Obama, McCain each claim Iraq as advantage

WASHINGTON, May 30 (UPI) -- The campaigns of Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama each say they have the advantage on the Iraq war, again center stage in the U.S. presidential race.

Both campaigns said the Iraq debate would benefit their candidate, The Washington Post reported Friday. McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, has used the issue to argue Obama is naive on foreign policy.

Obama, inching closer to the Democratic nomination, and fellow Democrats have used the war to say a McCain victory amounts to a third term for President George W. Bush.

Republicans note Obama hasn't been to Iraq in 873 days as of Friday. Obama aides said the senator is considering a trip to Iraq, and would assess the best way to withdraw U.S. troops, not whether to withdraw.

The McCain campaign pushed back Friday against press accounts of a statement McCain made Thursday in which he misstated current U.S. troop levels in Iraq.

"We have drawn down to pre-surge levels," McCain told reporters Thursday. "Basra, Mosul and now Sadr City are quiet and it's long and it's hard and it's tough and there will be setbacks."

The Obama campaign noted U.S. troop strength in Iraq is 155,000, well over the 130,000 pre-surge level.

A McCain supporter, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., told reporters on a conference call Friday the Obama campaign and the press were "trying to nitpick the tense of the verb about the surge troops being home," The Politico reported.

"The surge troops will be home by the end of July," Kyl said.

McCain's observation that Mosul was quiet came the same day as three suicide bombings in and around Mosul left 30 Iraqis dead, the Post said.