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War, War, War See other War, War, War Articles Title: Iraq not top of Obama’s war on terror agenda Iraq not top of Obama’s war on terror agenda By AVI ZENILMAN 7/6/08 6:42 PM EST "I don't think there's any question that Barack Obama should change his plan in Iraq,” Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said early last week, setting a trap. "He is now clinging to a very ideological commitment." After Obama’s remarks last Thursday signaling that he might change (or “refine,” as Obama has put it) his timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq, Cantor sprung that trap, saying Sunday that the Democratic candidate “is a great politician, but he’s a politician who's caught between a rock and a hard place, politically." It’s no wonder that Obama, who has referred to “the distraction of the war in Iraq at a time when we could have pinned down the people who actually committed 9/11," wants to talk about Afghanistan and Pakistan. “Afghanistan is sliding toward chaos,” Obama foreign policy adviser Susan Rice said on a conference call last Monday responding to a report that Al Qaeda had reconstituted a safe haven inside Pakistan. “We have five times as many troops in Iraq as we do in Afghanistan, yet John McCain wants to keep our troops in Iraq indefinitely.” In June, at least 27 American soldiers died in Afghanistan compared with at least 29 in Iraq, according to the Associated Press, and troop deaths including international forces in Afghanistan exceeded those in Iraq for the first time. Voters, however, have remained more concerned with the war in Iraq than with a broader war on terror. According to a June 15 ABC News/Washington Post poll, the war in Iraq is still the top issue for 19 percent of voters — more than any other issue, but down significantly from previous years — while only 4 percent identified terrorism and national security as their top concern. (The war in Iraq itself, however, remains deeply unpopular, with just 30 percent of adults favoring it, and 68 percent opposing it in a CNN poll conducted in late June.) A CNN poll released last week showed voters’ concerns about terrorism at a post-Sept. 11 low, and a Greenberg Quinlan Rosner poll conducted in mid-March asking which of a list of potential threats voters were most concerned with showed the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan as next to last. In Iraq, the surge in troop levels — which McCain was an early advocate for and Obama opposed and initially denied was accomplishing much before later softening his tone — has been accompanied by a dramatic drop in the number of American and Iraqi casualties. McCain deemed his opponent’s opposition to the surge a failure in judgment, and Republicans hope that they’ve framed the issue so that Obama can’t acknowledge much progress in Iraq without backing away from his plan to withdraw almost all American troops within 16 months. In part to avoid that lose-lose formulation, Obama has reemphasized his foreign policy that hinges on defeating Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan. “The whole reason why Barack Obama opposed the war in Iraq in 2002, as he said back then, is that he said it would be a dangerous diversion from Afghanistan, Al Qaeda and the people who hit us on 9/11," Rice said in a Wednesday interview with Politico. "And it has exactly the effect that he predicted and feared.” Later this summer, he’ll visit both Iraq and Afghanistan, in part to keep the two countries interlocked in the minds of voters and reporters. “I’ve always said that the pace of withdrawal would be dictated by the safety and security of our troops and the need to maintain stability. That assessment has not changed,” Obama said Thursday, the day before the Fourth of July weekend, when voters tend to be more concerned with backyard barbecues than world affairs, in remarks many took to be a shift in his timetable to withdraw troops. “And when I go to Iraq and have a chance to talk to some of the commanders on the ground, I’m sure I’ll have more information and will continue to refine my policies.” Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: wudidiz (#0)
(Edited)
Obummer will also be "visiting" Israel, wearing his little beanie and whining at the wailing wall, like Bush and McKooK in the past. While in Tel Aviv, Obummer will be given his final instructions on how to proceed to the Presidency. When he leaves Tel Aviv, his Israeli masters will be rolling on the floor in laughter at their very own "schwartzer".
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