During then candidate Obama’s campaign, he made the same promise that if he was president he would begin the immediate removal of troops from Iraq:
In May 2008, Obama promised to end the war in 2009.
Obama: “When I promise that we are going to bring this war inIraq to a close in 2009, I want the American people to understand that I opposed this war in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007, so you can have confidence that I will be serious about ending this war.”
(Sen. Barack Obama, Remarks At The North Carolina Democrat Party 2008 Jefferson-Jackson Dinner,Raleigh, NC, 5/2/08)– Click Here To View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyxPxjtqDso
In April 2008, Obama reaffirmed his 16-month timetable; he did not say that it would be dictated by security on the ground.
NBC’s Meredith Vieira: “You’ve said when, Senator. You’ve said if you are elected, that within 16 months you’re going to bring all the troops home fromIraq. Senator McCain said yesterday that that is a reckless promise that you cannot possibly keep, a failure of leadership. And even military leaders say that any withdrawal of troops would be dictated by security on the ground. So how can you guarantee you can pull out those troops in just 16 months?”
Obama: “Meredith, I’ve been very consistent in saying that we are going to set a timetable and we will have a prudent pace of withdrawal, one to two brigades per month. At that pace we can have combat troops out within approximately 16 months.”
(NBC’s “The Today Show,” 4/8/08)In March 2008, Obama said he would “Immediately Begin To Remove Our Troops From Iraq And Have Them Out In 16 Months.”
Obama: “In order to end this war responsibly, I will immediately begin to remove our troops fromIraq. We can responsibly remove one to two combat brigades each month. If we start with the number of brigades we have inIraq today, we can remove all of them 16 months.”
(Sen. Barack Obama, Remarks On Iraq, Fayetteville, NC, 3/19/08)– Click Here To View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJlBF26y-O0
In November 2007, Obama said he would have troops out of Iraq “within 16 months”.
Obama: “I’ve been absolutely clear in terms of the approach that I would take. I would end this war, and I would have our troops out within 16 months.”
(NBC’s “Meet The Press,” 11/11/07)– Obama: “As president I will end this war in Iraq. We will have our troops home within 16 months.”
(Sen. Barack Obama, Remarks At The Democrat National Committee Annual Fall Meeting,Vienna, VA, 11/30/07)– Obama said he would remove troops from Iraq in 16 months because “the overall strategy has failed.”
Obama: “But the overall strategy has failed, because we have not seen any change in behavior among Iraq’s political leaders. And that is the essence of what we should be trying to do in Iraq. That’s why I’m going to bring this war to a close. That’s why we can get our combat troops out within 16 months.”
(Sen. Barack Obama, CNN/Nevada Democrat Party Democrat Presidential Candidate Debate,Las Vegas, NV, 11/15/07)In September 2007, Obama called for the U.S. to “immediately begin to remove our combat troops” from Iraq.
Obama: “So let me be clear. There is no military solution in Iraq. There never was. The best way to protect our security and to pressure Iraq’s leaders to resolve their civil war is to immediately begin to remove our combat troops. Not in six months or one year, but now.”
(Sen. Barack Obama, Remarks On Iraq,Clinton, IA, 9/12/07)
Currently there are about 150,000 troops in Iraq – nowhere near a drawdown that was initially forecast. To be fair, President Obama said he would have the troops out by August of 2010, but we are not seeing hundreds of troops coming home month after month, right?
So why the change?
For one, Obama knew that he would have to listen to the commanders on the ground:
Obama: “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 … 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.”
(Jeff Zeleny, “Obama: Open to ‘Refine’ Iraq Withdrawal Timeline,” The New York Times’ ”The Caucus” Blog, 7/3/08)
Now, it seems Obama is more inclined to listen to Senator (General?) Kerry ( instead of listening to General McChrystal’s recommendations from August) when it comes to adding more troops in Afghanistan:
Senator (General) John Kerry
“I am convinced, from my conversations with General Stanley McChrystal – and I’m grateful to him for the time he gave me there and even on the telephone since – he understands the necessity of conducting a smart counterinsurgency in a limited geographic area,” he said. “But I believe his current plan reaches too far, too fast.”
“We do not yet have the critical guarantees of governance and of development capacity – the other two legs of counterinsurgency,”
“I define success as the ability to empower and transfer responsibility to Afghans as rapidly as possible, and achieve a sufficient level of stability to ensure that we can leave behind an Afghanistan that is not controlled by al-Qaida or the Taliban,”
Which is it, President Obama?
And what if Bush did it?
