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Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Saturday his plan to end the Iraq war was unchanged and he was puzzled by the sharp reaction to his statement this week that he might "refine" his timetable for withdrawing U.S. combat troops.
Of course, if you have followed past Democratic betrayals, you know that "refine" almost always means "capitulate" when it is uttered by most centrist and conservative Democrats. Obama's quote may or may not be reassuring.
"For me to say that I'm going to refine my policies I don't think in any way is inconsistent with prior statements and doesn't change my strategic view that this war has to end and that I'm going to end it as president," Obama told reporters on his campaign plane.
One key question is:
When?
Obama's prior 16 month timetable is absurdly long. It only took weeks for the Bush regime to get our troops into Iraq, the notion that it could possibly take more than 6 months for a full withdrawal insults the intelligence of anyone with an IQ over 50.
The possibility that such an outlandishly long timeline might be extended is sickening. One deadline does present itself to congressional Democrats. If we are still in Iraq in November 2010, the Democrats will face enormous losses in the midterm elections.
Maybe Obama's prior comments were a trial balloon. If so, we need to fight like heck to pop it.
Will he try to filibuster the war to the end of his first term? To the end of a second term? After Obama betrayed people concerned with the Constitution and civil liberties on FISA and hate-based initiatives, we need to push as hard as we can for a full and immediate withdrawal from Iraq. Democrats tend to follow social movements rather than lead them.
We better be one of those social movements.
Hey I feel ya.They can't do it overnight,I know you know that already.Now Gov. Bill Richardson is a authority on this,its going to take a while and they have to listen to the Generals.I know people are saying that he has to go to the center to pull votes.Don't worry Fox says he's the most liberal senator in Washington.Let's hope so.
It doesn't take 16 months -- nearly a year and a half to remove U.S. combat troops from Iraq.
That, is utter bullshit.
Many people speculated the reason the Mofo from Midland refused to remove U.S. combat troops from Iraq is they're strategically close to Iran if the order is given to invade Tehran next.
I'm very concerned about what Obama is saying these days vis a vis FISA, gun control, abortion and now Iraq.
If he fucks this up, he will serve just one term and the American people throw him out in 2012.
Good action-oriented post. I've linked to it... twice.
It's all about the votes at the end of the day, and like many pundits have said, Senator Obama is playing for that big chunk of independents, pulling out too soon will fuel the fire that he is weak on national security and if you look at the polls, national security is not the top issue but it ranks pretty close behind the economy. Senator Obama has to change his posistion on Iraq as a few of the conservative posters on my blog have suggested because the situation is moving forward as hard as I find that to believe.
crian: Moving forward to where?
If I hadn't been forced to resign in disgrace and gone to prison, it could be me up there right now. Waffling.