L'attaque et la contre-attaque : John McCain et Barack Obama ont donné un avant-goût hier de ce que pourrait devenir la campagne présidentielle en croisant le fer au sujet de l'Irak. Le sénateur de l'Arizona a donné le ton en critiquant sur un ton sarcastique une des déclarations récentes du candidat démocrate. Lors du débat télévisé de mardi soir à Cleveland, celui-ci a dit qu'il se réserverait le droit, après un retrait des troupes américaines d'Irak, de retourner dans ce pays si Al-Qaeda y établissait une base. Je cite McCain dans le texte :
"I have some news. Al-Qaeda is in Iraq. Al-Qaeda is called 'al-Qaeda in Iraq.' My friends, if we left, they wouldn't be establishing a base. . . . they would be taking a country. I will not allow that to happen, my friends. I will not surrender."
Obama a répliqué sur un ton tout aussi sarcastique. Je le cite également dans le texte :
"McCain thought that he could make a clever point by saying, 'Well let me give you some news, Barack, al-Qaeda is in Iraq.' Like I wasn't reading the papers, like I didn't know what was going on. I said, 'Well, first of all, I do know that al-Qaeda is in Iraq; that's why I've said we should continue to strike al-Qaeda targets.
"I have some news for John McCain, and that is that there was no such thing as al-Qaeda in Iraq until George Bush and John McCain decided to invade Iraq. I've got some news for John McCain. He took us into a war along with George Bush that should have never been authorized and should have never been waged. They took their eye off the people who were responsible for 9/11, and that would be al-Qaeda in Afghanistan that is stronger now than at any time since 2001.
"So John McCain may like to say he wants to follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell, but so far all he's done is follow George Bush into a misguided war in Iraq that's cost us thousands of lives and billions of dollars."
Qui a eu le meilleur dans cet échange?