McCain mocks Obama policy for Iraq as 'audacity of hopelessness' that could have lost the war

Republican presidential candidate John McCain, ridiculed Barack Obama Friday for his policies on Iraq, saying that the entire Middle East could have plunged into war had U.S. troops been withdrawn as his rival advocated. Speaking to an audience of Hispanic military veterans, McCain stepped up his criticism of Obama while the Illinois senator continued his headline-grabbing tour of the Middle East and Europe. The Arizona Republican contended that Obama's policies — he opposed sending more troops to Iraq in the "surge" that McCain supported — would have led to defeat there and in Afghanistan. "We rejected the audacity of hopelessness, and we were right," McCain said, a play on the title of Obama's book "The Audacity of Hope." McCain laid out a near-apocalyptic chain of events he said could have resulted had Obama managed to... [read full story]