McCain challenges Obama to visit Iraq
The Republican says the Democrat is ignorant of the 'facts on the ground' in Baghdad. The Illinois senator, in the Western battleground of Colorado, focuses on education.
RENO — Speaking with evident condescension, Arizona Sen. John McCain today offered to travel to Iraq with Barack Obama to help the Illinois senator gain a better understanding of the war and the consequences of withdrawing troops.
The attack by the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was in line with his campaign's attempts to portray Obama as too young and inexperienced to lead the nation. At a rally last week in Stockton, McCain joked that Obama had done very well for a "young man with very little experience."
Speaking today before a boisterous crowd of 500 who gathered for a town-hall-style meeting here, McCain accused his Democratic rival of ignoring the successes of the troop buildup in Iraq and suggested Obama was ignorant of the facts.
"To say that we failed in Iraq and we're not succeeding does not comport with the facts on the ground, so we've got to show him the facts on the ground," McCain said.
McCain also said Obama's proposal to set a date for troop withdrawal would "lead to chaos, genocide and increased Iranian influence."
In response, Obama spokesman Bill Burton said it was "odd that Sen. McCain, who bought the flawed rationale for war so readily, would be lecturing others on their depth of understanding about Iraq."
Burton said Obama challenged President Bush's rationale for the war "from the start."
"Sen. McCain stubbornly insists on pursuing the failed Bush policy that continues to cost so much, while Sen. Obama believes it's time to begin a deliberate, careful strategy to remove our troops and compel the Iraqis to take responsibility for their own future."
Obama, making a campaign appearance in Colorado, didn't refer to McCain nor to his opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.
Instead, he focused on education policy at a school in Thornton, Colo., north of Denver, on the last day of his three-day swing through key Western battleground states.
Obama reserved special attention for the federal No Child Left Behind law that, critics say, has placed unfunded federal burdens on public schools.
"Forcing our teachers, our principals, and our schools to accomplish all of this without the resources they need is wrong," Obama said. "Labeling a school and its students as failures one day and then throwing your hands up and walking away from them the next -- that's wrong."
