Obama and McCain Duel Over Iraq
By John M Broder
Published: July 16, 2008
The war in Iraq has distorted America’s foreign policy, cost it thousands of lives, tarnished its image and emptied its treasury, Senator Barack Obama said on Tuesday.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee pledged that he would swiftly end the war and reorient America’s approach to the world to address the challenges of terrorism, nuclear proliferation, climate change and energy dependence.
A short time later Senator John McCain, the probable Republican opponent, accused Mr. Obama of pursuing a strategy of defeat and drawing judgments without adequate facts.
"What’s missing in our debate about Iraq, what has been missing since before the war began, is a discussion of the strategic consequences of Iraq and its dominance of our foreign policy," Mr. Obama said in a 38-minute speech at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center here. "This war distracts us from every threat that we face and so many opportunities we could seize. This war diminishes our security, our standing in the world, our military, our economy, and the resources that we need to confront the challenges of the 21st century. By any measure, our single-minded and open-ended focus on Iraq is not a sound strategy for keeping America safe."
For his part, Senator McCain said during a campaign stop in Albuquerque, N.M., that while he and his opponent "agreed the Bush administration had pursued a failed strategy there and that we had to change course," he added that they "disagreed, fundamentally" on how to proceed.
"George Bush and John McCain don’t have a strategy for success in Iraq, they have a strategy for staying in Iraq," Mr. Obama said.
In a series of interviews, statements, advertisements and speeches over the past week, Mr. Obama has been laying out a broad vision of America’s role in the world in an Obama presidency in which he has emphasized the application of soft power — the use of diplomacy and economic aid — over the use of force. And he has spoken of reducing American combat forces in Iraq and adding as many as 10,000 more troops to battle al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
He said that as president he would try to mend alliances that have frayed in the seven years of the Bush-Cheney administration.
