'I will end this war,' Obama tells voters

Hillary Rodham Clinton's camp will also be active here. A new poll shows them in a dead heat

FAYETTEVILLE -- North Carolina's first meaningful presidential primary in a generation was launched Wednesday, with Illinois Sen. Barack Obama saying that the five-year war in Iraq had failed to make the United States safer from terrorism.

In a speech delivered near the sprawling Fort Bragg Army base on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war's beginning, Obama said he would bring U.S troops home over 16 months. He promised to step up efforts to pursue al-Qaida and other terrorists in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"When I am commander in chief, I will set a new goal on Day One: I will end this war," Obama told an invitation-only audience of 150 people at Fayetteville Technical Community College.

"Not because politics compels it. Not because our troops cannot bear the burden -- as heavy as it is. But because it is the right thing to do for our national security, and it will ultimately make us safer."

With appearances in Fayetteville and Charlotte, Obama opened what is expected to be an intense campaign with New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for North Carolina's votes -- and the 115 delegates who will be determined by voters -- in the May 6 Democratic primary. Obama's appearances in North Carolina came as a new poll, taken by an independent Raleigh firm, Public Policy Polling, shows the race in a virtual dead heat in the state.

"We are going to be campaigning actively," Obama said in an interview. "We will do a lot of door-to-door, small groups, town hall meetings, VFW halls. We have a lot of staff on the ground. ... I'm sure it will be competitive here in North Carolina, but I also think we will win."

Both campaigns are hiring staff and setting up headquarters in North Carolina. This is the first time North Carolina has had a role in picking a presidential nominee since 1988, in a Democratic primary in March won by then-Sen. Al Gore. The nomination is usually decided well before North Carolina's primary.

Mark Penn, Clinton's chief strategist, said Wednesday that Clinton was rising in several national and state polls, while Obama's numbers were in decline -- something he said was the result of a "vetting and testing" of Obama by voters.

Outside looking in

Because the Obama event was an invitation-only policy address, it lacked the usual hoopla of Obama events. Still, crowds of gawkers gathered outside to catch a glimpse of Obama or other news celebrities such as photographer Annie Leibovitz or CNN news anchor Anderson Cooper.

In his speech, Obama questioned the readiness of Clinton and Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.

"Senator Clinton says that she and Senator McCain have passed a 'commander-in-chief test' -- not because of the judgments they've made but because of the years they've spent in Washington," Obama said.

"But here is the stark reality: There is a security gap in this country -- a gap between those who claim to be tough on national security and the reality of growing insecurity caused by their decisions. A gap between the rhetoric of those who tout their support for our troops, and the overburndened state of our military."

Obama said he would remove one or two combat brigades per month over a 16-month period. He said he would leave only enough troops in Iraq to guard the U.S. Embassy and diplomats and a counter-terrorism force.

The war in Iraq has emboldened Iran and North Korea, he said, while allowing the Taliban to rebuild its strength in Afghanistan. He also said the war has been a recruitment tool for Islamic radicals.

Obama said Clinton began opposing the Iraq war only when she began running for president -- an assertion denied by the Clinton campaign.

In addition to criticizing McCain's "open-ended" support for U.S. involvement in Iraq, Obama noted that McCain -- while on a Middle East trip this week -- confused Sunni and Shiites.

"Maybe that is why he completely fails to understand that the war in Iraq has done more to embolden America's enemies than any strategic choice that we have made in decades,"Obama said.

McCain: It's fantasy

The McCain camp issued a release calling the Fayetteville speech "Senator Obama's Fantasy Plan For Making Us Safer."

Mark Salter, a senior advisor to McCain, issued a statement that Obama failed to discuss the dangers involved in ending the war. Salter said those include a strengthening of al-Qaida and the fact that Iran and other countries in the region would be emboldened by a U.S. withdrawal.

In Charlotte, Obama made similar comments about the war in Iraq during an afternoon appearance before what he called a "feisty" crowd of more than 2,000 people.

Obama got a standing ovation when he answered a question on black-on-black crime by referring to his speech Tuesday on race and politics. "We can embrace a knowledge of our history and our past to understand how we got here," he said. "But don't use that as an excuse."

(Staff writer Ryan Teague Beckwith and Jim Morrill of The Charlotte Observer contributed to this report.)