Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., continued his support of engaging in discussions with such nations as North Korea and Iran during a rally in Des Moines on Saturday morning.

The statements come at a time when Obama and fellow presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., have been exchanging words each calling the other wrong in their thinking.

“I believe there is nobody we can’t talk to. We have nothing to fear as long as we know who we are and what we stand for and our values and our ideals,” Obama said Saturday.

The two candidates started an exchange after Obama said he would engage in talks with world leaders he said were antagonistic to the United States, such as North Korea and Iran. Clinton called him “naive” and “irresponsible.”

Clinton has said she would not meet with leaders of nations such as North Korea in the first year of her presidency without knowing their intentions.

“I am confident that we can go before the world and talk to the worst dictators and tell them we don’t believe in your values, human rights violations and support of terrorism, but if you are willing to work with us in a better direction, then we are willing to talk,” Obama said.

Obama was critical of the current U.S. foreign policy and said it sent the wrong signal to the world. He said people think the United States wants to dictate rather than cooperate.

“When we start sending signals that we are ready to engage in serious diplomacy,” Obama said, “then we have the opportunity to stand before the world [and] say, ‘We’re back.'”

He said he also wants talks with all the Middle East nations so they can stabilize the region.

“We can say to the Iraqi people: ‘You need to make a decision; you need to take responsibility for how you’re gonna live together.'”

Obama said there are no good options in Iraq – only bad or worse options. He said he supports a complete withdrawal of combat troops by next year.

“There are no military solutions to the problems in Iraq, only political solutions,” he said.

Obama, who is now approaching six months of campaigning, also addressed such issues as health care, education and energy independence.

He said if money were spent on making sure children would be helped if they get sick rather than being sent to the emergency room, money will be saved.

“We can save $100 [billion] to $125 billion every single year and we can take that money and use it to make sure every American has good, quality health care,” he said.

Obama said he favors an increase in teacher’s salary to ensure better teachers in the classroom. He said he wants more money in early childhood education to improve scores.

He also spoke of ending the $8 billion in subsidies that is given to banks and financial institutions to “serve as middle men between the federal government and students on their student loan program.”

Obama said energy independence was also very important.

“We are sending billions of dollars to some of the most prosperous nations on Earth. We’re funding both sides of the war on terror,” he said.

Obama said the economy and foreign policy would be helped if there was more independence from foreign oil.

Obama said he wants to set a cap on the amount of pollution that can be released, and said having an environmentally sound ecomony would create an entirely new industry.