Randy Scheunemann

The McCain campaign just responded, with a conference call, to Barack Obama's rearticulated plan for an end to the war in Iraq by arguing that Obama's intention to withdraw troops, despite the security improvements, amounts to political posturing, and that he is more concerned with winning the presidential election than winning the war.

Senator Lindsey Graham, one of McCain's chief surrogates, said that Obama was sending this message to American soldiers returning from Iraq: "Appreciate your service, but you didn't do any good."

Obama has always carefully couched his calls for withdrawal from Iraq with talk of the heroism of American troops, and has blamed a lack of political progress in Iraq, which is what the surge was supposed to accomplish, for many of the country's problems.  read more »

Joe Lieberman says the Obama campaign's attack on John McCain's remarks about bringing American troops home from Iraq amount to an "outrageous" distortion.

Speaking on a McCain campaign conference call, Lieberman responded to the Obama campaign's attack on McCain for saying on Good Morning America that the timeline for troop withdrawal from Iraq is "not too important." [corrected]  read more »

Nine Candidates Need to Gin Up Stances on War; Democratic Wonks Lunching With Dick Holbrooke, McCain Aide Recoils at Mitt Message; Rudy Asks Bolton.  read more »

John McCain's speech today at the Virginia Military Institute left no doubt about his belief that American needs to persist and prevail in Iraq, and that the Democratic candidates' "reckless" withdrawal plans would make for an unacceptable and catastrophic defeat. "Our defeat in Iraq would constitute a defeat in the war against terror and extremism and would make the world a much more dangerous place," said McCain.

But McCain's speech was a slap on the wrist to the Democrats compared with the lashing his chief Iraq advisor, Randy Scheunemann, offered last week.

Describing many of the Democratic candidates' post-combat troop withdrawal strategy -- leaving behind a reduced military presence or horizon force to fight al Qaeda, prevent genocide in Iraq and avoid the conflagration of a wider regional war - Scheunemann said, "It's ludicrous. Because the idea that we will be able to better prevent sectarian violence and fight al Qaeda better from Kuwait than how we are doing it now is laughable."

-- Jason Horowitz

John McCain may not have offered any direct criticism of the Iraq positions of his Republican rivals, but his key Iraq advisor shows no such reserve when it comes to Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani.

McCain "does not believe in timetables or deadlines, secret or otherwise," said McCain advisor Randy Scheunemann in a story in this week's Observer. "He has made it clear that setting a timetable or deadline is nothing more than setting a date certain for surrender."

The Democratic point-people on Iraq have a somewhat collegial working relationship, meeting on a monthly basis at luncheons hosted by Richard Holbrooke. The guest list usually includes Hillary Clinton's aide Andrew Shapiro, Barack Obama's staff advisor Mark Lippert and John Edwards' advisor Derek Chollet, among others.

But they've got their differences as well.

"It's a very collegial group," said Antony Blinken, a fellow attendee who is a senior advisor to Joseph Biden on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "Obviously there are some distinctions on Iraq. We also work for people so we have to make sure that we advocate what they believe in."

--Jason Horowitz