US presidential forerunners Barack Obama and John McCain
exchanged words on their experience in the national defense affairs
on Wednesday as the two took aim at each other for the November
national elections.
Democratic presidential
candidate Senator Barack Obama speaks at a rally in Dallas, Texas
February? 20, 2008.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
Illinois Senator Obama solidified his momentum to be the
Democratic presidential nominee after winning three more races on
Tuesday in the states of Wisconsin and Washington as well as
Hawaii.
By 76 percent to 24 percent, he beat New York Senator Hillary
Rodham Clinton in the caucuses in Hawaii, his birthplace.
The photo shows
Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain on February 19,
2008.(Xinhua/AFP Photo)
On Republican side, Arizona Senator McCain, who has moved his
campaign to the next battleground in Ohio after a big victory on
Tuesday, accused Obama in a rally of being "naive" in the national
defense affairs.
"Well, the best idea is to not broadcast what you're going to
do. That's naive," McCain said of Obama's remarks in August that he
would mandate strike against al-Qaida in Pakistan if the country's
government would not respond to actionable intelligence.
"You don't broadcast that you are going to bomb a country that
is a sovereign nation and that you are dependent on," he added.
The 71-year-old Vietnam veteran was trying to contrast his
record in the defense policymaking with Obama's three-year work in
the Capitol Hill.
In a response, Obama's foreign policy advisor Susan Rice said in
a conference call that McCain was "misrepresenting and distorting"
Obama's positions.
She noted Obama's opposition against the Iraq war, and charge
that McCain's support to the war showed his misjudgment on foreign
policy.
She also likened McCain to President George W. Bush and his
senior advisors.
"John McCain, like Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, may have
years in Washington, but they have demonstrated that when it comes
to the crucial national security challenges of the day, their
experience didn't help them," Susan added.
(Xinhua News Agency February 21, 2008)
