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WASHINGTON: White House hopeful Barack Obama Tuesday promised to
switch the “single-minded” US focus on Iraq to al-Qaeda havens
in tribal Pakistan as he laid out a sweeping new blueprint for US
foreign policy.
But his Republican rival John McCain snapped
back, “I know how to win wars,” as the debate hit new levels of
intensity ahead of Obama’s crucial audition for the job of US
commander in chief in the Middle East and Europe next week.
Obama renewed his vow to get most US combat
troops out of Iraq within 16 months of taking office, promised to
strike at al-Qaeda in Pakistan if Islamabad would not, to secure
loose nuclear weapons and battle climate change.
“Iraq is not going to be a perfect place, and
we don’t have unlimited resources to try to make it one,” Obama
said in a speech in Washington.
“I will give our military a new mission on my
first day in office: ending this war,” Obama said.
After more than five years at war in Iraq, more
than 4,000 US troop deaths, and with tens of thousands of Iraqis
killed, Obama said it was time to refocus US policy on the region,
which spawned the September 11 attacks in 2001.
“As should have been apparent to President
[George W.] Bush and Senator McCain—the central front in the war
on terror is not Iraq, and it never was,” Obama said in his
speech.
“Al-Qaeda has an expanding base in Pakistan
that is probably no farther from their old Afghan sanctuary than a
train ride from Washington to Philadelphia,” Obama said in
excerpts released by his campaign.
“We cannot tolerate a terrorist sanctuary, and
as president I won’t,” he said.
“We must make it clear that if Pakistan cannot
or will not act, we will take out high-level terrorist targets like
[Osama] bin Laden if we have them in our sights.”
McCain rejected Obama’s argument, saying he
had been “wrong” to originally oppose the US “surge”
escalation strategy, would squander its gains with a troop
withdrawal and was guilty of “bluster” over Pakistan.
“Today we know Senator Obama was wrong. The
surge has succeeded and because of its success, the next president
will inherit a situation in Iraq in which America’s enemies are on
the run,” McCain said in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
“Senator Obama will tell you we can’t win in
Afghanistan without losing in Iraq,” McCain said, though he added
that the “status quo” in Afghanistan was not acceptable.
-- AFP
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