(Bernd Debusmann is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own)

By Bernd Debusmann

WASHINGTON, March 26 (Reuters) - How important is experience if you want to be president of the United States? Extremely important, say Hillary Clinton and John McCain, the two presidential candidates who have been trying to outdo each other with claims of experience they say makes them fit for the job.

Both have just demonstrated that experience is no guarantee against acts of foolishness or foggy knowledge of key issues.

In the case of Mrs Clinton, eight years of life as First Lady should have taught her that if you travel with a large entourage of aides and reporters, there are extensive records of your activities. In the case of Senator McCain, decades of experience should have taught him to double-check who are the competing sides in the Iraq war, a war he wholeheartedly supports.

What happened? Mrs Clinton first. Here is how she described, in a campaign speech last week, a 1996 visit to Bosnia three months after a U.S.-brokered peace agreement had silenced the guns. "I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base."

That tale of danger conflicts with video of the arrival, available on youtube (http://youtube.com/watch?v=iOsGo_HWP-c) which shows her walking unhurriedly off the ramp of a military aircraft, accompanied by daughter Chelsea, smilingly greet a waiting delegation of officials and kiss a young girl. The fact checker column of the Washington Post awarded Mrs Clinton its highest "Pinocchio" rating, classed a "real whopper."

One dictionary definition of "whopper" is "an extravagant or monstrous lie" but the words "lie" or "liar" in connection with high-profile public figures are rarely used by U.S. media (as opposed to bloggers) which prefer euphemisms, such as "misstatement."

After days of questions on the gap between the videotaped arrival and the scene Mrs Clinton described so eloquently, she eventually admitted a "misstatement."

One of the rare cases of euphemism-avoidance was a 1996 column in the New York Times in which the conservative columnist William Safire called Mrs. Clinton, a "congenital liar" for statements on a series of controversial issues, including a commodities deal that yielded her an unusually high profit.

In the 2008 presidential race, Mrs Clinton is not alone in having reinvented part of her past. Republican contender Mitt Romney, who has since dropped out of the race, comfortably beat her, making not one but three claims that withered under scrutiny. None were as awe-inspiring as Mrs Clinton's story of bravery and pluck. "We used to say in the White House that if a place is too dangerous, too small or too poor, send the First Lady," she said in her sniper speech.

FOGGY ON SUNNIS, SHI'ITES

McCain, a fighter pilot in the Vietnam war who spent five years in a prisoner-of-war camp, has no need to embellish (or invent) acts of bravery. But statements during a tour of the Middle East showed an uncertain grasp of the complexity of the war in Iraq, now in its sixth year.

Al Qaeda fighters in Iraq, he said on three separate occasions, were taken to Iran and given leadership training there before being sent back.

Al Qaeda belongs to the Sunni branch of Islam, Iran is Shi'ite, as are the majority of Iraqis. Iranian support for Shi'ite groups in Iraq is well established. Tension between Sunni and Shi'ite in Iraq lies at the heart of violence there.

"I'm sorry. The Iranians are training extremists, not al Qaeda," McCain said at a news conference in Amman after having advice to that effect whispered in his ear.

If the Arizona senator's grasp of Middle Eastern developments is imperfect, he is in august company. The man he wants to succeed, President George W. Bush, last week startled Iran-watchers by asserting that the government in Tehran had "declared they want a nuclear weapon to destroy people..."

Iran keeps insisting, again and again, that its nuclear weapons programme is for peaceful purposes of power generation, a claim viewed with scepticism by the United States and many of its allies. An open admission of nuclear weapons aims would have changed the Middle East equation considerably.

As to the difference between Sunnis and Shi'ites and their role in Iraq and its neighbours: late in 2006, Jeff Stein, the national security editor of the Congressional Quarterly, asked that question of a variety of congressional leaders and counter-terrorism officials.

Those who had no idea, or only a very vague one, included members of the Intelligence Committee with long years of service. Which goes to show that experience - Mrs. Clinton speaks of 35 years, McCain has almost 50 years of public service - does not necessarily equate with knowledge.

That there is still an apparent knowledge deficit about Iraq -- after five years of war, 4,000 U.S. military and tens of thousands of Iraqi dead -- is not only surprising.

It is frightening. (You can contact the author at Debusmann@Reuters.com) (Editing by Sean Maguire)

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