McCain caught in crossfire over U.S. troops' status

WASHINGTON -- Republican John McCain's campaign jousted Sunday with two prominent politicians over when and how to pull troops out of Iraq: Barack Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

In an interview published over the weekend in a German magazine, al-Maliki seemed to endorse Obama's short-term plan to pull out U.S. troops over 16 months. However, an al-Maliki spokesman seemed to back away from those comments in a statement released Sunday.

Democrats embraced al-Maliki's initial comments. McCain campaign aides noted that al-Maliki's government and U.S. military officials say security needs on the ground must dictate any withdrawal.

Obama "is stubbornly adhering to an unconditional withdrawal that places politics above the advice of our military commanders," said McCain foreign policy aide Randy Scheunemann.

A foreign policy adviser for Obama, Susan Rice, said Obama welcomes al-Maliki's support for a redeployment timetable. "This presents an important opportunity to transition to Iraqi responsibility, while restoring our military and increasing our commitment to finish the fight in Afghanistan," Rice said.

Al-Maliki's initial comments created problems for McCain, said Peter Trubowitz, a government professor at the University of Texas-Austin.

The political fallout, Trubowitz said, may depend on "which al-Maliki statement sticks."

"Maliki's initial statement helps Obama," he said, but the follow-up could mitigate matters for the Republican. "I don't think it really helps McCain, but it's certainly less damaging than the first set of comments."

Al-Maliki's government is "driven by domestic politics in Iraq and not in the United States," said Charles Kupchan, an international relations specialist at Georgetown University.

It's clear the Iraqis want some kind of timetable for withdrawal, which puts McCain "in an awkward position," said Kupchan, an informal adviser to Obama.

Whether it is called a timetable or something else, the United States and Iraq are negotiating some time frame in which U.S. troops leave Iraq. Those talks, the Bush administration said, now include a "general time horizon" for certain goals, including "the resumption of Iraqi security control in their cities and provinces and the further reduction of U.S. combat forces from Iraq."