McCain calls Obama naive about perils that afflict the world

The GOP nominee, John McCain, spoke at the American Legion national convention in Phoenix yesterday. (Jeff Topping/Bloomberg News)

PHOENIX - John McCain assailed Democratic rival Barack Obama yesterday as naive about the world and its dangers, saying that Obama's opposition to the Iraq war and preference for collective diplomacy would create more trouble and aggression in the world.

"The next president must bring to office a clear-eyed view of our nation's role in the world as the defender of the oppressed and a force for peace," McCain told the American Legion national convention, which Obama is to address today.

The presumptive Republican nominee pointed out that Obama asserted in his Berlin speech last month that the Cold War ended because major nations came together.

"Now I missed a few years of the Cold War as a guest of one of our adversaries, but as I recall the world was deeply divided during the Cold War - between the side of freedom and the side of tyranny," said McCain, a former Navy aviator who spent 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. "The Cold War ended not because the world stood as one but because the great democracies came together, bound together by sustained and decisive American leadership."

McCain also criticized Obama for saying after the Russian invasion of Georgia: "We've got to send a clear message to Russia and unify our allies. They can't charge into other countries. Of course it helps if we are leading by example on that point."

The Arizona senator concluded that Obama's remark must have been a reference to the US invasion of Iraq. "If he really thinks that, by liberating Iraq from a dangerous tyrant, America somehow set a bad example that invited Russia to invade a small, peaceful, and democratic nation, then he should state it outright," McCain said, "because that is a debate I welcome."

Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan responded that McCain is continuing "daily, false, personal, and detestable attacks on Senator Obama." "

McCain, seeking to question Obama's grasp of foreign affairs as polls show him with an edge when voters are asked who is most qualified to be commander in chief, also launched a television ad yesterday that piggybacks on the best-known attack ad that Hillary Clinton used against Obama during the primaries.

McCain's spot uses the opening scene from Clinton's ad of a little girl sleeping, and the opening line: "It's 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep. Who do you want answering the phone?"

Then images of rolling tanks, missiles, and Islamic radicals appear as the announcer says, "Uncertainty. Dangerous aggression. Rogue nations. Radicalism."

The ad then shows Clinton saying, "I know Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience that he will bring to the White House. And Senator Obama has a speech he gave in 2002."

"Hillary's right," the announcer says. "John McCain for President."

The ad is the latest in a series seeking to use Clinton's words against Obama. But she has disavowed the spots, telling home-state delegates yesterday, "I'm Hillary Clinton and I do not approve that message."

Obama's campaign responded by noting that Clinton later did another 3 a.m. ad that criticized McCain on the economy and the housing crisis. "Hillary Clinton was right: John McCain has no plan to protect our homes or create jobs, and that spells even more pain for American families," Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement.