Obama and McCain in crossfire over Iraq

By Caren Bohan

FAYETTEVILLE, North Carolina (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama criticized Republican John McCain on Wednesday for misidentifying Iraqi extremists, saying he fails to understand the war has emboldened U.S. enemies.

On the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the war took center stage on the U.S. campaign trail.

Obama attacked both McCain and his Democratic opponent, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, as representing conventional thinking in Washington that needs to be changed in the November election. McCain and Clinton backed a 2002 resolution supporting U.S. military action against Iraq.

Clinton's campaign spokesman Phil Singer accused Obama of taking "practically no action to end the war until he started his White House run while Senator Clinton has been a consistent critic of Iraq for many years."

As a senator from Illinois, Obama has voted for imposing timetables for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, a position Clinton also has been supporting.

And McCain's campaign said Obama was backing a risky strategy of pulling U.S. troops from Iraq that would leave the country vulnerable to civil war and genocide.

McCain, the 71-year-old Arizona senator who touts his national security experience as a main reason why he should be elected, gave Democrats a line of attack to use against him on Tuesday.

On a Middle East and Europe swing intended to bolster his national security credentials, McCain got tangled up in stating which Islamic extremist group in Iraq that neighboring Iran is accused of supporting.