Obama scheduled to make Iraq policy speech in Iowa on Wednesday

[BeyondGeography]

By Ed Tibbetts
Quad-City Times

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama plans to make a major policy speech on Iraq when he comes to Clinton, Iowa, Wednesday, a Democratic official who’s familiar with the campaign’s plans said Sunday. The speech is planned for after Gen. David Patraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker give their much-anticipated progress report to Congress about the surge in Iraq.

...The address on Iraq, the official said, will include new policy proposals on troop withdrawals, diplomacy in Iraq and the region and ideas about what to do about the humanitarian crisis in Iraq. He’ll also talk about his ideas for U.S. leadership in the region after the war, the official said.

In January, Obama announced a plan to begin a troop withdrawal that was to have begun by last May. The goal was to have combat brigades out of the country by March 31, 2008.

Obama will be accompanied on this trip by Zbigniew Brezezinski, the national security adviser for Jimmy Carter. Brezezinski announced his support for Obama last month.

http://www.qctimes.com/articles/2007/09/10/news/elections/doc46e4b5cb9c10c004643251.txt

[illinoisprogressive]

1. I like that he is having Brezezinski along with him. very cool

[zulchzulu]

2. That should be a great event.

I wish I could make it...

[patrioticintellect]

3. If he isn't calling for defunding of the war...

...I'm not gonna buy one bit of what he says. If he isn't talking withdrawing now and using already appropriated funds to bring the troops home now like Democrats were instructed to do by the voters in November 2006, than I don't think he should waste his time speaking. If he isn't going to institute a multinational security and peacekeeping force or a UN peacekeeping and security force to stabilize Iraq, I'm not going to let him go to Iowa and deceive Americans.

I am going to post relentlessly all over DU each fallacy he promotes through his rhetoric and all the hawkish Brzezinski policy that will be in his speech. And I am going to do it to get the attention of Americans who I believe should either give me a good reason to continue the path we are on under Bush or head down a path towards peace and sustainability. Obama is headed down the same path we are headed down under Bush. He's just dressing it up to look more anti-war than Bush's policies. But all he wants still involves loss of innocent life for what? You tell me.