Changing his position are we now? Obama rewrites Iraq plan By: Mike Allen July 3, 2008 04:47 PM EST Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) promised primary voters a swift withdrawal from Iraq, in clear language still on his website: “Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months.” Not anymore. Heading into the holiday weekend, Obama and his advisers repudiated that pledge, saying he is reevaluating his plan and will incorporate advice from commanders on the ground when he visits Iraq later this month. A top Obama adviser said he is not “wedded” to a specific timeline, and Obama said Thursday he plans to “refine” his plan. “I am going to do a thorough assessment when I'm there," he told reporters in Fargo, N.D., according to CBS News. "When I go to Iraq and I have a chance to talk to some of the commanders on the ground, I'm sure I'll have more information and will continue to refine my policies." But he went on to maintain: “I have been consistent, throughout this process, that I believe the war in Iraq was a mistake.” David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist, went even further during remarks Wednesday on CNN’s “Situation Room,” telling guest host John Roberts that Obama has actually advocated “a phased withdrawal, with benchmarks for the Iraqi government to meet, that called for strategic pauses, based on the progress on these benchmarks, and advice on the commanders on the ground.” “He's always said that he would listen to the advice of commanders on the ground that that would factor into his thinking,” Axelrod said. “He's also always said that we had to be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in. So he's been very consistent on this point. ... “I think he will take the advice, not just the advice of the commanders on the ground but his general assessment of conditions on the ground, in calibrating that withdrawal. He said he thought we could get one to two brigades out a month. But he's not wedded to that in the face of events. No president would be. And he's always said that he's never said that this withdrawal would be without any possibility of alteration based on events on the ground. That would not be a prudent thing to do for any president.” http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=EA92C38F-3048-5C12-003DD9C8C395B279
So let me get this straight...McCain blathers on about how Obama hasn't been to Iraq recently so he shouldn't be making policy decisions without seeing it first hand. Obama plans a trip and says that he might refine his plan after talking to the generals if need be. I guess the idea of a president gathering intelligence and making a sound strategic decision based on the facts, even if it changes a previous stance, is something completely foreign to you after the last 8 years. I don't blame you for being skeptical.
What this tells me is that Obama doesn't know what the frick he's talking about with regard to Iraq. He's flip flopping around, groping for a politically expedient answer. It doesn't surprise me in the least -- he hasn't care enough about the issue to visit the country and meet with the commanders in the last 2 years... That's not leadership. That's cowardice and naivete. The guy is just in over his head.
..........And McCain wants to become a fossil and turn into oil in Iraq in hopes that someone will come to drill him out.
Sounds to me like he is doing the right thing. It is totally unrealistic to start immediately pulling out troops. Sure, he said he would pull out during the primaries, but that was part of winning the campaign. Now he is moving to the center, which is completely expected.
Obama's stance on withdrawing from Iraq has never been radical. He's left himself a lot of wiggle room. Last spring & summer, all the Dem candidates were throwing out heated rhetoric about pulling out quickly. Then in the fall, Obama and Hillary (very noticeably) distanced themselves from that kind of talk while Edwards and esp. Richardson kept on and on and on trying to tack furtherest to the left. I've said here for a while that the McCain/Obama positions on leaving Iraq aren't much different. The main thing Obama runs on is saying it was a mistake to invade Iraq. I can't say this surprises me one iota. For those who mistakenly hoped Obama would yank the troops out in hurry no matter what the circumstances, this could be upsetting.
Obama seeks to continue the policies of George W Bush Dear democratic primary voters, can you say, "bait and switch"?
I wish Obama had, from the beginning, said "so many things can change in XX months, I will obviously evaluate the situation on January 20, 2009 fully and completely and devise a strategy which ends our involvement in this misbegotten geopolitical cl*****f*** in a measured, sensible way." Or something like that, I think 'calling your shot' a year ahead on something as important and messy as Iraq is naive. This makes sense, but he should have said it in the beginning.
I've never understood this whole flip-flopping thing. What is the problem with changing your mind when presented with changing situations? Do we want someone to have a plan, then stick to the plan no matter what happens? Isn't this was Bush has done in Iraq? You look at the changing situation and then you adapt to it. We should encourage thinking like this, not label someone weak because he thinks a new approach is better. This is not a partisan issue, it applies to anyone.
Could it be that the libs are actually starting to apply logic to Iraq, instead of the braindead mantra of "LEAVE NOW!!!!" If so, it's a miracle. Pat yourselves on the back, Republicans, for another issue won. Of course, what is more likely is that the drop-my-panties for Obama crowd is just conforming their own position to that of his. Yet another case of appeasing the rabid libs in the primary season, only to come back down to the world of reality to try to lure voters who actually have critical reasoning skills...
I am disliking Obama more and more. Be a man do what you promise. The iraq war is a bad ROI. Time to cut your loses.
I can tell you why he's changing his opinion - It's called the Surge and public opinion on it is positive. The libs will do everything they can to downplay the surge but even Obama recognizes this. That's why the sudden change of heart. My, my, my, how he is starting to look more and more like the same old Washington Politician. Some things just don't change.
What exactly was his old position and new position? This is what he said today: "I have said that I would be deliberate and careful in how we got out, that we would bring our troops home at a pace of one to two brigades per month and that at that pace we would have our combat troops out in 16 months. That position has not changed." So, what exactly do you believe has changed? That said, I've been saying for months we won't withdraw troops as quickly as Obama would like and we won't stay in Iraq as long as McCain would like. I don't doubt their positions are how they want to do things and believe things should play out, but the situation on the ground will determine how quickly we can withdraw, and public opinion will limit the length of time we can stay.
Somebody who evaluates and re-evaluates a situation and adjusts based on new information? What a weak minded-arse. I would never do that. I stive to be like W, who had never been out of the country, and make decisions about world policy. ...and then never waiver on those decisions despite how many peole tell me otherwise before, during or afterwards of said decision.
