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Obama, McCain trade attacks
15/07/2008 12:49 - (SA)
Washington - Senator Barack Obama sought to bolster his national security credentials with a major address on Iraq on Tuesday after Republican John McCain's camp charged the Democrat would trade defeat in Iraq for victory in the US presidential election.
The furious debate over the Iraq war took centre stage in the White House race before Obama's speech on Tuesday and after a new poll that showed voters saw McCain as the superior "commander-in-chief".
"Senator Obama will outline his strategy for addressing the most pressing threats facing America, which requires bringing the war to a responsible end, finishing the fight in Afghanistan, and pursuing our broader strategic objectives in the world," the campaign said ahead of the speech in Washington.
A new poll on Monday underlined why Obama needs to improve his standing on national security issues, and why McCain's team senses he is vulnerable.
Some 72% of the 1 119 adults surveyed by telephone in the July 10-13 ABC News/Washington Post poll said McCain, a Vietnam War veteran and former prisoner of war, would be a good commander in chief. Only 48% thought the same of Obama.
Both candidates garnered equal support for their Iraq proposals.
In an opinion piece on Monday in the New York Times, Obama pledged to focus on rising violence in Afghanistan with the deployment of two combat brigades, or up to 10 000 troops, while pushing for a withdrawal of US forces from Iraq.
Squander success
Citing Iraqi leaders who have come out in support of a timetable for the removal of US troops, Obama accused McCain and President George W Bush of pursuing a strategy that defies "the will of the Iraqi people, the American people and the security interests of the United States".
McCain says early troop withdrawals from Iraq would squander the success of last year's troop surge strategy, and could lead to chaos in the fragile country.
McCain foreign policy aide Randy Scheunemann, a hawk who strongly backed the US-led invasion, contrasted the Arizona senator's early support for the surge with Obama's opposition to the plan and vow to bring troops home.
"Senator Obama continues his search for a political position to protect his flank in an election," Scheunemann told reporters on a conference call.
"Senator McCain said he would rather lose an election than lose a war and see the nation lose a war.
"Senator Obama seems to think losing a war will help him win an election."
But Obama's aides questioned McCain's basic understanding of the war and US strategic interests, saying he would prolong what they called Bush's failed policies while threats elsewhere gather.
Old-school fear mongering
"John McCain has no notion of what's going on ... he doesn't get the fact that in fact there is no reasonable prospect of there being a strong central government located in Baghdad," said Democratic Senator Joseph Biden.
And Obama foreign policy aide Susan Rice said the vehemence of the McCain camp's attacks was designed to obscure "the fact that John McCain has been wrong on Iraq from the very beginning".
"That kind of old-school fear mongering is exactly what the American people are tired of and they won't be fooled by," she said, accusing the McCain camp of impugning Obama's character.
In the Times article, Obama pledged to send two more combat brigades to the Afghan war, following an upsurge in suicide attacks and insurgent activity, and stood by a mid-2010 deadline to get most soldiers out of Iraq.
"We must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in," said Obama, who is expected go to Iraq and Afghanistan soon, though details of his trip have been withheld for security reasons.
"I believed it was a grave mistake to allow ourselves to be distracted from the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban by invading a country that posed no imminent threat and had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks," Obama wrote.
Republicans accused Obama of changing his earlier stance for political gain after he said this month he may "refine" his policies after meeting US commanders in Iraq.
The McCain campaign also said on Monday that the Arizona senator would make a speech on Afghan war policy later this week.
- AFP
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US Elections Special Report
