October 13, 2008
McCain, Obama trade accusations over Iran policy
CHICAGO - Republican John McCain accused Democrat Barack
Obama yesterday of inexperience and reckless judgment for saying Iran does not pose the same threat to the United States as the Soviet Union did.
"Such a statement betrays the depth of Senator Obama's inexperience and reckless judgment. These are very serious deficiencies for an American president to possess," McCain said in an appearance at the restaurant industry's annual meeting here, on Obama's home turf.
He was referring to comments Obama made Sunday in Oregon, in which he said: "Iran, Cuba, Venezuela - these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying, 'We're going to wipe you off the planet.'"
McCain said Iran provides explosive devices used to kill U.S. soldiers in Iraq, sponsors terrorists in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East and is committed to the destruction of Israel.
"The threat the government of Iran poses is anything but tiny," McCain said.
Responding to McCain, Obama told a town hall rally yesterday in Montana, "Let me be absolutely clear: Iran is a grave threat ... But the Soviet Union "... had thousands of nuclear weapons, and Iran doesn't have one."
Obama said the threat from Iran had grown as a result of the U.S. war in Iraq. "Iran is the biggest single beneficiary of the war in Iraq," he said. "John McCain wants to double down that failed policy."
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