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ELECTIONS
McCain attacks Obama on Iraq
Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., waves as he boards the Straight Talk Air campaign charter airplane, Monday, Aug. 18, 2008, in Orlando, Fla.
Purchase this photoORLANDO, Fla. -- John McCain told fellow veterans on Monday that his Democratic rival Barack Obama tried to legislate failure in Iraq and has refused to admit he erred when opposing the military increase there last year.
McCain said Obama placed his political self-interest ahead of his country's, a theme the Arizona Republican has often repeated. McCain told a friendly convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars that Obama's positions have changed as his political ambitions grew.
"With less than three months to go before the election, a lot of people are still trying to square Sen. Obama's varying positions on the surge in Iraq. 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," McCain said.
"Not content to merely predict failure in Iraq, my opponent tried to legislate failure."
Obama has acknowledged the surge reduced violence in Iraq but says it has failed in its political goal of facilitating a reconciliation among contentious Iraqi factions. The Illinois Democrat proposes to withdrawn U.S. combat forces from Iraq within 16 months; McCain opposes any timetable for withdrawal.
Iraqi leaders have been pressing the U.S. for a timetable for withdrawal.
"It is hard to understand how Sen. 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," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.
