Clinton plays it safe in Iraq hearing

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who is trailing in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, stayed away from campaign rhetoric and instead focused on detailed questions during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Iraq Tuesday.

{mosads}Clinton quizzed Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, about how he determined whether it remained worth it to keep an increased presence of American forces in the war-torn country.

Last year, Clinton said that accepting the testimony of Petraeus on the progress in Iraq would require the “willing suspension of disbelief,” a remark for which she was criticized. This time around, the former first lady’s rhetoric was much less combative.

The only possible foray into presidential politics came at the outset of her allotted time, when Clinton appeared to react to a statement made by presumptive GOP nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the ranking Republican on the panel.

McCain had said that withdrawing troops now, as both Clinton and Democratic front-runner Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) want to do, “would constitute a failure of political and moral leadership.”

Clinton responded that staying the course would come at very real costs and argued that the recent fighting in Basra shows “how tenuous” the situation in Iraq remains.

However, the New York senator also noted that any decision made in that regard would be difficult and indicated that all alternatives pose challenges.