Iraq war - Clinton
18/03/2008 10:45 - (SA)
Washington - Democrat Hillary Clinton charged on Monday the Iraq war may end up costing Americans $1 trillion and further strain the economy, as she made her case for a prompt US troop pullout from a war "we cannot win".
This week marks the fifth anniversary of the US invasion
of Iraq, but voters now say the economy is their top issue in
the campaign for the November presidential election.
Clinton, the former first lady who is trying to convince
voters she has foreign policy gravitas, criticised both her
rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Illinois Senator
Barack Obama, and the Republicans' choice, Arizona Senator John
McCain.
She said the war has sapped US military and economic
strength, damaged US national security, taken the lives of
nearly 4 000 Americans and left thousands wounded.
"Our economic security is at stake," she said. "Taking into
consideration the long-term costs of replacing equipment and
providing medical care for troops and survivors' benefits for
their families, the war in Iraq could ultimately cost well over
$1 trillion."
It has already cost $500bn.
Clinton has chutzpah - Obama
Clinton said that while Obama insists he will withdraw US
troops in Iraq within 16 months of taking office, his former
foreign policy adviser, Samantha Power, had said he might not
follow through on the pledge.
"In uncertain times, we cannot afford uncertain
leadership," Clinton said.
Obama, who routinely scolds Clinton for having voted for a
2002 Senate resolution that authorised the war, fired back.
"I think Senator Clinton has a lot of chutzpah, as they
say, to in some way to suggest that I'm the person who has not
been clear about my positions on Iraq. I have been opposed to
this war from the start," he told PBS.
McCain, who has clinched the Republican presidential
nomination, drew fire from Clinton as he visited Iraq as part
of a Middle East and Europe swing this week that he hopes will
remind Americans of his national security credentials.
She accused McCain of joining President George W Bush in
pushing a "stay the course" policy that would keep US troops
in Iraq for 100 years.
"They both want to keep us tied to another country's civil
war, a war we cannot win," she said. "That in a nutshell is the
Bush/McCain Iraq policy. Don't learn from your mistakes, repeat
them."
'Al-Qaeda will win if US withdraws'
Clinton said if elected she would convene military advisors
and ask them to develop a plan to begin bringing US troops
home within 60 days of taking office next January.
McCain is a big backer of Bush's troop build-up in Iraq,
credited for slowing the death toll there. He told CNN that if
Clinton started bringing home troops, "al-Qaeda wins".
McCain appears to be benefiting from the protracted
Democratic battle. Polls show him running slightly ahead or
nearly even with both Obama and Clinton in hypothetical
match-ups for the November election.
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