McCain, Obama spar on Iraq judgment

DENVER, July 25 (UPI) -- Presumptive Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Barack Obama fired back Friday after an attack by his GOP rival on Iraq war policy.

Sen. John McCain, speaking Friday at the 2008 American GI Forum of the United States National Convention in Denver, said when it was time to vote to send surge troops to Iraq, he embraced the new strategy while "Senator Obama made a different choice," the Arizona Republican said Friday.

"He not only opposed the new strategy, but actually tried to prevent us from implementing it," McCain said of the Illinois Democrat. "He didn't just advocate defeat, he tried to legislate it."

The comment echoed McCain's recent charge that Obama was willing to "lose a war in order to win a political campaign."

Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton issued a statement saying Americans "are looking for a serious debate about the way forward in Iraq and Afghanistan, and angry, false accusations will do nothing to accomplish that goal," The New York Times said.

"Barack Obama and John McCain may differ over our strategy in Iraq, but they are united in their support for our brave troops and their desire to protect this nation," the statement said. "Senator McCain's constant suggestion otherwise is not worthy of the campaign he claimed he would run or the magnitude of the challenges this nation faces."

McCain said Senate votes authorizing the surge and emergency war funding provided "a real-time test for a future commander in chief … I believe my judgment passed that test. And I believe Senator Obama's failed."

The surge was successful, McCain said, and "the audacity of hopelessness" was rejected, he said, poking fun at the title of Obama's book, "The Audacity of Hope."