February 27, 2008
The Gates Of Hell
Barack Obama and John McCain traded barbs today about the presence of Al Qaeda in Iraq.
McCain, riffing off of comments that Obama made in last night's Dem debate, said that Obama is mistaken if he believes that the terrorist organization isn't rooted in Iraq. But Obama subsequently denounced (ahem) McCain's remarks, saying that McCain and President Bush are responsible for starting the Iraq war and leaving the region vulnerable to terrorist activity.
"I'm not embarrassed to tell you that I did not watch the Democrat debate last night, but I am told that Senator Obama made the statement that if Al Qaeda came back to Iraq after he withdraws – after the American troops are withdrawn – then he would send military troops back, if Al Qaeda established a military base in Iraq," McCain said while campaigning in Tyler, TX. "I have some news: Al Qaeda is in Iraq. Al Qaeda, it's called Al Qaeda in Iraq, and my friends, if we left they wouldn't be establishing a base, they wouldn't be establishing a base, they'd be taking a country. And I'm not going to allow that to happen my friends. I will not surrender. I will not surrender to Al Qaeda.
Obama, stumping in Columbus, sought to clarify his debate remarks, noting that he would reserve the right to go into Iraq to strike Al Qaeda.
"So you know this is how politics works," Obama said. "McCain thought that he could make a clever point by saying ,'Well, let me give you some news Barack, Al Qaeda is in Iraq,' like I wasn't reading the papers. Like I didn't know what was going on."
Obama continued: "But I have some news for John McCain, and that was that there was no such thing as Al Qaeda in Iraq until George Bush and John McCain decided to invade Iraq."
Obama said McCain and Bush -- a pairing the Dem candidate is likely to utter repeatedly over the next eight months, should he win the nom -- took the United States into a war "that should have never been authorized and never been waged."
"So John McCain may like to say he wants to follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell, but so far all he's done is follow George Bush into a misguided war in Iraq that's cost of thousands of lives and billions of dollars," he said.
(JENNIFER SKALKA, NBC/NJ's ADAM AIGNER-TREWORGY and NBC/NJ's ASWINI ANBURAJAN)
Posted at 04:18 PM
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