Iraq Endorses McCain's View, not Obama's

Here is a story on MSNBC that gets it exactly backwards (in a way that favors one candidate over the other):

Iraq appears to share Obama's pullout hope

Statement on U.S. troop withdrawal by 2010 follows meeting with al-Maliki

BAGHDAD - Iraq’s government welcomed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Monday with word that it apparently shares his hope that U.S. combat forces could leave by 2010.

A much more accurate title for this news story would be:

Iraq shares McCain's position on pullout and disagrees with Obama's position

I'm not kidding. Back in January of 2007, when approximately 3000 Iraqi civilians were being killed each month as a result of sectarian conflict that was deliberately engineered by al Qaeda, Barack Obama introduced a bill called the Iraq War De-escalation Act of 2007:

Obama Bill Sets Date For Troop Withdrawal

Candidate Goes Further Than Rivals

By Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 31, 2007; Page A04

Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, one of the most prominent Democrats in the 2008 presidential field, proposed for the first time setting a deadline for withdrawing troops from Iraq, as part of a broader plan aimed at bolstering the freshman senator's foreign policy credentials.

Obama's legislation, offered on the Senate floor last night, would remove all combat brigades from Iraq by March 31, 2008. The date falls within the parameters offered by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which recommended the removal of combat troops by the first quarter of next year.

So, at the height of violence, he was calling for the removal of U.S. troops in about 14 months. Nowadays, with violence reduced to dramatically lower levels (civilian deaths are one-fourth or one-fifth of what they once were), Obama is still calling for a withdrawal of our troops over a similar time frame:

Barack Obama believes we must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in. Immediately upon taking office, Obama will give his Secretary of Defense and military commanders a new mission in Iraq: ending the war. The removal of our troops will be responsible and phased, directed by military commanders on the ground and done in consultation with the Iraqi government. Military experts believe we can safely redeploy combat brigades from Iraq at a pace of 1 to 2 brigades a month that would remove them in 16 months. That would be the summer of 2010 – more than 7 years after the war began.

As you can see, Obama's position is that U.S. troops should be withdrawn independent of conditions on the ground. If 3000 civilians are being slaughtered each month as a result of sectarian conflict engineered by al Qaeda, withdraw the troops. If al Qaeda has been largely crushed and civilian casualties have dropped to much lower levels, withdraw the troops. Fine. That's a point of view shared by many on the left and perhaps by many centrist Americans as well.

A different point of view can be found on John McCain's web site:

"I do not want to keep our troops in Iraq a minute longer than necessary to secure our interests there. Our goal is an Iraq that can stand on its own as a democratic ally and a responsible force for peace in its neighborhood. Our goal is an Iraq that no longer needs American troops. And I believe we can achieve that goal, perhaps sooner than many imagine. But I do not believe that anyone should make promises as a candidate for President that they cannot keep if elected. To promise a withdrawal of our forces from Iraq, regardless of the calamitous consequences to the Iraqi people, our most vital interests, and the future of the Middle East, is the height of irresponsibility. It is a failure of leadership."

In other words, McCain wants our combat troops out as well, perhaps sooner than many believe possible. But the withdrawal is conditional on the security situation in Iraq. If the security situation worsens, our troops stay. That's the key difference between his position and Obama's position. Unless I am missing something, there is no disputing this.

Now, back to the MSNBC article (entitled "Iraq appears to share Obama's pullout hope"). Is Iraq's position more like Obama's or more like McCain's? Later in that article we find this:

“We are hoping that in 2010 that combat troops will withdraw from Iraq,” al-Dabbagh told reporters, noting that any withdrawal plan was subject to change if the level of violence kicks up again.

That is, Iraq would like our troops out, perhaps as soon as 2010, but any withdrawal is conditional on maintaining security gains. That's McCain's position position, not Obama's position. Obama has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he wants our troops withdrawn no matter what the facts on the ground might be. He has a bill to prove it (the one called the "Iraq War De-escalation Act of 2007").

I hope that one of those news anchors following Barack Obama around the world asks whether he would favor withdrawing troops in 16 months even if al Qaeda causes sectarian violence to flare up again. He must say "yes, I favor withdrawal even under those conditions." If he says "no," then the next question would be this: "why, then, did you introduce a bill advocating withdrawal when sectarian violence was at its worst in January of 2007?"