CLEVELAND, Ohio (AFP) — White House hopeful Hillary Clinton slammed her Democratic rival Barack Obama Tuesday for suggesting he would order a raid against Al-Qaeda inside Pakistan if President Pervez Musharraf failed to act.
Clinton, who has sought to paint Obama as lacking the foreign policy experience to be commander in chief, questioned the wisdom of Obama's threat during a key debate here before crucial nominating contests in Ohio and Texas.
"Last summer, he basically threatened to bomb Pakistan, which I don't think was a particularly wise position to take," Clinton said.
"I have long advocated a much tougher approach to Musharraf and to Pakistan and have pushed the White House to do that," she said ahead of next Tuesday's do-or-die nominating contests.
The former first lady argued that she has a wider breadth of foreign policy experience that makes her more qualified to face off against presumptive Republican nominee John McCain in the November 4 general election.
"I will have a much better case to make on a range of the issues that, really, America must confront going forward, and will be able to hold my own and make the case for a change in policy that will be better for our country," she said.
Obama denied that he threatened to bomb Pakistan in a speech last year.
"What I said was that if we have actionable intelligence against (Osama) bin Laden or other key Al-Qaeda officials ... and Pakistan is unwilling or unable to strike against them, we should," he said.
Obama, who opposed the Iraq war from the start, also countered by criticizing Clinton's Senate vote in 2002 authoritizing the war.
"The fact is that Senator Clinton often says that she is ready on day one, but in fact she was ready to give in to (US President) George Bush on day one on this critical issue," he said.
McCain, a 71-year-old former navy pilot, Vietnam prisoner of war, and Iraq hawk, criticized Obama last week over his Pakistan remarks, as he also sought to paint the Illinois senator as too green to be commander in chief.
"Well, the best idea is to not broadcast what you're going to do. That's naive," McCain told reporters in Columbus, Ohio.
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