TPMCafe: Obama on Petraeus: Start Bringing Troops Home Right Now

[flpoljunkie]

Obama On Petraeus: Start Bringing Troops Home Right Now
By Greg Sargent - September 10, 2007, 2:27PM

Obama's statement on Petraeus is in, and this line leaps out at us:

“I can only support a policy that begins an immediate removal of our troops from Iraq’s civil war, and initiates a sustained drawdown of our military presence.”

Amid the debate over whether Obama and Hillary should be showing more leadership and pressuring Congress not to pass any Iraq measure without a firm withdrawal timetable, this statement is interesting. On the one hand, Obama will not support any Congressional measure on Iraq that doesn't immediately start withdrawal. But on the other, he's not saying one way or the other -- as has Dodd -- whether he'd be willing to support a measure not containing a date-certain for completion of that withdrawal. That's arguably the key question.

Hillary, meanwhile, has called on Congress to stick to a date-certain approach but has stopped short of saying that she wouldn't vote for anything not containing a firm withdrawal timetable. Obama's full statement after the jump.

Obama's full statement:

“Changing the definition of success to stay the course with the wrong policy is the wrong course for our troops and our national security. The time to end the surge and to start bringing our troops home is now – not six months from now. The Iraqi government is not achieving the political progress that was the stated purpose of the surge, and in key areas has gone backwards. Our military cannot sustain its current deployments without crippling our ability to respond to contingencies around the world. It’s time for a change of direction that brings our troops home, applies real pressure on the Iraqis to act, surges our diplomacy, and addresses Iraq’s urgent humanitarian crisis. I can only support a policy that begins an immediate removal of our troops from Iraq’s civil war, and initiates a sustained drawdown of our military presence.”

http://tpmelectioncentral.com/2007/09/_obama_on_petraeus_start_bring_troops_home_right_now.php

[zulchzulu]

1. Thank you Senator

Again...proving we need a leader like him NOW!

[Mythsaje]

2. I'll kick that....n/t

[robinlynne]

3. excellent! But Obama, please change that to total withdrawal of our troops, ok?

[Cameron27]

4. Great!

K&R

[jillan]

5. Let's see how he does tomorrow when he is face to face with

Petraues. He is on the SFRC.

Hoping C-Span will have it on again, so I don't have to watch it at my computer all day.

[flpoljunkie]

6. C-Span shows the hearing tomorrow at 9:30AM ET on both C-Span and C-Span 3.

This seems strange. I suspect it will end up on C-Span3, but we will see.

[AtomicKitten]

7. I like the "immediate" part.

Gobama.

[Imagevision]

8. Oh but Hillary would disagree with such naive statements...

[killbotfactory]

9. We will still have troops in Iraq at the end of Hillary's second term

If she is elected and re-elected. I don't know what to think of that, since no details have been presented about who is going to stay behind and for what purpose, and no detailed plan for Iraq is on her website, but that's about the same time she wants to implement her health plan, whatever that entails.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10947954

So vote for Hillary in 08, so we can look forward to 2016... I guess.

[maximusveritas]

10. Good statement by Obama

A "date-certain for completion of that withdrawal" would be impossible to come to a consensus on. I'm not sure how Dodd would defend voting against a measure that would start bringing our troops home, just because it doesn't set a completion date. I'm not sure how he could stomach casting a deciding vote in that case. He's putting himself in a bad position here.

[draft_mario_cuomo]

11. Has Obama taken a stand on defunding the war yet? nt