NYT: Obama Offers Most Extensive Plan Yet for Winding Down War

[babylonsister]

Obama Offers Most Extensive Plan Yet for Winding Down War
Joshua Lott for The New York Times

Senator Barack Obama delivered a speech on ending the war in a campaign stop Wednesday at Ashford University in Clinton, Iowa.



By JEFF ZELENY and MICHAEL R. GORDON
Published: September 13, 2007

Senator Barack Obama yesterday presented his most extensive plan yet for winding down the war in Iraq, proposing to withdraw all combat brigades by the end of next year while leaving behind an unspecified smaller force to strike at terrorists, train Iraqi soldiers and protect American interests.

Speaking in Iowa, Mr. Obama combined an attack on both parties in Washington for having gotten the United States into the war with the outline of an approach for getting out that immediately drew criticism from the left of his party for being too timid and from Republicans as being irresponsible.

“What’s at stake is bigger than this war: it’s our global leadership,” Mr. Obama said. “Now is a time to be bold. We must not stay the course or take the conventional path because the other course is unknown.”

Mr. Obama, of Illinois, used the speech to highlight again his early and consistent opposition to the war, and to compare it to the votes in 2002 by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and John Edwards, then a senator from North Carolina, to give President Bush the authority to go to war in Iraq. But Mr. Obama’s strategy for where to go from here, especially in maintaining an American military presence in Iraq and the region, is similar to the plan embraced by Mrs. Clinton, who is leading the Democratic field of potential presidential nominees in most opinion polls.

One day after questioning Gen. David H. Petraeus as he testified before Congress, Mr. Obama and other candidates took their respective cases to voters. On one side of Iowa, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, argued that the administration’s strategy should be given more time to succeed, while across the state, Mr. Obama offered a conflicting view.

“The best way to protect our security and to pressure Iraq’s leaders to resolve their civil war is to immediately begin to remove our combat troops,” Mr. Obama said. “Not in six months or one year — now.”

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/us/politics/13obama.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[jefferson_dem]

1. Thanks Obama!

:patriot: :applause: :patriot:

Real leadership is refresheing.

[Benhurst]

2. Does this mean that Obama and other members of our party will

use the power of the purse, the greatest power Congress has over the executive short of impeachment, to reduce and eventually end the occupation of Iraq?

I hope so, because that is the only way we are going to stop the immoral machinations of the war criminal squatting in the White House.

[Sick_of_Rethuggery]

3. Listen also to his NPR interview...

to understand how thoughtful, cogent and smart he is:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14359099

[yodermon]

4. if he doesn't vote to DEFUND THE WAR already, it's all a game.

[Ethelk2044]

5. Go Obama

[Cameron27]

6. K&R

[illinoisprogressive]

7. Obama is goooooood. really good with policy.

[Grandrose]

8. GObama! (K&R)

Courage and bold under fire, for the right things to do...makes me proud! :applause: :kick:

[AtomicKitten]

9. Obama has done his homework.

[Adelante]

10. I do hope Obama punches back quickly

On people misrepresenting the troop numbers involved.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3518259#3518312

[AtomicKitten]

11. For a novice on the national scene --

Obama seems to be making his way through the gauntlet relatively unscathed.

I fully expect him to flex his rapid response muscle. Maybe tonight on Larry King.

[TeamJordan23]

12. The guy is a brilliant man. nm

[sandnsea]

13. end the war now

This is a serious strategy to end the war and bring regional diplomacy to bear. Others, like Kucinich, call for regional diplomacy while they withdraw, they just do it in the fine print. I prefer my politics straight-up, even if it's not the happy talk that sounds good bellowing out of a bullhorn.