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Video of Barack Obama speech on Iraq, Fayetteville, North Carolina 3-19-08: will end war on Day One

March 19th, 2008
By JILL MILLER ZIMON

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See the full video (with an accompanying text article) from here. Many key graphs, see this post for the text of the speech. Here is where he makes the Day One promise:

When you have no overarching strategy, there is no clear definition of success. Success comes to be defined as the ability to maintain a flawed policy indefinitely. Here is the truth: fighting a war without end will not force the Iraqis to take responsibility for their own future. And fighting in a war without end will not make the American people safer.

So when I am Commander-in-Chief, I will set a new goal on Day One: I will end this war. Not because politics compels it. Not because our troops cannot bear the burden- as heavy as it is. But because it is the right thing to do for our national security, and it will ultimately make us safer.

In order to end this war responsibly, I will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. We can responsibly remove 1 to 2 combat brigades each month. If we start with the number of brigades we have in Iraq today, we can remove all of them 16 months. After this redeployment, we will leave enough troops in Iraq to guard our embassy and diplomats, and a counter-terrorism force to strike al Qaeda if it forms a base that the Iraqis cannot destroy. What I propose is not - and never has been - a precipitous drawdown. It is instead a detailed and prudent plan that will end a war nearly seven years after it started.



This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 at 7:38 pm and is filed under General David Petraeus, Saddam Hussein, Newsweek Blogitics, Primaries, Osama bin Laden, Withdrawal, 2008 Elections, War, Barack Obama, Al Qaeda, Politics. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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    "we can remove all of them 16 months. After this redeployment, we will leave enough troops in Iraq"

    hmmm
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    At least President Clinton was sane enough to forget about maintaining an embassy in Somalia after the U.S. abandon the country. Does Senator Obama really believe that there will be a government to deal with after the U.S. abandons Iraq? Does he really believe he can get anyone to volunteer for the duty of being there? Does he really believe that the U.S. can work with Iran and Syria to deal with the refugees?

    I would also guess that the promises to keep a strike force in Iraq will be quickly forgotten. Does he really believe that a strike for can be maintained through air support only? What does he think it would do?

    His speech reads like an undergraduate thesis written for by a rich white kids at an Ivy league. Too bad he cannot be honest enough to just say that Iraq is not worth the effort and that the U.S. should just leave and that any benefits from a continued presence are less than costs.

    I also noticed that the word Kurd is not in the speech. I guess that will quickly be thrown under the bus.

    Of course, using the Obama Doctrine there is then no reasons to stay in Afghanistan since country building should not be done and any country that has a Muslim resistance needs to be avoided. I wonder how all of the hip, elite activist on his staff are going to convince Americans that U.S. intervention in Darfur is in the U.S. interest?
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    The only hope that the Iraqis have is that McCain or Hillary win the nomination. Otherwise they must take personal responsibility for themselves.

    The antiwar sound like republicans. They must take responsibility for their own actions. They must succeed or we throw them off the welfare rolls.

    How odd is the collection of people that make up the antiwar movement. How odd is the Senator from Illinois in his criticism of a war from a purely logical standpoint.

    What wars have ever been logical. What battle ever followed a predefined path. Not only are the turks attacking the kurds in the north but the rest of the middle east is waiting to pounce and for the first time the Europeans are starting to see the need to be involved in this area and yet we have a candidate who wants to end the war on day one.

    Barak Obama is not a uniter. He is an opportunist. He is taking the war and making it the only thing in which to run a campaign upon. The hatreds by both sides have been the result of the war and he has taken upon himself a candidacy for the POTUS with no experience, little judgment and a single, simple message.

    End the war. How sad for the Iraqis if America gives him his dream job.
 
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