The war over the war
WASHINGTON--Both presidential candidates focused on Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan on Tuesday, as Sen. John McCain clashed with Sen. Barack Obama over whether the U.S. should take unilateral action in Pakistan to root out terrorists.
The campaigns turned to foreign policy as Obama travels to Europe and the Mideast next week.
(AP)
Obama, in a speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center here that his campaign billed as a major foreign policy address, said the U.S. needs to "make it clear that the United States seeks no permanent bases in Iraq," a reference to McCain's suggestion that the U.S. could draw down troops but leave an occupying force similar to post-war arrangements in Germany and South Korea.
In talking about Iraq, Obama returned to the core rationale of his candidacy, his opposition to the Iraq war, which in his argument shows his judgment -- and trumps any lack of experience.
Countering this, McCain, in Albuquerque, N.M., said, "In wartime, judgment and experience matter. In a time of war, the commander in chief doesn't get a learning curve."
Both said the situation in Pakistan is not improving.
"We need more troops, more helicopters, more satellites, more Predator drones in the Afghan border region. And we must make it clear that if Pakistan cannot or will not act, we will take out high-level terrorist targets like bin Laden if we have them in our sights," Obama said.
"Senator Obama has spoken in public about taking unilateral military action in Pakistan. In trying to sound tough, he has made it harder for the people whose support we most need to provide it. I will not bluster, and I will not make idle threats," McCain said.
The larger point of Obama's speech was to lay out -- again -- the core "pillars" of his approach and contrast them to the Bush administration go-it alone strategy that has diminished U.S. standing in the world. In some ways, the "Obama Doctrine" spelled out Tuesday was not all that different from an Obama essay, "Renewing American Leadership," that ran last year in Foreign Affairs magazine.
"I will focus this strategy on five goals essential to making America safer: ending the war in Iraq responsibly; finishing the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban; securing all nuclear weapons and materials from terrorists and rogue states; achieving true energy security; and rebuilding our alliances to meet the challenges of the 21st century," Obama said Tuesday.
The thought within the Obama team is that Obama needed to repeat -- and give more specifics about -- his diplomatic vision before he visits Iraq and Afghanistan.