Obama In Iraq

Update: Obama to meet with Gen. David Petraeus. It's now early eve in Iraq. Obama has kept quiet in Iraq so far. Nice move. McCain and Lieberman and the rest have enough to chew on. What's funny, is Obama's hardline critics are having a tough time coming up with things to criticize him about. Here's William Kristol saying virtually nothing. 

Out of Afghanistan, on to Iraq, where it's noon already (check out my Obama time in the sidebar). I'm getting tired of the line that the media has settled on: "seeking to boost his foreign policy credentials."

The U.S. embassy said Obama, who is visiting Iraq as part of a U.S. congressional delegation, would meet senior Iraqi officials and U.S. military commanders.

Seeking to boost his foreign policy credentials, Obama will travel to other countries in the Middle East and also visit major powers in Europe this week.

Obama courted controversy on July 3 when he said he might "refine" his views on withdrawing combat troops from Iraq within 16 months but later said his stance had been unchanged for more than a year and that he intended "to end this war."

McCain says a U.S. troop buildup last year helped boost stability in Iraq and has criticized Democrats' vows for a quick withdrawal as "reckless."

But with violence down dramatically, Baghdad has become increasingly assertive about its own security capabilities.

Indeed, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and President George W. Bush agreed late last week to set a "time horizon" for reducing American forces in Iraq.

It was the closest the Bush administration has come to acknowledging the need for a timeframe for U.S. troop cuts. Bush has long opposed deadlines for troop withdrawals.

Maliki earlier this month suggested setting a timetable for U.S. troops to leave Iraq, although he had given no dates.

More on Karzai: Obama would be a strong partner:

Bloomberg: Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai came away from a meeting today with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama expecting he would have a ``strong partner'' in the White House no matter who wins the U.S. election, his spokesman said.

Obama and U.S. Senators Chuck Hagel and Jack Reed spent an hour and 45 minutes with Karzai and his top aides in the presidential palace in Kabul, including a lunch of Afghan rice, lamb and chicken, spokesman Humayun Hamidzada told reporters.

The Illinois senator, 46, is on a six-day tour that also will include stops in Iraq, Israel and Western Europe. Obama said in a CBS News interview in Afghanistan that that nation ``has to be our central focus, the central front of our battle against terrorism.''

``Losing is not an option when it comes to Afghanistan,'' Obama said in the interview. ``One of the biggest mistakes we've made strategically after 9/11 was to fail to finish the job here,'' he said, referring to the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, which harbored the al-Qaeda terrorist network that launched the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.