Obama Gives McCain a History Lesson on Al Qaeda in Iraq

Posted by Steve Benen, The Carpetbagger Report at 4:40 AM on February 28, 2008.

About half-way through last night's debate in Cleveland, Tim Russert asked Barack Obama if he reserved the right, as president, to "go back into Iraq, once you have withdrawn, with sizable troops in order to quell any kind of insurrection or civil war?"

After wrapping up a previous point in relation to Afghanistan, Obama responded:

"Now, I always reserve the right for the president -- as commander in chief, I will always reserve the right to make sure that we are looking out for American interests. And if al Qaeda is forming a base in Iraq, then we will have to act in a way that secures the American homeland and our interests abroad. So that is true, I think, not just in Iraq, but that's true in other places. That's part of my argument with respect to Pakistan.

"I think we should always cooperate with our allies and sovereign nations in making sure that we are rooting out terrorist organizations, but if they are planning attacks on Americans, like what happened in 9/11, it is my job -- it will be my job as president to make sure that we are hunting them down."

This didn't strike me as especially controversial, but John McCain thinks he can capitalize on what sounded like a reasonable response.

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain mocked Democrat Barack Obama on Wednesday for saying he would take action as president "if al-Qaida is forming a base in Iraq."

"When you examine that statement, it's pretty remarkable," McCain told a crowd in Tyler, Texas.

"I have some news. Al-Qaida is in Iraq. It's called 'al-Qaida in Iraq,'" McCain said, drawing laughter at Obama's expense.

Is this really the debate McCain wants to have? Because, by any reasonable measure, he's arguing from a position of extreme weakness.

Indeed, Obama, to his credit, didn't miss a beat in firing right back with "some news" for McCain.

Obama departed from his regular stump speech today in Columbus to respond to John McCain.

"John McCain may like to say he wants to follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of Hell, but so far all he's done is follow George Bush into a misguided war in Iraq," he said.

Obama was responding, incredulously, to McCain's suggestion that he's unaware of the presence of Al Qaeda in Iraq, which the Arizona Senator said earlier today was apparently "news" to Obama at last night's debate.

"McCain thought that he could make a clever point by saying, 'Well let me give you some news, Barack, Al Qaeda is in Iraq,' like I wasn't reading the papers, like I didn't know what was going on." Obama said, leaning into his developing McCain impression.

He then described the context -- a hypothetical question from Tim Russert -- and said, "First of all, I do know Al Qaeda is in Iraq, and that's why I said we should continue to strike Al Qaeda targets."

"I have some news for John McCain," Obama continued, "That's there was no Al Qaeda in Iraq until George Bush and John McCain" began the Iraq war, he said.

"They took their eye off the people who really were responsible for 9/11," he said.

Damn straight.

The reality is, if McCain hadn't backed Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld., and then insisted for the last several years that we "stay the course," al Qaeda in Iraq wouldn't exist, and Osama bin Laden wouldn't be able to use Iraq for fundraising and recruiting.

And here's some more "news" for McCain, who apparently isn't fully aware of what's going on in Iraq -- if the goal was to destroy AQI, the fastest way to make that happen would be for us to withdraw and let Iraqis, who have no real use for al Qaeda anyway, to drive them from their country.

If McCain wants to mock Obama, perhaps he should pick a topic in which a) Obama is mistaken; and b) McCain knows what he's talking about. This one fails on both counts. What's striking is that McCain doesn't even seem aware of how foolish his attack really is.

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Tagged as: iraq, terrorism, al qaeda, obama, mccain

Steve Benen is a freelance writer/researcher and creator of The Carpetbagger Report. In addition, he is the lead editor of Salon.com's Blog Report, and has been a contributor to Talking Points Memo, Washington Monthly, Crooks & Liars, The American Prospect, and the Guardian.