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Obama's website says nothing about speaking to commanders on the ground
What does www.barackobama.com tell us about Obama's plan to withdraw our troops from Iraq?
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. Obama will make it clear that we will not build any permanent bases in Iraq. He will keep some troops in Iraq to protect our embassy and diplomats; if al Qaeda attempts to build a base within Iraq, he will keep troops in Iraq or elsewhere in the region to carry out targeted strikes on al Qaeda.
Do you see any reference to the importance of the opinion of generals on the ground? No, because this plan was written during the primaries, wherein the main target were liberals, as opposed to the General Elections, where moderates are seen as the most important block.
Obama is your typical politician.
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Comments (8)
Lame post, as usual.
July 3, 2008 11:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
You may want to read the whole plan. It's a pdf at the bottom of the Iraq issues page. However, I don't want you to strain yourself so here is the pertinent passage
(emphasis mine)
July 3, 2008 11:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
testing
July 4, 2008 12:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
Your excerpt of the pdf says nothing about Obama consulting with commanders on the field. You simply quoted Obama as saying commanders would do what they are paid to do: direct.
Note that even your excerpt quotes Obama as vowing to immediately begin redeployment of forces.
If it were true that this excerpt shows Obama's willingness to listen to commanders on the ground, then he would not have mentioned immediate redeployment, as the commanders might or might not agree.
July 4, 2008 12:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
And you're our typical troll lol
Anyone who thought, or claims to have thought, that Obama was just going to pull out troops without thought to their security, health and welfare, needless that of the Iraqi people, is/was a fool.
'Pull-out' is Republican 'birth control', not a foreign policy.
July 4, 2008 5:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yet a another source that this is not a new statement -
http://mediamatters.org/items/200807030014
July 4, 2008 9:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
Isn't it a tad stupid to hinge your argument on information appearing on the candidate's website? Especially when it can (and has been) easily refuted? Or when the candidate has delivered interview after interview on the subject, said the same thing in some 22 televised debates, hundreds of townhall meetings and speeches?
July 4, 2008 12:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's it. Wake me up when the election has ended and the adults come back to town. Hopefully, before Nov. 4th, people will have come to their senses and have researched both candidates instead of listening to what the mainstream media has to say. Since this primary season began, I have heard Obama say that he has a 16 month plan for withdrawing troops, but would make adjustments based on advice from the commanders. He has emphasized that because the situation is changing there everyday, he wanted to be mindful of safety concerns of both the troops and the Iraqis. For anyone who naively believed that on January 10th he was just going to just start pulling troops from Iraq without getting advice from a variety of people, grow up.
For the past eight years, Democrats and liberals have accused Bush of making decisions in a bubble, and stubbornly staying on a course paved to hell, but apparently that is exactly what they want future President Obama to do. Because we hate the Iraq war, we want him to stick to a plan he created during the primary season without considering the changing political, and safety situation in Iraq.
Yeah, I think I'm done. Some people on the left are just as bad as people on the extreme right. They see no middle ground or flexibility. Only absolutes because they must be right. Wake up people. The situation in the Middle East is a complex problem that requires nuance, strategic planning, and patience.
July 4, 2008 2:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
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