Obama sees security progress in Iraq

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Race for the presidency
The trips, the speeches, and the moments of Decision ’08. A look at the campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain.

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Speaking to an Israeli TV station in an interview broadcast Monday, McCain said stiffer sanctions might stop Iran's threats against Israel. The Republican said that in any event, the United States would not allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons which could be used to destroy Israel.

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Asked about Israel's saber-rattling against Iran, McCain replied, "I would hope that (an attack) would never happen, I would hope that Israel would not feel that threatened." He said the U.S. and Europe should impose "significant, very painful sanctions on Iran which I think could modify their behavior."

He added, "But I have to look you in the eye and tell you that the United States of America can never allow a second Holocaust."

Israel is convinced Tehran is building nuclear weapons, despite its denials. Iran also backs two other Israeli foes, the Islamic Hamas that rules the Gaza Strip and Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrilla group.

The U.S. historically has been Israel's strongest ally, and has made the Jewish state the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid. Politicians traditionally have courted the Jewish vote in the U.S. with demonstrations of loyalty to Israel.

Obama wrapped up his 2-day Iraq stay with a trip to Ramadi Tuesday, the former hotbed of the Sunni insurgency. He held talks with tribal leaders who joined the fight against al-Qaida in Iraq and now seek a deeper role in Iraq's political future.

The first-term Illinois senator's Iraq trip — a trip largely aimed at bolstering his foreign policy credentials — followed a challenge from McCain, who complained Obama was wrong to plan for troop withdrawals without having visited Iraq since January 2006.

McCain has visited Iraq eight times since the war began and says Obama's foreign policy initiatives are naive and that he is untested.

Throughout the day Monday, McCain heatedly hit out at Obama, seeking to remind voters that the Democrat was opposed to the 2007 addition of 30,000 U.S. troops — all now gone from the country — in a move credited with a major decline in violence.

"He's been completely wrong on the issue. ... I have been steadfast in my position," McCain said during a visit to former President George H.W. Bush in Kennebunkport, Maine. "When you win wars, troops come home."