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Obama Claims Characterization of McCain's Statement on Iraq is Fair
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ShareMarch 31, 2008 5:16 PM
ABC News' Sunlen Miller: Part of Sen. Barack Obama's stump speech is claiming that John McCain wants to be in Iraq for 100 years.
"John McCain has suggested that we might leave our troops in Iraq for a couple of hundred years," he said at a Penn State rally Sunday.
Obama is playing off a byte from January 6th in Derry, New Hampshire which McCain responded to a questioner who asked about President Bush talking about staying in Iraq for 50 years.
"May be a hundred," McCain cut the man off, "Make it a hundred….We've been in South Korea, We've been in Japan for 60 years. We've been in South Korea for 50 years or so. That's be fine with me as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed. Then it's fine with me. I would hope it would be fine with you if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where Al Qaeda is training, recruiting, equipping and motivating people every single day."
Today at the Wo Go gas station in Lititz, Pennsylvania, Obama defended his characterization of McCain’s statement.
Watch the VIDEO HERE.
"I don't think it's unfair at all," Obama answered when questioned by ABC’s David Wright, "John McCain, I mean we can run the youtube spot, has said that we will stay there as long as it takes and if it takes another 100 years he’s up for that commitment and that implies that there is some criteria by which we would understand how long it takes. John McCain has not been clear about what exactly would lead him to decide its time to pullout……I think it is entirely fair to suggest that unless he’s got some criteria where by at some point we would be able to pull out our troops that for him to argue that, which he has repeatedly, that any suggestion that we withdraw troops is surrender. That implies that we will be there as long as he thinks it's necessary for us to be there."
Obama said this is different from his proposal for withdraw troops in Iraq but then leaving a small force to protect embassies and to maintain a strike force in the region, "That’s very different from saying that we're gonna have a permanent occupation in Iraq. And it’s certainly different from saying that we would have a high level of combat troops inside Iraq for a decade or two decades or as John McCain said, perhaps 100 years."
At the end of the exchange Obama admited that he understands McCain is talking about the Korean style bases and not a hot war like Iraq, "Well we’ve been in South Korea for 50 years and he’s used that as an example as George Bush has and that is decades and we’re spending 10 billion dollars a month in Iraq right now. Which means that John McCain is willing to sign up for the prospect of spending as much as $150 billion or more each year for who knows how long. That is something that the US cant afford and I think that is going to be a debate we are going to have in the general election should I be the nominee."
March 31, 2008 in Hunter, Duncan | Permalink | User Comments (21)
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Obama was rightfully upset when the Clintons took his statement about Reagan out of context. I think it's shameful he's doing the same thing to McCain. You can believe, with much justification, that a South Korea-style presence in Iraq is not possible at any point in the future, but that's what McCain is talking about, and it doesn't cost us $150 billion dollars a year to sit in S. Korea. There's inconsistent with believing we can win in a reasonable period of time, then have a long-term presence, not an occupation. Even if it's ultimately not true.
Posted by: Aaron | Apr 1, 2008 1:11:38 PM
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