U.K. Prime minister Gordon Brown agrees that the Iraq war needs to wind down. Nearly all of Europe's leaders agree. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki agrees.
Why is this concept of setting a withdrawal date so hard to understand?
Obama isn't going to leave the country in a lurch or a dangerous situation. He'll do what's right. If that means waiting longer than 16 months, then that's what will happen. But unless a strategy is set, nothing can be accomplished.
You can't begin to think about withdrawal until you set a vision and a plan for withdrawal. Bush McCain would rather just keep on bumbling on with no strategy whatsoever.
They used to say setting a withdrawal date would give the "enemy" a clue that the U.S. was leaving, which they said could be dangerous. It was a bunch of phooey.
Staying in Iraq may be more about saving face for Bush-McCain. They want that symbolism of "winning" -- whatever that means to them. They need to save face and somehow we have to let them for the sake of the troops and the Iraqis.
Obama, now in Israel:``If we responsibly end the war in Iraq, we can strengthen our military, step up our efforts to finish the fight against al- Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, and succeed in leaving Iraq to a sovereign government that can take responsibility for its own future,'' Obama said today at a news conference in Amman, Jordan.
The Democratic presidential candidate, on a tour of the Middle East with two other senators before heading to Europe, said he wants a ``steady, deliberate'' pullout from Iraq. The plan would be flexible enough to respond to surges in violence that might occur during the withdrawal, he said.
