June 29 (Bloomberg) -- Retired U.S. Army General Wesley Clark, an adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, said Republican contender John McCain has oversold his military and national-security experience.

The Arizona senator ``has been a voice on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and he has traveled all over the world, but he hasn't held executive responsibility,'' Clark, one of Obama's chief foreign policy advisers, said on CBS's ``Face the Nation'' program.

Even the squadron in the Navy that McCain commanded ``wasn't a wartime squadron,'' said Clark, who headed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and was commander of the NATO bombing campaign during the 1999 Kosovo conflict. ``He hasn't been there and ordered the bombs to fall.''

Clark, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, endorsed Senator Hillary Clinton of New York for the Democratic presidential nomination before Obama, 46, became the party's presumptive nominee. The Illinois senator has better judgment on national security issues than McCain, Clark said today.

``I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president,'' Clark said, referring to the incident that led to McCain's being taken prisoner of war in Vietnam. He also said McCain's service as a prisoner made him ``a hero.''

Obama is ``running on his strength of character, on the strengths of his communication skills, on the strengths of his judgment,'' Clark said.

`Putting Country First'

Brian Rogers, a spokesman for McCain, 71, responded that the candidate is proud of his military record and history of ``putting the country first.'' He then criticized Obama for not traveling to Iraq to see conditions firsthand since January 2006, and for failing to practice the ``new type of politics'' the Illinois senator has espoused.

``The reality is he's proving to be a typical politician who is willing to say anything to get elected, including allowing his campaign surrogates to demean and attack John McCain's military service record,'' Rogers said in an e-mailed statement.

Obama, in an effort to shore up his foreign-policy credentials, is planning travel to Europe and the Middle East in the next couple months, though his campaign has not confirmed ABC News reports that he will travel to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Control of Iraq

``I hope Barack Obama goes to Iraq,'' Joseph Lieberman, an independent U.S. senator from Connecticut, said on the CBS program today. ``And frankly I hope he changes his position. Because if we had done what Senator Obama asked us to do, for the last couple of years, today Iran and al-Qaeda would be in control of Iraq. It would be a terrible defeat for us and our allies in the Middle East and throughout the world.''

Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000, supports McCain and the Iraq conflict. Obama has capitalized on his early opposition to the conflict to win the support of antiwar voters who helped him defeat Clinton in the Democratic primaries.

Clark said the Republican Bush administration has ``relied excessively on military force as the answer to all the nation's security problems,'' Clark said. ``And what Barack understands is that military force may have to be used as a last resort, but it's not the first resort.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Christopher Swann in Washington at Cswann1@bloomberg.net; William McQuillen in Washington at bmcquillen@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 29, 2008 17:07 EDT