In an interview with MSNBC’s Hardball Wednesday, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) said he thinks keeping troops in Iraq to “blunt the influence of Iran in Iraq” would be a case of “mission creep.” He also reiterated his pledge to strike al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan if that country’s government is “not willing to act.”

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) Wednesday said a buildup of the U.S. military should be “an urgent priority,” but said re-instituting the draft is not necessary to relieve the “acute” lack of personnel (Bloomberg).

Reacting to a new Department of Defense report, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) criticized U.S. Army leadership Wednesday for its “failure to comply with federal standards relating to contracts awarded for body armor.” With Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA), Clinton called for an “expeditious completion of the Government Accountability Office’s current investigation into the effectiveness and reliability of body armor systems.”