Wednesday, May 28, 2008John McCain on Wednesday repeated his challenge to Barack Obama to take a ride with him over to Iraq and see the situation on the ground before concluding that U.S. efforts have failed to get the war-torn nation back on track.
Speaking in a town hall meeting in Reno, Nev., the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said he was surprised Obama’s campaign considered it a political stunt when McCain proposed earlier this week that the two travel together to Iraq.
“The security of this nation is more important than any political campaign. To say that we failed in Iraq doesn’t comport with the facts on the ground,” McCain said to applause.
McCain has hitched on to a talking point that is echoing through Republican chambers of late — that Obama would more readily meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than hold a one-on-one with U.S. Gen. David Petraeus, the head of Multinational Forces in Iraq.
“He could meet Gen. Petraeus and he could meet Ambassador [Ryan]
Crocker, and he could see — he could see the fact that Sadr City is quiet. He could see that the Maliki government has taken control of Basra. He could see that the Iraqi military is leading the fight in these places with the support of American troops,” McCain said.
McCain has visited Iraq eight times since the war began. Obama has been to Iraq once, in 2006, before the surge credited with allowing the oil-rich nation a chance to rebuild.
McCain suggested the two forget their political differences and see for themselves results on the ground. Obama’s campaign responded earlier this week by calling the suggestion, which was proposed over the weekend, “political posturing.”
Obama said Tuesday that McCain’s desire to plug onward in Iraq continues a failed policy of the Bush administration.
“I don’t think we want to continue a misguided foreign policy and an endless war in Iraq that has cost us thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars while making us less safe and less secure,” he said.
“That’s the choice in this election. On issue after issue, John McCain is offering more of the same policies that have failed for the last eight years.”
“Barack Obama wants to begin a phased withdrawal of our troops and refocus our efforts on going after Al Qaeda in Afghanistan,” Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan added on Wednesday.
Seeing a possible opportunity to gain points against Obama, the Republican National Committee on Wednesday launched a clock on its Web site that is counting the days since the Democratic presidential front-runner visited Iraq.
“Barack Obama has only visited Iraq once — and that was 871 days ago,” RNC Chairman Mike Duncan said.
“Obama has done shockingly little to educate himself firsthand about
the war in Iraq. Instead, he displays an arrogant certainty gained on the campaign trail. … Obama’s failure to visit Iraq, listen and learn firsthand and witness the surge’s progress demonstrates weak leadership that disqualifies him from being commander in chief.”
Click here to check out the RNC’s Obama-Iraq clock.
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