Given to the NYTimes, and copied in full below.
CHICAGO — The call by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki for a timetable for the removal of American troops from Iraq presents an enormous opportunity. We should seize this moment to begin the phased redeployment of combat troops that I have long advocated, and that is needed for long-term success in Iraq and the security interests of the United States.
Um – two things. 1 – it was not al-Maliki, but instead al-Rubaie, Iraq’s National Security adviser who had the remarks and 2 – Seizing this moment to withdraw and following al-Rubaie’s requests are two different things.
Al-Rubaie is trying to negotiate the UN agreement needed by December of this year from a position of power. He also realizes that it is possible that Obama may win. How should the troops leave? On Obama’s insistence or on Iraq’s declaration of independence?
Exactly.
The other bit from al-Rubaie notes that, “The Iraqi proposal stipulates that, once Iraqi forces have resumed security responsibility in all 18 of Iraq’s provinces, U.S.-led forces would then withdraw from all cities in the country.
After that, the country’s security situation would be reviewed every six months, for three to five years, to decide when U.S.-led troops would pull out entirely, al-Adeeb said.”
Sounds like President Bush’s proposal eh?
Moving on.
The differences on Iraq in this campaign are deep. Unlike Senator John McCain, I opposed the war in Iraq before it began, and would end it as president. I believed it was a grave mistake to allow ourselves to be distracted from the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban by invading a country that posed no imminent threat and had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. Since then, more than 4,000 Americans have died and we have spent nearly $1 trillion. Our military is overstretched. Nearly every threat we face — from Afghanistan to Al Qaeda to Iran — has grown.
Iraq had shot at our planes, threatened our presidents, theoretically had wmd and supported terrorists. Maybe Sadaam wasn’t an “imminent threat”, but he was certainly working on it. In the meantime, Afghanistan is less of a threat. Al Qaeda is less of a threat. And Iran – was trouble beforehand.
In the 18 months since President Bush announced the surge, our troops have performed heroically in bringing down the level of violence. New tactics have protected the Iraqi population, and the Sunni tribes have rejected Al Qaeda — greatly weakening its effectiveness.
How were our troops “performing” before the surge eh? Sunni tribes had the freedom to reject al Qaeda because of the surge.
But the same factors that led me to oppose the surge still hold true. The strain on our military has grown, the situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated and we’ve spent nearly $200 billion more in Iraq than we had budgeted. Iraq’s leaders have failed to invest tens of billions of dollars in oil revenues in rebuilding their own country, and they have not reached the political accommodation that was the stated purpose of the surge.
They have reached political accommodation on 15 of the 18 points Bush made.
The good news is that Iraq’s leaders want to take responsibility for their country by negotiating a timetable for the removal of American troops. Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. James Dubik, the American officer in charge of training Iraq’s security forces, estimates that the Iraqi Army and police will be ready to assume responsibility for security in 2009.
Only by redeploying our troops can we press the Iraqis to reach comprehensive political accommodation and achieve a successful transition to Iraqis’ taking responsibility for the security and stability of their country. Instead of seizing the moment and encouraging Iraqis to step up, the Bush administration and Senator McCain are refusing to embrace this transition — despite their previous commitments to respect the will of Iraq’s sovereign government. They call any timetable for the removal of American troops “surrender,” even though we would be turning Iraq over to a sovereign Iraqi government.
No – they are instead, letting negotiations work through their negotiating. They are not threatening a new ally by saying “you better behave or we’re going to take our guns and go home”. Bush and McCain do respect Iraq’s sovereign government far more than Obama does. Clearly.
But this is not a strategy for success — it is a strategy for staying that runs contrary to the will of the Iraqi people, the American people and the security interests of the United States. That is why, on my first day in office, I would give the military a new mission: ending this war.
Um – isn’t the war over? And now we’re “nation building”? Or as Obama likes to say, “babysitting” a civil war?
As I’ve said many times, we must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in. We can safely redeploy our combat brigades at a pace that would remove them in 16 months. That would be the summer of 2010 — two years from now, and more than seven years after the war began. After this redeployment, a residual force in Iraq would perform limited missions: going after any remnants of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, protecting American service members and, so long as the Iraqis make political progress, training Iraqi security forces. That would not be a precipitous withdrawal.
Isn’t this what we’re doing now? Oh – wait, we’re also helping with a bit of rebuilding of infrastructure. I guess Obama doesn’t want us to do that part.
In carrying out this strategy, we would inevitably need to make tactical adjustments. As I have often said, I would consult with commanders on the ground and the Iraqi government to ensure that our troops were redeployed safely, and our interests protected. We would move them from secure areas first and volatile areas later. We would pursue a diplomatic offensive with every nation in the region on behalf of Iraq’s stability, and commit $2 billion to a new international effort to support Iraq’s refugees.
What are our interests that Obama want protected? Perhaps a stable Iraq?
Ending the war is essential to meeting our broader strategic goals, starting in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the Taliban is resurgent and Al Qaeda has a safe haven. Iraq is not the central front in the war on terrorism, and it never has been. As Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently pointed out, we won’t have sufficient resources to finish the job in Afghanistan until we reduce our commitment to Iraq.
Looks like Obama still wants to invade Pakistan.
As president, I would pursue a new strategy, and begin by providing at least two additional combat brigades to support our effort in Afghanistan. We need more troops, more helicopters, better intelligence-gathering and more nonmilitary assistance to accomplish the mission there. I would not hold our military, our resources and our foreign policy hostage to a misguided desire to maintain permanent bases in Iraq.
What does Karzai? Looks to me like he wouldn’t mind a bit of a war with….Pakistan.
In this campaign, there are honest differences over Iraq, and we should discuss them with the thoroughness they deserve. Unlike Senator McCain, I would make it absolutely clear that we seek no presence in Iraq similar to our permanent bases in South Korea, and would redeploy our troops out of Iraq and focus on the broader security challenges that we face. But for far too long, those responsible for the greatest strategic blunder in the recent history of American foreign policy have ignored useful debate in favor of making false charges about flip-flops and surrender.
Why? Why wouldn’t we want a presence in the Middle East other than in Israel?
It’s not going to work this time. It’s time to end this war.
Note to Obama, the Iraq war is over. The war on terrorism is ongoing.
ps This made me spit up orange juice this morning. It’s an article on the turn around of jihadists. They are seeing the evil that they’ve been doing and are deeming it evil. One of the experts noted this piece of made up history based on his super 20/20 hindsite and imaginary interviews.
Cruickshank believes that, ironically enough, it was the Iraq war that delayed latent criticism of bin Laden and his concept of jihad. “What’s emerging now has been simmering for a long time.” The fact that American soldiers were occupying holy ground provided every major terrorist leader with a convenient justification for jihad in Iraq.
Yeah, that’s it. Those Taliban were already starting to get the sh** kicked out of them and then we went and invaded Iraq.
