Obama, McCain trade barbs on Iraq war

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Barack Obama mourned the death of nine U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan on Sunday, even as he said John McCain’s numerous visits to the region don’t leave the Republican better equipped to deal with its volatility as president.

Preparing to embark on only his second visit to Iraq, as well as his first to Afghanistan, the Democrat told reporters: “I will recall the visit he made last year in which he was surrounded by helicopters and SWAT teams and he came back and reported how safe everything was in Baghdad. And I don’t think that that was indicative of what was actually happening on the ground at that time.”

McCain, a Vietnam War veteran, has chided Obama for the dearth of time he has spent in the region, failing to meet with Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and not holding a congressional oversight hearing on U.S. security matters.

Asked about such criticism, Obama said: “John McCain has been in Congress 25 years, no doubt about that. If this is a longevity measure, then John McCain wins. On the other hand, before we went into Iraq, I knew the difference between Shia and Sunni.”

That was a dig at the Arizona senator, who once confused the majority and minority ethnic groups in Iraq.

Obama also said that “on the big strategic issues that are at stake,” there’s no case where he “has been proven wrong.”

The McCain campaign pounced on the comments.

“If Barack Obama believes that visiting Iraq and meeting with commanders will not give him any new perspective, then we can only assume he’s going just to smile for the cameras,” said spokesman Tucker Bounds.

McCain has said that an August 2003 visit to Iraq — just five months after U.S. forces invaded — convinced him of the need to change strategy after the fall of Baghdad. And he has said that a December 2006 visit persuaded him to support a surge of additional U.S. forces to reduce violence and stabilize key regions.

McCain also said throughout the primary campaign he would rather lose the election over his position than lose the war — and today argues his adherence to principle shows he puts country above himself. He has suggested Obama is adhering blindly to an anti-war position for political gain.