Obama's Rivals Criticize Him Over Nuclear Strike Remarks

WASHINGTON — Too tough or too squeamish? Senator Obama's Democratic rivals are assailing him for both.

A day after drawing criticism for vowing a military strike against Al Qaeda targets in Pakistan, Mr. Obama got himself into another foreign policy flap — this time for all but ruling out the use of nuclear weapons to fight terrorism.

The Illinois senator was asked in an interview with the Associated Press whether there were any circumstances in which he would order nuclear weapons against terrorists in Afghanistan or Pakistan, or to take out Osama bin Laden.

"I think it would be a profound mistake for us to use nuclear weapons in any circumstance," Mr. Obama said, with a pause, "involving civilians," the AP reported. Then he quickly added, "Let me scratch that. There's been no discussion of nuclear weapons. That's not on the table."

Mr. Obama's opponents in the Democratic primary race used his statements as further grist to the argument that he is too inexperienced for the presidency. Senator Biden of Delaware and Senator Dodd of Connecticut had called him out on Wednesday for using a foreign policy address to publicly state his willingness to send military forces to Pakistan if its president, General Pervez Musharraf, refused to act against terrorist targets.

Messrs. Biden and Dodd said it was unwise to telegraph his strategy in advance, a line that Senator Clinton echoed yesterday. "Presidents should be very careful at all times in discussing the use or nonuse of nuclear weapons," she told reporters at a press conference at the Capitol. "I don't believe that any president should make any blanket statements with respect to the use or nonuse of nuclear weapons."

Asked later about taking military action against Al Qaeda in Pakistan, she said, "Everyone agrees our goal should be to capture or kill bin Laden and his lieutenants, but how we do it should not be telegraphed or discussed, for obvious reasons."

Messrs. Biden and Dodd also escalated their criticism.

"Over the past several days, Senator Obama's assertions about foreign and military affairs have been, frankly, confusing and confused," Mr. Dodd said in a statement. "He has made threats he should not make and made unwise categorical statements about military options."

The Obama campaign refused to back away from the senator's comments. "If we had actionable intelligence about the existence of high-level Al Qaeda targets like Osama bin Laden, Senator Obama would act and is confident that conventional means would be sufficient to take the target down," a spokeswoman, Jennifer Psaki, said. "Frankly, we're surprised that others would disagree."

Mrs. Clinton's warning not to "telegraph" war strategy came even as she stepped up her efforts to force the Pentagon to disclose its contingency plans for withdrawing American troops from Iraq. After she and other members of the Senate Armed Services Committee received a classified briefing from an undersecretary of defense, Eric Edelman, Mrs. Clinton joined with Senator Kerry of Massachusetts and Senator Boxer of California to introduce legislation that would require such briefings in the future.

Mr. Edelman agreed to the meeting after initially rebuffing Mrs. Clinton's request with a letter in which he suggested that her calls for troop withdrawal were " reinforcing enemy propaganda."