FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog

SPIEGEL: Would you hazard a prediction as to when most of the US troops will finally leave Iraq?

Maliki: As soon as possible, as far as we’re concerned. US presidential candidate Barack Obama is right when he talks about 16 months. Assuming that positive developments continue, this is about the same time period that corresponds to our wishes.

The changed quote:

SPIEGEL: Would you hazard a prediction as to when most of the US troops will finally leave Iraq?

Maliki: As soon as possible, as far as we’re concerned. U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes.

Read the entire Speigel interview here.

And, then read the shortened pro-Obama Reuters version.

What Reuters and other news accounts will fail to emphasize is that under Barack Obama’s anti-SURGE policy, Prime Minister al-Maliki would not be in the postion to see an American withdrawal of combat troops. It is because of the success of General Petraeus and President Bush that the United States has won the Iraq War.

Let’s look at Obama’s quotes about the SURGE:

• In October 2006–three months before the president’s new strategy was unveiled–Obama said, “It is clear at this point that we cannot, through putting in more troops or maintaining the presence that we have, expect that somehow the situation is going to improve, and we have to do something significant to break the pattern that we’ve been in right now.”

• On January 10, 2007, the night the surge was announced, Obama declared, “I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq are going to solve the sectarian violence there. In fact, I think it will do the reverse.”

• A week later, he insisted the surge strategy would “not prove to be one that changes the dynamics significantly.”

• And in reaction to the president’s January 23 State of the Union address, Obama said, I don’t think the president’s strategy is going to work. We went through two weeks of hearings on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; experts from across the spectrum–military and civilian, conservative and liberal–expressed great skepticism about it. My suggestion to the president has been that the only way we’re going to change the dynamic in Iraq and start seeing political commendation is actually if we create a system of phased redeployment. And, frankly, the president, I think, has not been willing to consider that option, not because it’s not militarily sound but because he continues to cling to the belief that somehow military solutions are going to lead to victory in Iraq.

Democrat Senate Majority leader Harry Reid and Senator Barack Obama said the war was “LOST” and the surge would not and did not work. Now, the Democrats are spinning the credit for peace in Iraq that President Bush and pro-SURGE pols, such as John McCain rightly deserve. The Iraq War is over - America won.

Fancy that and the MSM like Reuters are happy to spin the story for Obama and the Democrats.

But, will the media get away with it with the American voters?

Stay tuned……..

Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Thursday ridiculed Democrat Barack Obama’s vow to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq in 16 months as a political tactic aimed at getting votes.

Obama in a speech this week stuck by his pledge to withdraw U.S. combat forces from Iraq in 16 months, a policy McCain said would sacrifice the security gains that have recently brought a measure of stability to parts of the country.

“This success that we have achieved is still fragile and could be reversed,” McCain said on his campaign bus. “And if we do what Sen. Obama wants to do, then all of that could be reversed,” and leave behind chaos and Iranian influence, he said.

In a town hall meeting in Kansas City, McCain said troop withdrawals must be governed by the situation on the ground, “not some artificial, politically inspired” timetable.

The problem with Obama is that he was elected by the radical left anti-Iraq War faction of the Democrat Party, the MoveOn.org folks and he cannot move off his position of an immediate withdrawal timetable.

The “SURGE” has been effective and the United States has quelled violence in Iraq to the point commanders are considering a draw down of troops.

But, Obama was against the “SURGE.” He favored capitulation and immediate withdrawal - just last year.

Can you say Barack Obama was against the Iraq War before He was for it? Or can you say Obama’s Iraq War policy is “WHATEVER THE POLITICS DEMAND?”

Barry is in a box. It will be difficult to satiate his friends on the anti-war LEFT, such as MoveOn.org, meet with General Petraeus, accept their recommendations and then differentiate a policy separate from John McCain AND Hillary Clinton.

Flap now knows what Obama means by “REFINING.”

Previous:

The Day By Day Archive

The anti-war Left of which Obama is a member last Fall said “The Surge” was a failure, the Iraq War war was lost and that the United States should pull out.

Over the weekend, as first reported by the New York Daily News, the Obama campaign website changed language from declaring “the surge is not working” to that which instead states: “despite the improved security situation, the Iraqi government has not stepped forward to lead the Iraqi people and to reach the genuine political accommodation that was the stated purpose of the surge.”

An older Obama campaign “fact sheet” from Fall 2007 states more unequivocally that “THE SURGE IS NOT WORKING” since “the Iraqi government has not stepped up.” Obama also maintained that “reduced violence in Anbar Province is the result of cooperation between American forces and Sunni tribes, which started more than 18 months ago, long before the surge. The province is overwhelmingly Sunni, and the tribal leaders there made a political decision to turn against al Qaeda. This does not demonstrate the success of the surge; it demonstrates that the solutions in Iraq are political, not military.”

Obama’s only mention of Anbar today was to say that the future that “both America and Iraq will be more secure when the terrorist in Anbar is taken out by the Iraqi Army, and the criminal in Baghdad fears Iraqi Police, not just coalition forces.”

What happened in the meantime is that “The Surge” was effective and the United States essentially won the Iraq War last December.

Now, Obama will travel back to to Iraq, where he has not been in 919 days, confer with General Petraeus and other military commanders and say what?

Bring home the troops?

Senator, the United States won the war - without your support. Troops will be coming home and some will be redeployed to Afghanistan.

What political judgment Obama has.

You know, Obama REALLY is a rookie.

Barack Obama’s campaign scrubbed his presidential Web site over the weekend to remove criticism of the U.S. troop “surge” in Iraq, the Daily News has learned.

The presumed Democratic nominee replaced his Iraq issue Web page, which had described the surge as a “problem” that had barely reduced violence.

“The surge is not working,” Obama’s old plan stated, citing a lack of Iraqi political cooperation but crediting Sunni sheiks - not U.S. military muscle - for quelling violence in Anbar Province.

Well, Obama was wrong on the “SURGE” and now wants to bury the fact that he was WRONG. “Change we can believe in,” right?

Team McCain is now ridiculing Obama for their blatant flip on the war.

GOP rival John McCain zinged Obama as a flip-flopper. “The major point here is that Sen. Obama refuses to acknowledge that he was wrong,” said McCain, adding that Obama “refuses to acknowledge that it [the surge] is succeeding.”

Ed Morrissey asks what changes will we see from Obama when he confers with General Petraeus and the other generals in Iraq?

Plus Ca Change…….

Previous:

John McCain Beats Barack Obama in Commander in Chief Test