McCain thinks Obamas 16 month Iraq withdrawal plan is a "pretty good timetable" now

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/07/obama_mccain_meeting_of_iraq_m.html

Obama, McCain: Meeting of Iraq minds?

A 16-month timetable, tied to "conditions on the ground." Debate over?

Posted July 26, 2008 8:15 PM

by Mark Silva

It seems that Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain have now met in the middle on Iraq:

Obama has long called for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq within 16 months after election, should he be elected president. McCain this week called that a "pretty good timetable,'' and said U.S. forces should be "out of there'' by the end of his first term, should he be elected.

But McCain also has predicated any "horizon'' for troop withdrawals on "conditions on the ground,'' like President Bush. And Obama acknowledges, too, that , after his promised withdrawal of combat forces, the timetable for continuing support from residual U.S. troops in Iraq will be "conditions-based.'' Obama even cited Bush in his remarks in an interview near the end of his vaunted European tour.

McCain has suggested that forces may remain in Iraq in some capacity for a long time - "100 years... fine by me,'' he famously has said - so long as Americans are not suffering casualties. Obama allows that Iraq is "going to need our help for some time to come.''

Near the close of Obama's widely touted tour of Afghanistan, Iraq and Europe, Newsweek's Richard Wolfe put a few questions to the senator from Illinois on their way into Paris. See what Wolfe is reporting today about Obama and his evolving stance on the U.S. military presence in Iraq, a stance which in some ways appears to be meeting McCain's own evolving position in the middle.

"it's not new that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has wanted to take control of his own country,'' Wolfe noted in his talk with Obama. "But there's always been this gap between his assessment of his abilities and American commanders' saying he's not up to it. As president, faced with that difference between what he says he can do and what the commanders say he can do, how would you choose between them?

"Iraq is a sovereign country,'' Obama replied. "Not just according to me, but according to George Bush and John McCain. So ultimately our presence there is at their invitation, and their policy decisions have to be taken into account.

[DCKit]

1. LIEberman used the phrase "time horizon" in a hearing this week.

The Republics find a catch phrase and just use the hell out of it. And yes, I consider the turncoat a Republican.

As someone on DU pointed out recently, the horizon is something you can never reach. When I hear them start talking about "success is just OVER the horizon" I'll know we are finally and truly fucked.

[bdf]

2. Whatever happened to "100 years" (n/t)