McCain criticises Obama over Iraq plans

Republican John McCain intensified criticism of Barack Obama’s vow to pull troops out of Iraq, saying the Democratic presidential candidate’s plan would lay the Arab nation open to the kind of chaos that gripped it 18 months ago.

As Mr Obama prepares for his second trip to the Iraq – he was last there in January 2006 – Mr McCain also said he found it “remarkable, remarkable that somebody with no military experience or background” would have issued such a pledge without first having gone to Iraq for a briefing with the US commander, General David Petraeus.