Obama says war has hurt U.S. security

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama traveled Wednesday to a community college near Ft. Bragg, home of the 82nd Airborne Division and the Army Special Operations Command, to argue that the Iraq war had opened a “security gap” for the United States.

Speaking on the fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, the Illinois senator said it had emboldened enemies such as Iran and Al Qaeda while weakening U.S. support in the Middle East. Obama also suggested that Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton’s opposition to the war only began as she was nearing a presidential bid.

And Obama teased John McCain, a supporter of the war and the presumptive Republican nominee for president, for a mix-up Tuesday during a visit to the Middle East. The Arizona senator said several times that Iran was providing support to Al Qaeda in Iraq, one of the Sunni insurgent groups there.

After Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), who was traveling with McCain, whispered in his ear, McCain corrected himself and said that Iran was training Shiite militias in Iraq. Those militias are struggling against Sunni groups, including Al Qaeda in Iraq.

“Just yesterday, we heard Sen. McCain confuse Sunni and Shia, Iran and Al Qaeda,” Obama said. “Maybe that is why he voted to go to war with a country that had no Al Qaeda ties. Maybe that is why he completely fails to understand that the war in Iraq has done more to embolden America’s enemies than any strategic choice that we have made in decades.”

Likewise, Obama targeted McCain’s frequent vow that as president he would pursue Osama bin Laden “to the gates of hell.” Obama argued that the promise was meaningless given McCain’s focus on the conflict in Iraq rather than devoting greater military resources to Afghanistan and the Pakistani border regions, where Bin Laden is believed to be hiding.

“We have a security gap when candidates say they will follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell but refuse to follow him where he actually goes,” Obama said.

The McCain campaign responded with a statement calling Obama’s support for withdrawing troops from Iraq a “fantasy plan for making us safer.”

Without naming New York’s Sen. Clinton, Obama also argued that he would not only provide a sharper contrast to McCain on the war but also would be more certain to deliver on campaign promises to end the war.

Obama delivered a speech opposing the war in October 2002. Clinton voted in favor of authorization that month.

“Ask yourself,” Obama said, “who do you trust to end a war: someone who opposed the war from the beginning, or someone who started opposing it when they started preparing a run for president?”

Clinton spokesman Phil Singer shot back that Obama “took practically no action to end the war until he started his White House run, while Sen. Clinton has been a consistent critic of Iraq for many years.” Obama did not introduce legislation setting a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq until January 2007.