Obama: Iraq force will be 'entirely conditions-based. It's hard to anticipate where we may be six months from now.'

Sunday, July 27, 2008

BARACK OBAMA

So does this count as Obama dropping his 16-month pledge?

Iraq is a sovereign country. Not just according to me, but according to George Bush and John McCain. So ultimately our presence there is at their invitation, and their policy decisions have to be taken into account. I also think that Maliki recognizes that they're going to need our help for some time to come, as our commanders insist, but that the help is of the sort that is consistent with the kind of phased withdrawal that I have promoted. We're going to have to provide them with logistical support, intelligence support. We're going to have to have a very capable counterterrorism strike force. We're going to have to continue to train their Army and police to make them more effective.
You've been talking about those limited missions for a long time. Having gone there and talked to both diplomatic and military folks, do you have a clearer idea of how big a force you'd need to leave behind to fulfill all those functions?
I do think that's entirely conditions-based. It's hard to anticipate where we may be six months from now, or a year from now, or a year and a half from now.

(Sneak preview of what I'll probably say on Howard Kurtz's program this morning: I'm glad Katie Couric asked about the size of this "residual force", and frustrated that Obama said he couldn't give an answer or even a ballpark figure for what he envisions. I wish she had followed up by asking about the claim from an Obama adviser to Bob Novak that it could be in the neighborhood of 50,000 troops.)

Obama in Fargo, North Dakota, earlier this month:

"Let me be as clear as I can be. I intend to end this war," he said. "On my first day in office, I will bring the Joint Chiefs of Staff in and I will give them a new mission, and that is to end this war responsibly, deliberately but decisively. And I have seen no information that contradicts the notion that we can bring our troops out safely at a pace of one to two brigades a month. And again, that pace translates into having our combat troops out in 16 months' time."

Does this visit count as the new "information that contradicts the notion that we can bring our troops out safely at a pace of one to two brigades a month"?

07/27 08:51 AM Share