Obama, McCain Criticize Each Other on Iraq

Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama had pointed exchanges over the Iraq war, each U.S. senator questioning the other’s credentials.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., Obama’s rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, meanwhile criticized Obama’s supporters for urging her to leave the race, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

McCain spoke out against Obama, saying the Illinois senator’s position of withdrawing troops from Iraq soon showed a lack of understanding about U.S. troops stationed in countries after wars ended.

(It) displays a fundamental misunderstanding of history … and what we need to do in the future to maintain our security in the face of the transcendent challenge of radical Islamic extremism, McCain said.

Campaigning in Allentown, Pa., Obama questioned both McCain’s and Clinton’s judgment in voting to authorize the war in Iraq.

John McCain and Hillary Clinton, they had a chance to make a good decision on the most important foreign-policy issue of a generation, and they got it wrong, Obama said.

Clinton, meanwhile, accused the Obama campaign of trying to pressure her to withdraw.

A lot of Senator Obama’s supporters want to end this race because they don’t want people to keep voting, Clinton said.