Clinton hits rivals in Iraq speech
Posted: Monday, March 17, 2008 1:42 PM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
Security
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones and NBC's Mark Murray
WASHINGTON, DC -- Before speaking on the economy, Hillary Clinton delivered what her campaign billed as a major speech on Iraq -- in which she sharpened her attacks on rivals Barack Obama and John McCain for their policies on dealing with the country, and offered more specifics on her previously announced proposals for withdrawing troops and helping to increase stability there.
In remarks timed to highlight Iraq ahead of the five-year anniversary of the start of the war, Clinton sought to portray herself as best-prepared to deal with Iraq and as the only candidate with a concrete plan for getting troops out.
"The American people don't have to guess whether I'm ready to lead or whether I understand the realities on the ground in Iraq or whether I'd be too dependent on advisers to help me determine the right way forward," she told a small crowd at George Washington University today.
As part of a continued effort to paint Obama as a man of words and not action, Clinton this morning repeated her argument that Obama had done little to end the war in Iraq and noted that a (now former) foreign policy adviser told the BBC that he would not necessarily act on his plan to withdraw troops within 16 months if he becomes president.
"It's not the speeches a president delivers, it's whether the president delivers on the speeches," she said. "I have concrete detailed plans to end this war, and I have not wavered in my commitment to follow through on them. One choice in this election is Sen. McCain, who is willing to keep this war going for 100 years. You count on him to do that. Another choice is Senator Obama, who has promised to bring combat troops out in 16 months. But according to his foreign policy adviser, you can't count on him to do that. In uncertain times, we cannot afford uncertain leadership. Here's what you can count on me to do -- provide the leadership to end this war quickly and responsibly."
The McCain campaign took issue with Clinton's criticism. "At a time when Senator Clinton knows that American and allied forces are making real progress in Iraq, it is unfortunate that she would look to score political points by mischaracterizing Senator McCain's statement with intellectually dishonest attacks," spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker said in a statement. "The point that Senator McCain was making was one about American troop presence versus American combat presence. He was speaking of a post-war scenario, not a hundred year war, when he suggested that the American people could support maintaining a military presence in Iraq should the Iraqi and U.S. governments determine it to be in their mutual interest, just as the U.S. and German, Japanese, and South Korean governments did after conflicts."
The Clinton campaign held a conference call later in the day to talk about Clinton's speech and to restate her criticisms of what she called his lack of action on bringing the war to a close.
This morning, Clinton said she had fought the president's efforts to make a long-term commitment to keeping troops in Iraq and said Bush was determined to continue his "failed policy" there and that McCain would do the same.
"They both want to keep us tied to another country's civil war, a war we cannot win. And that in a nutshell is the Bush-McCain Iraq policy: Don't learn from your mistakes. Repeat them. Well, here is the inescapable reality: We can have hundreds of thousands of troops on the ground for a 100 years, but that will not change the fact that there is no military solution for the situation in Iraq," she said, quoting Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen, who said during his confirmation hearing no amount of troops or time would make much difference in the country without national political reconciliation.
On the policy front, the senator's speech was largely a repetition of her previously announced plans for handling Iraq, although she included more details than in most speeches.
Clinton said she would have her advisers draw up a plan to begin withdrawing troops within 60 days of taking office. She noted she had co-sponsored legislation to end the practice of using private military contractors in Iraq and had proposed a measure to put an end to no-bid contracts. She said Obama had not ruled out the continuing use of private contractors and noted that she had not been able to get McCain's support on the bill to halt no-bid contracts, even though such deals were ten times more costly than earmarks.
But the Obama campaign parried her criticism. “Proving once again that she will say anything to win an election, Hillary Clinton is attacking Barack Obama on an issue where he has led and she did nothing until her campaign fell behind," Obama spokesman Dan Pfeiffer said in a statement. "Senator Clinton did nothing when the use of contractors was expanded in the Clinton Administration, she did nothing when Senator Obama sent a bill on contractor accountability to her committee, and after more than four years of war in Iraq she claimed to not even know contractors were unaccountable even though she sits on the Senate committee that oversees them."
More: "For all her talk of Day One, it took five years on the Armed Services Committee before Hillary Clinton decided that she was shocked to learn about contractors that were used by the Clinton Administration, and whose abuses were reported year after year after year during the Iraq War."
