Washington: White House hopeful Hillary Clinton insisted today that her plans to pull combat troops out of Iraq would represent a triumph for US diplomacy and not defeat at the hands of Al-Qaeda.

The former first lady traded long-distance barbs with Republican John McCain as he visited Baghdad, and also assailed her Democratic rival Barack Obama as failing to match his oratory on Iraq with anti-war action in the US Senate.

McCain s presidential campaign shot back by accusing Clinton of waging "intellectually dishonest attacks," as the Republican senator argued that the Democrats plans to exit Iraq would signal victory for the extremists of Al-Qaeda.

In a speech ahead of the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion on Thursday, Clinton laid out her own plans to rebuild regional diplomacy, enlist the United Nations and craft a new foreign policy shed of the Iraq albatross.

Arguing that Iraq was "a war we cannot win," the New York senator said McCain was determined to extend the "failed policy" of President George W Bush should he win office in November s presidential election.

A planned withdrawal would let the United States free up troops for the fight in Afghanistan and billions of dollars for US education and health care, and cajole Iraq s government into taking long-overdue action for itself.

"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."

Source : PTI