Camps trade barbs over Iraq policy

WASHINGTON, July 14 (UPI) -- Democratic U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama's plan for a 16-month phased redeployment out of Iraq drew criticism Monday from his opponent's campaign.

Republican Sen. John McCain's camp blasted the Illinois senator's plan in a conference call with reporters, The Hill reported.

Randy Scheunemann, a senior foreign policy adviser to McCain, said Obama "seems to think losing a war will help him win an election."

McCain has said he is against any timetable for troop withdrawals from Iraq.

Sen. Joseph Biden, the Delaware Democrat and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, shot back in a separate conference call, saying Obama's plan was "profoundly right" and "more in line with what our military needs are and what our military thinks."

Biden added that McCain has a "total lack of understanding" and "no notion of what is going on" in Iraq.

"I don't understand anything about John's policy here," Biden said. "I don't know what he is talking about except more of the same."