McCain plays up experience, hits Obama

By Steve Holland

MERIDIAN, Mississippi (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Monday dismissed Democrat Barack Obama's charge that he wants a "100-year war" in Iraq and belittled Obama's level of national security experience.

McCain began a trip down memory lane, opening a tour to places where he grew from rebellious youth to war hero and politician. He was a Navy flight instructor in Meridian and the McCain airfield is named for his grandfather.

But he quickly got himself enmeshed in the politics of the day, responding to Obama's oft-repeated charge that McCain would leave the United States in Iraq for a century.

Obama had said earlier on Monday he did not think the charge was unfair, that McCain "has not been clear about what exactly would lead him to decide it's time to pull out."

McCain gave the Democrats an opening on the issue by using the 100-year description to describe how long the United States might need a presence in Iraq to help maintain regional stability.

But McCain said he was talking about something similar to the decades-old U.S. military presences in Japan, South Korea and Germany.

The Arizona senator, 71, said Obama, a senator from Illinois, "hasn't read or doesn't understand the history of this country," an experience-versus-youth theme likely to play out in the months leading to the November election if Obama defeats New York Sen. Hillary Clinton for the right to face McCain.

"In all due respect, he displays a fundamental misunderstanding of history, of how we maintain national security and what we need to do in the future to maintain our security. But I understand it because he has no experience or background in any of it," McCain told reporters on his campaign flight back to Washington.