Obama to reboot his Iraq policy and rhetoric.
By Geekesque, Section Diaries
Posted on Mon Sep 10, 2007 at 10:12:37 AM EST
Tags: Barack Obama, Iraq, Iowa, President, Primary, 2008 Elections, Democrats, Senate, Chris Dodd, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich (all tags)
Posted on Mon Sep 10, 2007 at 10:12:37 AM EST
Tags: Barack Obama, Iraq, Iowa, President, Primary, 2008 Elections, Democrats, Senate, Chris Dodd, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich (all tags)
Cross-posted in Orange
Last week I implored Barack Obama to step up on Iraq.
On Wednesday of this week, he will be doing just that.
Context and what to look for below the fold.
To be blunt, Senator Obama's Iraq policy has been in need of such an update for some time.
For instance, check out his campaign website's discussion of Iraq:
Senator Obama introduced legislation in January 2007 to offer a responsible alternative to President Bush's failed escalation policy. The legislation commences redeployment of U.S. forces no later than May 1, 2007 with the goal of removing all combat brigades from Iraq by March 31, 2008 -- a date consistent with the bipartisan Iraq Study Group's expectations. The plan allows for a limited number of U.S. troops to remain in Iraq as basic force protection, to engage in counter-terrorism and to continue the training of Iraqi security forces. If the Iraqis are successful in meeting the 13 benchmarks for progress laid out by the Bush Administration, this plan also allows for the temporary suspension of the redeployment, provided Congress agrees that the benchmarks have been met.
Correction: His legislation would have commenced redeployment by May 1. That was over FOUR months ago.
Obama has lost almost all of his edge on the Iraq issue. Check out the coverage of the
Univision debate last night:
"I'll strongly support in the coming days efforts here to terminate that participation based on firm deadlines," said Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd in the debate, which was broad