Sen. John McCain yesterday said Sen. Barack Obama is distorting his remark that U.S. troops could stay in Iraq for 100 years, the second straight day the two presidential candidates have squared off over the war.
Last month, Mr. McCain said U.S. troops could be in Iraq for years - "maybe 100" - but has repeatedly compared such a long-term deployment to those in South Korea, Germany and Japan to secure U.S. interests.
"Of course, that comment of mine was distorted. Life isn't fair, as Jack Kennedy said," the Arizona senator told a town hall meeting at Rice University in Houston yesterday. "I was talking about American presence after the war," which he said the United States would win "fairly soon."
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee told a Rice student who had criticized his 100-year remark that the United States is deployed around the world and has been since the end of World War II.
"No American argues against our military presence in Korea or Japan or Germany or Kuwait or other places, or Turkey, because America is not receiving casualties," Mr. McCain said yesterday.
"I think, generally speaking, we have a more secure world thanks to American presence, particularly in Asia, by the way, as we see the rising influence of China," he said. "But the key to it is American casualties, America's most precious asset, and that is American blood."
Mr. Obama, meanwhile, has made the 100-year remark a centerpiece of his standard stump speech, and yesterday said Mr. McCain's stance would cost the American people "trillions of dollars ... not billions, trillions." The Illinois senator has also sought to tie his Republican opponent to President Bush, questioning the 2003 decision to go to war.
Charlie Black, a senior McCain adviser, said the United States has interests all over the world and must "be willing to project U.S. force."
"The American people understand that we're the world's superpower and that we need to have a large military and we need to project our power," Mr. Black said.
Both sides are signaling that the Iraq war policy will be a major issue in the general election. Both Mr. Obama and his Democratic presidential rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York favor withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq soon.
Please click here to continue reading.