WASHINGTON — Democratic Sen. Barack Obama yesterday ridiculed the Bush administration's defense of the Iraq war, arguing that messages such as "Plan for Victory" can't hide the "2,400 flag-draped coffins that have arrived at the Dover Air Force Base."

In a speech to EMILY's List — an organization that helps Democratic women who favor abortion rights — the Illinois senator criticized the president and his handling of the war. Obama spoke in support of former Army Maj. L. Tammy Duckworth, a helicopter co-pilot who lost both her legs in combat in Iraq and is trying to win an open House seat.

"This idea," Obama said, "that somehow if you say the words 'plan for victory' and 'stay the course' over and over and over and over again and you put these subliminal messages behind you that say 'victory' and 'victory' and 'victory,' that somehow people are not going to notice the 2,400 flag-draped coffins that have arrived at the Dover Air Force Base."

The first-term lawmaker asked the audience: "People, have we flipped? It's time to say we notice it. It is time to say that we care, and we are not going to settle anymore."

Tracey Schmitt, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, said Obama's remarks "are emblematic of a party that would rather promote pessimism and point fingers than weigh in substantively on an issue as critical as the central front of the war on terror."

Obama, who first came to national attention when he delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2008 — or perhaps a running mate.

Both Obama and Duckworth have Hawai'i ties. Obama was born in Honolulu and graduated from Punahou School. Duckworth was born in Thailand, where her father was working with a United Nations refugee program. She arrived in Hawai'i at age 16, along with her parents and a younger brother. She graduated from McKinley High.