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WASHINGTON: Republican White House hopeful John McCain profited from
Democratic infighting to project statesman-like credentials on a
trip to Iraq ahead of the US-led invasion’s fifth anniversary.
While the war remains deeply unpopular in the
United States, McCain was able to flag his national-security
experience by leaving the campaign fracas behind on a surprise trip
to Baghdad.
The campaigns of Democrats Barack Obama and
Hillary Clinton kept up their warring, as the former first lady
prepared Monday to deliver a “major policy address” on Iraq
ahead of Thursday’s anniversary.
The Illinois senator, meanwhile, headed to
Pennsylvania, the battleground state that is the next to vote in the
Democrats’ nomination marathon on April 22.
Obama has distanced himself from his fiery
Chicago pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who argues in a newly
unearthed video that the September 11 attacks of 2001 showed that
“America’s chickens are coming home to roost.”
While the Democrats feuded over who would be the
better commander in chief, McCain arrived Sunday in Iraq on the
first leg of a tour that is also taking him to the Middle East and
Europe.
In Baghdad, McCain was due to meet US Ambassador
Ryan Crocker, and to see firsthand the effects of the troop
“surge” for which he has been a fervent advocate even as US
public support for the war has slumped.
Although the trip is officially by members of
the Senate armed services committee, Democratic critics noted that
only two other senators who are both ardent advocates of the
military surge accompanied McCain.
“Obviously the world’s going to watch it,
and we’ll know whether it’s exploited for other reasons. I
don’t believe it will be, but we’ll see,” said Senator Dianne
Feinstein, a Clinton backer.
-- AFP
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