Middle East Flypaper Principle
The decision to keep up to 50,000 American troops in Iraq after August of next year underscores the need for extreme caution in escalating our involvement in Afghanistan and any future commitment of forces in the region.
Those originally drawn to support Barack Obama’s presidential campaign by his determination to get out of Iraq will have to be persuaded that continuing US presence of such magnitude is justified. Calling it a “transition force” will not mask the fact of an indefinite occupation.
Congressional Democrats are reacting with disappointment, but stronger emotion will have to pressure the Obama Administration to provide its vaunted transparency on this issue.
American voters rejected John McCain’s vision of the Iraq war last November, but the Obama timetable for withdrawal is now earning his approval as “thoughtful and well prepared.” How did we get from there to here?
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2 Responses to “Middle East Flypaper Principle”
I gathered some deployment numbers to try and put this in perspective.
“American voters rejected John McCain’s vision of the Iraq war last November, but the Obama timetable for withdrawal is now earning his approval as “thoughtful and well prepared.” How did we get from there to here?”
Well…. McCain is not particularly “thoughtful and well prepared”. Remember his choice of Palin, an unknown to everyone (including himself) as his VP running mate? And what about his “immediate suspension” of his campaign so he could go to Washington DC and handle the bank crises? He didn't suspend his campaign, much less do it immediately. He just made a stop over in DC for a few days, joined the faction of the Republican Party that were obstructionists and didn't accomplish much…. I still remember McCain's expression as he sat around a table with poltical leaders (including Bush and Obama) to talk about the bank bailout plan…. McCain was smiling and looked please with himself… And a lot of Americans could see through McCain's latest antic and saw that it was a stunt for political purposes only.
At any rate, back to your original question… with the economy in dire straits and not much attention being paid to Iraq, people understand that there may need to be some military personnel in Iraq but aren't too focused on the situation. And the situation in Iraq was different a year ago than it is today.
Also people like Obama. Obama has been straight with the American public, telling them (to the point of being labeled a pessimist) that the poor economy is around for a couple more years, that we have to make sacrifices, etc. The American people appreciate being treated like adults by Obama and not have the wool pulled over their eyes like Bush and other Republicans did. Furthermore Obama is standing up for American ideals- no torture and trying to improve our image in the world.
So between Obama's integrity, McCain's lack of credibility and the changing times (domestically and in Iraq) it doesn't surprise me that Americans like Obama's timetable. I will also point out that Obama was not going to have an immediate withdrawal of troops…. and I think that most Americans do feel that there is a need to keep some troops in. So leaving up to 50k non combat troops in Iraq is probably what most AMerican expected and/or wanted anyway.