State GOP executive director Jared Craighead and state Rep. Jason Brown, R-Platte City, held a conference call this afternoon to counter what they believe will be the anti-war message Monday of Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Obama is slated to headline a Monday morning rally in Independence at the Truman Memorial building. Free tickets were available, but all have been given out, the candidate’s Web site said today.

According to Craighead, Obama is expected to talk about the war in Iraq. Brown, who is in the Army Reserves and has been in Iraq, sought to portray Obama as inexperienced and naive in his plan calling for a phaseout of American troops in Iraq over 18 months, if he’s elected.

Brown called such a plan a “logistical impossibility,” noted that Obama has not been in Iraq since 2006, and contended that the situation in Iraq has improved over the past two years because of the surge of U.S. troops.

Brown asserted that Obama’s message helps the insurgents and terrorists, and said that he was seeking a withdrawal when the U.S. should be focused solely on winning.

He and Craighead also called Obama “a flip-flopper” on various issues, including Obama’s decision not to participate in the voluntary federal public-financing system for the general election. Neither Obama nor McCain participated in the program during the primary, although McCain is in a dispute with the FEC over whether he had used the prospects of such financing to guarantee campaign loans.

Craighead said McCain’s situation was different than Obama’s, because the latter had indicated he would participate in the program for the general election.

When asked why Obama was returning to Missouri less than three weeks after his St. Louis stop, Brown said, “My guess is, I think they know they’re in trouble with the average-day Americans (who) want the war to go well.”