John McCain, Barack Obama trade jabs over Iraq again
McCain addresses veterans in Florida and turns to familiar attacks against his rival. Obama's campaign responds immediately.
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Victory in Iraq is in sight, but much will need to be done by the next administration, Republican presidential candidate John McCain told fellow military veterans today.
As the major political parties prepare for their conventions beginning at the end of the month and with much of the nation's attention focused on the Olympics, McCain turned to his familiar attacks on rival Barack Obama over Iraq.
"Though victory in Iraq is finally in sight," McCain told the 109th convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. "A great deal still depends on the decisions and good judgment of the next president.
"The lasting advantage of a peaceful and democratic ally in the heart of the Middle East could still be squandered by hasty withdrawal and arbitrary timelines. And this is one of many problems in the shifting positions of my opponent, Sen. Obama," McCain said.
Obama will campaign today on economic issues in New Mexico. His campaign immediately responded to McCain:
"All his bluster, distortions and negative attacks notwithstanding, it is hard to understand how Senator McCain can at once proclaim his support for the sovereign government of Iraq, and then stubbornly defy their expressed support for a timeline to remove our combat brigades from their country," Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said in an e-mail.
"The difference in this race is that John McCain is intent on spending $10 billion a month on an open-ended war, while Barack Obama thinks we should bring this war to a responsible end and invest in our pressing needs here at home," he said.
Iraq is one of the issues that sharply divided the candidates. McCain was a longtime supporter of the surge, a sharp increase in U.S. troops in Iraq, arguing it will bring security. Obama has argued that the main front in the war on terrorism is Afghanistan and called for a staggered withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, depending on conditions on the ground.
McCain today repeated what have become his standard complaints about Obama.
"First, he opposed the surge and confidently predicted that it would fail. Then he tried to prevent funding for the troops who carried out the surge. Not content to merely predict failure in Iraq, my opponent tried to legislate failure," McCain said.
Then McCain delivered his oft-used tag line.
"Both candidates in this election pledge to end this war and bring our troops home. The great difference is that I intend to win it first," he told the friendly audience of veterans.
