US Election: John Mccain Rebuts Assault on His Wartime Record

John McCain, long accorded heroic status because of his five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, yesterday fought back against a Democratic challenge to his national security credentials.

The assault on the Republican presidential candidate's claims to military expertise was led by General Wesley Clark, a former Nato commander in Europe who is advising the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama. Clark said McCain lacked command experience. "He hasn't been there and ordered the bombs to fall," Clark told CBS television. "I don't think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president."

McCain, who was tortured during his five years as a prisoner after being shot down over Hanoi in 1967, dismissed the comments as a distraction from the real issues of the election campaign. "I am proud of my record of service," he told reporters in Pennsylvania.

Obama issued a statement through his campaign yesterday distancing himself from Clark's comments. The assault on McCain's wartime record had the McCain campaign worried enough to lay on a conference call for reporters yesterday with former members of the military to counter Clark's criticism.

Orson Swindle, a former marine and Republican activist who was imprisoned with McCain, said the campaign was obliged to react to squash the rumors. "When you go and start spreading rumors and start denigrating the character and the experience and the performance [of McCain] it has a tendency to weigh in with some significance on those who do not know better," Swindle said. "It's trying to influence an awful lot of people."

McCain yesterday suggested that the Obama camp could be questioning his war record as part of a strategy to undermine his claims to be a stronger leader on Iraq. "It's not an isolated incident," he said.