Clinton: 'Count on me' to end Iraq war

Posted: Wednesday, April 09, 2008 11:51 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under: 2008, Security, Clinton

From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones
ALIQUIPPA, Pa. -- Hillary Clinton said today she was the only candidate voters could count on to end the war in Iraq and bring troops home.

The senator appeared with veterans and retired military officers at an event outside Pittsburgh that focused on military readiness. She said the war in Iraq must be ended and the military rebuilt and used yesterday's Senate hearings on the war's progress to argue presumptive Republican nominee John McCain was not prepared to end the war.

McCain's campaign has been especially quick about pushing back against Obama when he asserts the Arizona senator would be fine with staying in Iraq for a century, but has seemed less critical when Clinton has made almost identical remarks.

The event was designed to show voters in this crucial primary state that the senator is best prepared to be commander in chief of the country. It began with a student singing the national anthem followed by the audience reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. The crowd was about half high school students.

Clinton repeated recent criticisms of Obama, calling his withdrawal plan "just words."

"Sen. Obama ... says he'll end the war, but his top foreign policy adviser said he won't necessarily follow the plan he's been talking about during this campaign, that the plan is just words,” she said as she stood in front of a banner that read "Solutions for a Strong Military." “Well, you can count on me to end the war safely and responsibly. That's the choice: one candidate will continue the war and keeping (sic) troops in Iraq indefinitely; one candidate only says he'll end the war and one candidate is ready, willing and able to end the war and to rebuild our military while honoring our soldiers and our veterans."

It's important to note the Obama adviser Clinton referred to stepped down weeks ago, soon after making a disparaging comment about the former first lady. 

The senator also had a message for President Bush, asking him to do two things in his speech on Iraq tomorrow: define America's endgame in Iraq and pledge to make sure Congress was able to debate any long-term security agreement with Iraq.

"President Bush must not saddle the next president with an agreement that extends our involvement in Iraq beyond his presidency," she said.

In laying out what she called solutions to strengthen America's military, Clinton mostly repeated or expanded on previously announced plans. She said that as president she would make sure that for every month soldiers were deployed they would have a month at home and end the practice of extending military tours called "stop loss," which she termed a “backdoor draft.” She also said she would work toward mandatory funding of the Veterans Administration, among other goals.

*** UPDATE *** The RNC responds: “Senator Clinton’s calls for retreat would leave Iraq to the terrorists, and lead the U.S. into a wider and more difficult war in the future," RNC spokesman Alex Conant writes in an e-mail. "It’s clear Clinton is listening to her party’s left-wing base and not General Patraeus and Ambassador Crocker.”

*** UPDATE 2 *** The Obama camp responds: "Hillary Clinton's tired and discredited attack is just the same old politics that won't end this war that she voted to authorize, and won't change the fact that she has repeatedly misled the American people about her Iraq record. We're happy to have a debate with Hillary Clinton over who the American people trust to end this war, since Barack Obama is the only candidate who had the judgment to oppose the war from the very beginning, not just from the beginning of a campaign for President."

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