Barack Obama's campaign and prominent Democrats went after John McCain Wednesday for saying in an interview that the timetable for when U.S. troops can return from Iraq is "not too important."

McCain made the remarks on NBC's "Today" show when asked if, given the apparent success of the troop surge, he had a "better estimate" for when American forces could come home.

"No, but that's not too important," McCain responded. "What's important is the casualties in Iraq. Americans are in South Korea. Americans are in Japan. American troops are in Germany. That's all fine."

Shortly afterward, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and two Obama foreign policy advisers held a conference call blasting McCain for dismissing the strain the war is putting on the country's military. They used the comment to press Obama's argument that McCain is running to continue President Bush's policies.

"It is unbelievably out of touch and inconsistent with the needs and concerns of Americans," Kerry said. "To them it's the most important thing in the world when they come home, and it's the most important thing in the world that we have a commander in chief who understands how they come home.

"It's a policy for staying in Iraq ... that's a recipe for a third Bush term," Kerry said.

"This is one further indication of his really striking lack of appreciation of the burden Iraq is placing on our military," Obama foreign policy adviser Susan Rice said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid earlier released a statement saying McCain's assessment is "a crystal clear indicator that he just doesn't get the grave national-security consequences of staying the course."

Reid cast McCain's plan as "a commitment to indefinitely keep our troops in an intractable civil war."

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean also issued a statement saying McCain is "wrong" on Iraq, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the interview reflects "how out of touch he is with the effect the war in Iraq is having on the readiness of our military."

The back-and-forth is a sign of the direction the general election campaign is likely to take. Even as economic woes take center stage in the presidential campaign, the two presumptive nominees are aggressively staking out their ground on foreign policy.

While the Obama conference call was ongoing, the McCain campaign released a statement calling the criticism "a false attack."

Spokesman Tucker Bounds said Obama wants to pursue "withdrawal no matter what the costs" and stressed that McCain was only saying what he "has always said." Bounds said McCain believes the timetable is not as important as the conditions on the ground, and that Obama's campaign was trying to "twist and distort the truth. "

The McCain campaign also organized a conference call with Sens. Joe Lieberman, an independent Democrat from Connecticut, and John Thune, R-S.D., who said McCain's military service -- as well as McCain's son's service in Iraq -- makes McCain better informed than most about wanting a successful end to the mission.

"John McCain has always been clear that he wants our troops to succeed in their mission come home safely as quickly as possible," Lieberman said. "He has also been clear that troops' withdrawals must be based on conditions on the ground and commanders' recommendations rather than artificial timelines sent by politicians in D.C."

"Frankly, to suggest for a moment that after all that Senator McCain and his family have been through that he doesn't understand the sacrifice our troops are making is just absurd," Thune said.

In the latter half of his statement to NBC, McCain suggested troops would withdraw based on the decision of military chiefs in Iraq.

"We will be able to withdraw. General Petraeus is going to tell us in July when he thinks we are," McCain said. "But the key to it is we don't want any more Americans in harm's way. And that way they will be safe, and serve our country, and come home with honor and victory -- not in defeat, which is what Senator Obama's proposal would have done."