MANCHESTER – If Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama were President, he would call together the Joint Chiefs of Staff and change the military mission in Iraq immediately, he told the New Hampshire Union Leader yesterday.

"I would bring the combat troops out of Iraq in a way that would protect them," he said, while Iraqi forces would take over responsibility.

After speaking to between 500 and 600 people at the University of New Hampshire-Manchester, Obama said he would also call together his diplomatic team to determine how best to pressure the Iraqi government to either become a unified body or one sanctioned by the United Nations. The current government has not acted responsibly, he said.

Democratic Presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama listens to a question at the conclusion of his town hall style event in the Amoskeag Millyard in Manchester yesterday. (BOB LAPREE)

The Illinois senator said Americans are furious with the Iraqi government for taking a vacation this summer while young American men and women are putting their lives on the line in their country.

He said the military has done what has been asked of it -- topple the government of Saddam Hussein -- and now needs to redeploy in other areas of the world, including Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Earlier, he told the crowd that President Bush does not understand his role as commander in chief.

"When President Bush says, 'I just want to give the commanders what they want, listen to the generals,' he doesn't understand how we work here in America. Civilians control the military, and we are supposed to set the mission for the generals, and then the generals should carry out the mission," Obama said. "The military has done all we asked. We just asked the wrong things of them. That's not their fault. That's the President's fault."

He urged the crowd, which cheered his calls for ending the war, to contact their two U.S. senators to support the effort to cut off funding for the war in order to bring home the troops.

Obama said Americans need to make their voices heard to change the direction of the administration.

"Change never starts from the top down. It starts from the bottom up," he told the crowd. "The country is ready for change. It's hungry for change."

One woman from Concord praised Obama for keeping the war in Iraq separate from the war on terrorism. Obama said negotiating with some terrorists is pointless.

"There are only about 20,000 -- let's say -- activist extremists. Most intelligence estimates say there are between 10,000 to 30,000 people who are actively involved in extremist movements. We're not going to be able to negotiate with them; we have to hunt them down and take them out," he said.

Obama also said the government needs to do a better job of taking care of the troops that come back from the war zones. He said every returning soldier should have a mental health screening and those with posttraumatic stress disorder should receive the treatment they need.

Obama said he has several pieces of legislation pending that address veterans' health-care issues that he hopes will be approved before Congress takes its summer recess.

During the Manchester event, Vietnam veteran John S. Rubery of Amherst said veterans often have to fight the Veterans Administration's health-care system to receive services.

After the event, he said he had talked to Obama about the issue before and found him to be "straightforward and true." Too often, Rubery said, veterans' issues are put on the back burner.

Both in an interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader and while answering questions from the crowd, Obama praised the New Hampshire primary and its status.

Asked about the statements by some members of the Democratic National Committee that New Hampshire is not diversified enough to have the influence it has in determining presidential nominees, Obama said the problem is "there are far too many Red Sox fans here. I'd like to see more White Sox fans."

He said New Hampshire serves a vital role in its traditional place at the front of the calendar. The state's residents demand retail politics that lets voters "raise the hood of the car, kick the tires and take the candidate out for a test drive," Obama said.

To have voters talking to candidates on their porches, in their back yards and on the streets benefits all of America, he said. Such interaction is not possible in a state such as California, he noted.

"I like the calendar as it is set up, with South Carolina and Nevada added to the early stages," Obama said.

Manchester was the last stop for Obama in a two-day tour of the state that included stops in Hampton earlier yesterday and one in Sunapee Thursday.