McCain says Obama's judgment on Iraq "failed"

By Jeff Mason

DENVER (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain slammed Democratic rival Barack Obama on Friday for poor judgment on the Iraq war, laying out in sharp terms his argument the Illinois senator should not be commander in chief.

McCain, a Vietnam War veteran, said if Obama had succeeded in his effort to prevent last year's boost in U.S. troop levels in Iraq, American forces would have had to retreat under fire, the Iraqi army would have collapsed and al Qaeda would have found a safe haven.

"Had his position been adopted, we would have lost both wars" in Iraq and Afghanistan, McCain said in a speech to a veterans' group in Colorado.

"We rejected the audacity of hopelessness, and we were right," the Arizona senator added in a pointed reference to the title of Obama's second book, "The Audacity of Hope."

McCain, crystallizing his arguments over the Iraq war in his strongest language to date, warned that pursuit of Obama's plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq over the next 16 months while boosting forces in Afghanistan could have disastrous consequences.

"We face another choice today. We can withdraw when we have secured the peace and the gains we have sacrificed so much to achieve are safe," McCain said. "Or we can follow Senator Obama's unconditional withdrawal and risk losing the peace even if that results in spreading violence and a third Iraq war."

McCain has long criticized Obama's objection to last year's increase in U.S. troop levels in Iraq and his reluctance to acknowledge its success in bringing security to the country.

Obama has called for a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, saying it is needed to push the Iraqi government to make the tough choices to lay the groundwork for a U.S. pullout. McCain, like U.S. President George W. Bush, has opposed a fixed schedule, preferring to remain until Iraq is fully secure.