US:HILLARY CLINTON claimed yesterday the Iraq war may cost Americans $1 trillion (€641 billion) and add strain to the buckling US economy as she made her case for a prompt troop pull-out from a war "we cannot win".
With the US this week marking the fifth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, the economy's assorted strains competed for attention as the top issue facing voters when they choose their next president in November.
Mrs Clinton said US policy on Iraq was at a crossroads, that the war had sapped US military and economic strength, damaged US national security, taken the lives of nearly 4,000 Americans and left thousands wounded.
The money to fund the war, she said, could be used to provide health care to 47 million uninsured Americans, solve the mushrooming housing crisis and make college affordable.
"Our economic security is at stake," she said. "Taking into consideration the long-term costs of replacing equipment and providing medical care for troops and survivors' benefits for their families, the war in Iraq could ultimately cost well over $1 trillion."
Mrs Clinton is claiming to have the foreign policy experience that her Democratic rival, Illinois senator Barack Obama, lacks.
She also took aim at the likely Republican nominee, John McCain, accusing him of joining President George W Bush in pushing a "stay the course" policy that would keep US troops in Iraq for 100 years. "They both want to keep us tied to another country's civil war, a war we cannot win," she said. "That in a nutshell is the Bush/McCain Iraq policy. Don't learn from your mistakes, repeat them."
She said if elected she would convene military advisers and ask them to develop a plan to begin bringing US troops home within 60 days of her taking office next January. "Senator McCain and President Bush claim withdrawal is defeat. Well, let's be clear, withdrawal is not defeat. Defeat is keeping troops in Iraq for 100 years," she said.
McCain (71), who hopes to win the presidency based on the strength of his national security experience, was in Baghdad at the start of a week-long Middle East and Europe tour.
He is a big backer of Mr Bush's troop build-up in Iraq, credited with slowing the death toll there. He said if Mrs Clinton were allowed to start bringing home troops within 60 days of taking office, "I just think what that means is al-Qaeda wins".
- (Reuters)