With veiled shot at Clinton, Obama unveils Iraq plan

It took Barack Obama all of four paragraphs today to get in a dig at rival Hillary Clinton during his big speech on Iraq in, of all places, Clinton, Iowa.

Obama begins the speech, in which he lays out his specific strategy for bringing troops home right away, by reiterating his belief that the "misguided" war was never about the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, despite President Bush's claims otherwise.

And then Obama, according to prepared remarks, says this: "The case for war was built on exaggerated fears and empty evidence – so much so that Bob Graham, the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, decided to vote against the war after he read the National Intelligence Estimate. "

Translation: Clinton was wrong when she voted to authorize the war in 2002, a vote she made despite not having actually read the NIE -- which was made available to senators.

Obama's remarks will only add to the charged political climate in Washington and on the campaign trail following the Congressional testimony of General David Petraeus, the Iraq war commander, and Ryan Crocker, the US ambassador in Iraq. In the past, Obama has noted that though he opposed the war from the beginning, he was not in the Senate at the time and therefore could not fully judge others' votes on the resolution. But with the primaries nearing, the candidates have sharpened their rhetoric on the dominant foreign policy issue of the campaign. (Dana Milbank's piece in The Washington Post today about the jockeying is a must-read.)

Another Democrat, Chris Dodd, hit both Obama and Clinton today for sidestepping the question of whether they will support continued funding for the war without a firm timetable for withdrawal. Dodd said in a statement: "I was disappointed that Senator Obama's thoughts on Iraq today didn't include a firm, enforceable deadline for redeployment, and dismayed that neither he nor Senator Clinton will give an unequivocal answer on whether they would support a measure if it didn't have such an enforceable deadline."

To see Obama's plan for Iraq in detail, go here.

UPDATE: On a conference call with reporters this afternoon, Obama was highly critical of Iraqi leaders, who he said have plainly not understood the "urgency" of reaching a political solution for their country.

"The whole premise of the surge was that we were going to be buying time [and] creating space for them to arrive at the political reconciliation," he said. "They have chosen not to utilize that time."

Obama went on to say that it was "not a function of whether they have the breathing room or space. It's a function of their lack of will to accomplish it."