Eager to pre-empt fallout from a tell-all book that slams President Bush’s Iraq policy, John McCain stepped up his attack on Barack Obama on Thursday for not visiting Iraq in two years.
“Senator Obama’s willingness to deliberately ignore the facts on the ground reveals his flawed judgment, and reflects a position completely rooted in his ideology rather than reality,” McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said Thursday.
On Monday, McCain challenged Obama to accompany him to Iraq, where conditions have improved since a surge of troops last year. McCain, who made his eighth trip to Iraq in March, said he could “educate” Obama, who made his only visit 29 months ago.
Obama quickly rejected McCain’s offer, but indicated a willingness to visit Iraq without his Republican rival.
“I don’t think Barack Obama needs a guide,” said former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, an Obama supporter, on Thursday. “Especially John McCain.”
Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs added that a joint trip would demean the service of American troops.
“The work that the men and women in our military are doing over there is just far too important for them to be props in some sort of political stunt or photo-op,” Gibbs said. “We would want to go over there and talk to them and see what sort of difficulties they’re facing and see how it is that we can begin to carefully remove them.”
The McCain campaign said this proves Obama is unwilling to reconsider his demand for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
“It is disappointing that Senator Obama would travel to Iraq for the first time in over two years, and instead of listening and learning from our troops, he would insist upon an immediate withdrawal,” Rogers said. “Senator Obama continues to refuse to seek the facts, but instead will go to Iraq, look our troops in the eye and admit defeat.”
By challenging Obama on Iraq, McCain is hoping to mitigate collateral damage to himself from a new book by former White House press secretary Scott McClellan. The book, “What Happened,” accuses Bush of using a “propaganda campaign” to gin up an unnecessary war against Iraq.
Obama told reporters that McClellan “has confirmed what a lot of us have thought for some time.”
