McCain sharpens criticism of Obama over his Iraq judgment

Denver: Republican presidential candidate John McCain, ridiculing Barack Obama for "the audacity of hopelessness" in his policies on Iraq, said on Friday that the entire Mideast could have plunged into war had US troops been withdrawn as his rival advocated.

Speaking to an audience of Hispanic military veterans, McCain stepped up his criticism of Obama while the Illinois senator continued his headline-grabbing tour of the Mideast and Europe. The Arizona Republican contended that Obama's policies - he opposed sending more troops to Iraq in the "surge" that McCain supported - would have led to defeat there and in Afghanistan.

"We rejected the audacity of hopelessness, and we were right," McCain said, a play on the title of Obama's book "The Audacity of Hope."

McCain laid out a near-apocalyptic chain of events he said could have resulted had Obama managed to stop the troop buildup ordered by President George W. Bush: US forces retreating under fire, the Iraqi army collapsing, civilian casualties increasing dramatically, Al Qaida killing cooperative Sunnis and finding safe havens to train fighters and launch attacks on Americans, and civil war, genocide and a wider conflict.