Obama Press Release: RESPONSE TO MCCAIN ATTACK - Best of luck in your efforts to figure out the difference between Iran and al Qaeda

[Obama Campaign Press Release from March 19, 2008]

[This is a response to this McCain Campaign press release]

“We wish the McCain campaign well as they try to figure out the difference between Iran and al Qaeda. Yesterday, Senator McCain said that Iran is “taking al Qaeda into Iran, training them and sending them back,” to Iraq. This was shortly after telling talk radio host Hugh Hewitt, “As you know, there are al Qaeda operatives that are taken back into Iran, given training as leaders, and they’re moving back into Iraq.” Or does Senator McCain believe the clarification that he issued yesterday, “I’m sorry, the Iranians are training extremists, not al Qaeda.” Or does he believe the statement that he issued today: “Al Qaeda and Shia extremists — with support from external powers such as Iran — are on the run but not defeated.” Huh?

“Does this sound familiar? Back in February 2003, before the war in Iraq began, there was no operational connection between Iraq and al Qaeda. But John McCain was saying that we had to invade and occupy a country that had no ties to the terrorists who carried out the 9/11 attacks because of Iraq’s, “support for the international terrorism of Al Qaeda.” Despite all of his Washington experience, John McCain voted for, supported, and continues to support the greatest strategic blunder in American foreign policy in decades. Osama bin Laden and the core leadership of al Qaeda responsible for the 9/11 attacks are not in Iraq. They are reportedly in northwest Pakistan, which is over 1,000 miles from Iraq. So while John McCain likes to boast of his willingness to follow Osama bin Laden to the Gates of Hell, all he has done is follow George Bush into a misguided war in Iraq while Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda have regrouped, and the Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan.

“This fall, John McCain will support George Bush Foreign Policy 101: endless war in Iraq; a policy of not talking to adversaries that has not worked; and a disturbing tendency to conflate very different threats. Barack Obama will offer a clean break from the failed policies of the past. He will end the war in Iraq, finish the job in Afghanistan, and focus on the threats of the 21st century,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.