President Obama heads to one of the nation’s most storied military bases Friday morning to unveil plans to pull most troops out of Iraq by August 2010 and he has support from an unlikely quarter ”” Senator John McCain, the Republican he beat in last year’s election.
Mr. McCain and other Republicans emerged from a meeting with Mr. Obama at the White House on Thursday evening reassured that the president’s withdrawal plan is responsible and reasonable. After securing assurances from Mr. Obama that he would reconsider his plans if violence increases, Mr. McCain and the Republicans expressed cautious support.
The convergence of Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain on Iraq would have seemed highly improbable just a few months ago, when they clashed sharply on the future of the American mission there. Mr. McCain accused Mr. Obama of being naïve and opposed his withdrawal plans. At one point, Mr. McCain said Mr. Obama “would rather lose a war than lose a campaign.”
Aides to the president said Mr. Obama approved his withdrawal plan at a meeting with his national security team Wednesday and would tell an audience of several thousand Marines and their families at Camp Lejeune, N.C., on Friday that he is bringing the current phase of the war to a close in August 2010.
I’m waiting for the choppers removing the last personel from the rooftops….
I pray that I am wrong, but all the enemy needs to do now is to wait.
Don
Don, Ihave to agree with you. Are we forgetting the lesson of the end of WWII? It took Unconditional Surrender to finally open up the eyes of Nazi Germany and Tojo Japan.
Don’t worry. President Obama is using smoke and mirrors. That is the end of “combat” operations. There is going to be a large military presents until the year……….
While no one should underestimate the Obama administration’s committment to damaging America in every way possible, I think this may be [url=http://www.mudvillegazette.com/031574.html]a matter of sematics[/url]. They’re just going to call the forces left in Iraq something else.
I seem to remember President G.W. Bush was planning to draw down troops in Germany and South Korea – did that ever happen?
President Bush was already in the process of drawing down troops when President Obama took office. So this big bruhaha about pulling out of Iraq is just for show.
I read a few days ago that Obama was planning on leaving 50,000 to 60,000 US troops in Iraq to continue training Iraquis. But, please, when will we stop telling the enemy what we are doing militarily. Used to be that no announcement was ever made about any US military troop movements, as a matter of public policy. How can these supposedly smart people not understand the stupidity of showing your hand before you make your move? Politics is bad science, and Obama is a bad scientist and a bad poker player. As we’ve said so often this week on this blog, welcome back Jimmy Carter, with all of your inexperience and naivete. It’s only been 30 years. Why can’t we learn even from recent history.
The speech was very good. Saddam Hussein is gone. By and large, there is a functioning democracy. And no, we can’t make Iraq’s future for them.
The best way forward is a Marshall Plan for Iraq. And perhaps with diplomacy with Iran, there will be times of peace.
Obama will be able to claim victory. Further, it seems that he’s doing far more for the troops upon their return by expanding veteran’s health care. And the budget shows that he will be investing in the lives of our returning soldiers.
Here is what could likely happen courtesy of Obama and the Democratic party:
1. U.S. troops end combat operations
2. Iranian troops will cross the border to “guarantee” the security of whatever minority group they can come up with that needs protecting.
3. President Obama will tell Iran in stern terms that they risk U.S. intervention if they do not immediately withdraw
4. Iran will tell the U.S. that if they engage Iranian forces the U.S. is liable to retaliation from the newly deployed Iranian ICBMs (remember they just launched a satellite on their own) which are now topped with the nuclear warheads produced from the “peaceful” development of atomic energy in Iran.
5. President Obama will do nothing since his Democratic cronies will have crippled the U.S. strategic missle defense program by withholding funds from it.
6. The nut jobs in Iran may launch a nuclear missle attack on the U.S. anyway to [url=”http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/3642984/Will-the-12th-Imam-cause-war-with-Iran.html”]hasten the return of the 12th Imam[/url].
7. You can bend over and kiss your … goodbye.
John, #8, thank you for acknowledging there is a functioning democracy in Iraq … would have been nice for you to also acknowledge that it is courtesy of Pres. Bush. Marshall Plan for Iraq is exactly what Bush had planned, and Obama is just following through. However, to put time tables on what he is doing with the military is militarily idiotic and anyone who has ever been in the military knows it. And why, oh why, do you think diplomacy is possible with Iran, when it has not been possible since the Shah was deposed. Iraq will have to be strong enough to defend itself from Iran or the US troops will have to stay on a semi-permanent basis, a la S. Korea. It’s that simple and your liberal pie-in-the-sky quest for diplomacy with N. Korea or Iran is just plain foolishness and willful turning a blind-eye to reality. Please at least look at history and look at what Iranian leaders are saying. Neither of them indicate any success for diplomacy or even any interest in it from Iran.
[blockquote]Obama will be able to claim victory[/blockquote]
You’re kidding, right?
Obama will be able to claim victory?
The left has tarred Bush since the war with Iraq started! Bush lied soldiers died, General Betrayus, Iraq is a quagmire, the war in Iraq is lost, etc etc now they want their poster boy to get credit.. You talk about honesty alot John W…….
President Bush got Saddam Hussein and President Obama wants Bin Laden. He’s building up the troops in Afghanistan. Let’s hope he can figure out how to get him without an all out war in Pakistan. They have weapons of mass destruction.
#10, um…
You might want to read about the Iranian peace proposal in 2003. I’m not a Manichean about these things. Iran wants respect, not war.
I’m not an idealist, either. Let me explain something:
I am a country. Two countries are threatening me. What should I do? Both have nuclear weapons, and I don’t.
#8: If 2003 Obama had had his way, Sadaam would still be in power, Uday and Qusay would still be torturing people.
If 2007 Obama had had his way, there would have been no surge, and many more Americans would have died.
Iran wants two things, nuclear weapons to serve as deterrants and as a club to help it become the areas defacto ruler much like Russia and the far eastern European areas and certian areas around the Baltic. Iranian leaders may also be nuts enought to try to take out Isreal. I think it will be very hard for President Obama to negotiate away these ambitions!
#16 – the supreme leader of Iran has said that Muslim countries should not own nuclear weapons. Its it important? We don’t know.
We also know that if Iran were to take out Israel, it would be destroyed.
But it is far MORE likely that Israel will attack Iran first.
Dave B, I would google Iranian peace proposal and 2003.
#17: ‘Iranian peace proposal’ – why should Iran have a quarrel with Israel in the first place?
Do Israelis occupy Iranian territory?
Are there millions of Iranian refugees from the Zionists?
Or is Iran an ideologically and religiously confused country hitting out at Jews as a distraction for its own internal problems?
#18 – Iran seeks direct negotiations with the US. They believe that Israel runs US foreign policy, so that by threatening Israel they will get a direct hearing from the US. It’s like the way a bratty boy tries to get attention from their parents.
Iran has a long history of being a safe place for the Jews. However, the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians is a easy rallying cry for all Muslims: it’s a good way to stifle internal dissent within a country, and distract people from the misery of living in a theocracy.
#19. JW,
“It’s like the way a bratty boy tries to get attention from their parents.” Come on John that’s not a PC statement. Can’t girls be bratty too?
Good comments. I especially like #14. What does Iraq bristling with American weapons and occupying soldiers and airmen do to stabilize the Middle East?