The Iraq war yesterday re-emerged as a central issue in the presidential race.

Hillary Clinton used an important foreign policy speech in Washington to attack Barack Obama, her rival for the Democratic nomination, and John McCain, the Republican nominee-elect, who is visiting Baghdad before the fifth anniversary of the invasion.

She said that Mr McCain wanted to extend President Bush’s “failed policy” and keep American troops fighting “another country’s civil war — a war we cannot win” — for 100 years.

Although she acknowledged that there had been a recent decrease in violence, Mrs Clinton said that last year’s “surge” in troop levels had been intended to give the Iraqis “time and space” for political reconciliation.

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This had not been achieved, she declared, citing the continued absence of legislation on distributing oil revenues, basic services for citizens or a date for provincial elections.

“Let’s be clear: withdrawal is not defeat,” she said. “Defeat is keeping troops in Iraq for 100 years, defeat is straining our alliances and losing our standing in the world, defeat is draining our resources and diverting attention from our key interests.”

Mr McCain, who held talks yesterday with Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, said that Mrs Clinton “does not understand or appreciate the progress that has been made on the ground . . . the surge is working”.

He added: “This will be a big issue in the election as we approach November because at least a growing number of Americans . . . believe that this strategy has succeeded. That is in direct contradiction to the predictions made by the Democrats and particularly Senator Obama and Senator Clinton.”

Recent polls suggest that, while most voters still believe that the war was a mistake, a narrow majority now think that the US will ultimately prevail. The McCain campaign later dismissed Mrs Clinton’s claim about how long he wanted troops to remain as “intellectually dishonest”, saying that he envisaged the US providing military support in a “postwar scenario, not a hundred-year war”.

Mrs Clinton made no mention of her 2002 Senate vote authorising military action in Iraq. Instead, she scorned Mr Obama: “He didn’t start working aggressively to end the war until he started running for president,” she said, before highlighting remarks from Mr Obama’s foreign policy adviser that cast doubt on his plan to withdraw combat brigades from Iraq within 16 months. Mrs Clinton set out “concrete” plans to end the war. These include starting to bring troops home within 60 days of taking office — while maintaining counter-terrorism operations — holding the Iraqi Government to account for progress and enlisting the help of the international community to stabilise the country.

Yesterday Mr Obama, who plans his own policy address today on the issue of race and uniting the country, hit back at Mrs Clinton, saying that he would not allow her “to get away with saying this is just about speeches”.

He added that because of her 2002 vote “we have fought a war that has cost us thousands of lives and will cost us a trillion dollars”, saying: “It’s a war that should’ve never been authorised, and should’ve never been waged.”

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