US Republican presidential hopefuls hammered Democrats on Iraq on Tuesday and began to split with beleaguered US President George W. Bush in their third 2008 campaign debate.
Ten candidates vying for the party's presidential nomination also turned on one another over illegal immigration as they crammed onto the same stage in New Hampshire as their Democratic rivals two nights earlier.
However, they agreed that Iran must not develop atomic weapons even if a tactical nuclear strike is needed to stop it and accused Democrats of being soft on the issue.
PHOTO: AFP
The Manchester debate was the latest step in the gruelling campaign running up to caucus and primary contests early next year for both party nominations.
It was notable for one man who was not there -- actor and former senator Fred Thompson, expected to leap into the top-tier of the field when he formally enters the race within weeks.
Leading candidates Senator John McCain, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and the ex-mayor of New York Rudolph Giuliani avoided major gaffes, and none of the long-shot contenders appeared to break out.
"The Democrats are in denial," said Giuliani, adding that the US decision to invade Iraq in 2003 was "absolutely the right thing to do."
"It's unthinkable to leave Saddam Hussein in charge of Iraq and be able to fight the war on terror," he said.
McCain took direct aim at Democratic front-runner Senator Hillary Clinton, who like her party rivals has vowed to end the war if she is elected president.
"When Senator Clinton says this is Mr. Bush's war, that this is President Bush's war -- when President Clinton was in power, I didn't say that Bosnia, our intervention there was President Clinton's war," McCain said.
"When we intervened in Kosovo, I didn't say it was President Clinton's war," he said.
Romney condemned Democratic Senate Majority leader Harry Reid for his comment last month that "the war in Iraq is lost."
"Harry Reid was wrong. We did not lose the war in Iraq. And that's not the sort of thing you say when you have men and women in harm's way," Romney said.
There were also signs Republican candidates were beginning to edge away from Bush, and his bottom-rung approval ratings, on Iraq, and other issues.
"We did, however, not do a great job after we knocked down Saddam Hussein and won the war to take him down and his military," Romney said. "I think we made mistakes following the conduct or the collapse of Saddam's government."
McCain went further, saying the problem in Iraq was "the misman-agement of the conflict."
Longshot candidate Representative Tom Tancredo accused Bush of presiding over a new era of bloated and profligate government in Washington.
"The president ran as a conservative and governed as a liberal," he said.
When asked whether a tactical nuclear strike against Iran might be necessary, Giuliani said: "You shouldn't take any options off the table."
A second-tier candidate, California Representative Duncan Hunter, was more direct, saying the US reserved the right to dissuade Iran militarily.
"I would authorize the use of tactical nuclear weapons if there was no other way to preempt those particular centrifuges," he said, while noting it could probably be done with conventional weapons.
But Texas Representative Ron Paul, a candidate drawing about 2 percent in opinion polls, opposed a nuclear strike on moral grounds and because he believed Iran was no threat to US national security.
There were fiery exchanges as candidates sparred on a new bill in Congress on immigration which would grant a course to citizenship for up to 12 million illegal workers and has infuriated conservatives.
As well as Tancredo, other long-shot candidates were former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore, Senator Sam Brownback and former Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson.
While national polls have Giuliani in the lead, his advantage has eroded in recent weeks. Romney has shot into the lead in some polls in Iowa, home of the first nominating caucus next January, and McCain has been running strongly in New Hampshire.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the