WASHINGTON, July 15, 2008
Surge Criticism Scrubbed From Obama Site
Campaign Removes Reference To Troop Increase As Part Of "The Problem"
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Play CBS Video Video Still Not On The Same Page On a day when the economy took center stage, the candidates for President talked about foreign issues. Barack Obama and John McCain showed how far apart they are on many fronts. Kathryn Brown reports
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Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks at the NAACP convention in Cincinnati, Monday, July 14, 2008. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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Photo Essay Scrutinizing The Surge Commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, U.S. ambassador testify before Congress.
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Photo Essay Week In Iraq Photos A daily diary with scenes of the latest attacks and snapshots from the effort to rebuild a nation.
Debate over the impact of President Bush's troop "surge" has been at the center of exchanges this week between Obama and Republican presidential rival John McCain. Obama opposed the war and the surge from the start, while McCain supported both the invasion and the troop increase.
A year and a half after Bush announced he was sending reinforcements to Iraq, it is widely credited with reducing violence there. With most Americans ready to end the war, McCain is using the surge debate to argue he has better judgment and the troops should stay to win the fight. Obama argues the troop increase has not achieved its other goal of fostering a political reconciliation among Iraqi factions.
After Bush delivered a nationally televised address on Jan. 10, 2007, announcing his plan, Obama argued it could make the situation worse by taking pressure off Iraqis to find a political solution to the fighting.
"I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there," the Illinois senator said that night, a month before announcing his presidential bid. "In fact, I think it will do the reverse."
Obama continued to argue throughout 2007 that the troop increase was a mistake. By the early part of this year, he was acknowledging that it had improved security and reduced violence, but he has stuck by his opposition to the move.
In a speech Tuesday, he argued that since the surge began, the strain on the military has increased, the United States has spent another $200 billion in Iraq, Afghanistan has deteriorated, the Taliban and al Qaeda have rebuilt and Iraqis have not made political progress. "That's why I strongly stand by my plan to end this war," Obama said.
McCain said Obama is failing to acknowledge success. "Today, we know Sen. Obama was wrong" to oppose the surge, McCain said.
As first reported Tuesday by the New York Daily News, Obama's campaign removed a reference to the surge as part of "The Problem" section on the part of his Web site devoted to laying out his plan for Iraq.
The change was part of many broader changes that Obama spokeswoman Wendy Morigi said were made to reflect current conditions. She provided the full text of the old site and the updated version, which includes a new section on the recent resurgence of al Qaeda in Afghanistan and another on this year's negotiations over a Status of Forces Agreement that would detail the legal basis for the ongoing presence of U.S. military forces operating in Iraq.
The changes stress that Obama's plan to end the war is responsible and designed to improve national security. They include:
Only one of his plan's subheads remains unchanged, the first one: "Judgment You Can Trust." That's a message the campaign wants Americans to embrace.
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- Soon enough..when this war is over..LIBERALS would re-write history and declare themselves the brave relentless warriors that defeated the enemy..INSTEAD OF THE ONES WHO WHIMPINGLY APPEASED AND DEFENDED THE ENEMY..
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- It''''s funny how Obama is so sensitive the NY-er paper-,but had no qualms about insulting an entire group of people by calling them bitter people who cling to guns and religion!
OBAMA does not know his own mind- He will change his viewpoint each step of the way- THIS IS NOT A LEADER_ THIS is an INEXPERIANCED ''''SENATOR!''''
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Posted by Ariel133 at 07:23 AM : Jul 16, 2008
EXACTLY! It is tremendously hilarious that people tout Obama''s FAILED Illinois senatorship as experience since one, it was just a cut above a city counsil member, and two, he didn''t pass one **** ant piece of legislation for the first seven years he was a state senator! - Reply to this comment
- Revisionist historian.
- Reply to this comment
- It''s funny how Obama is so sensitive the NY-er paper-,but had no qualms about insulting an entire group of people by calling them bitter people who cling to guns and religion!
OBAMA does not know his own mind- He will change his viewpoint each step of the way- THIS IS NOT A LEADER_ THIS is an INEXPERIANCED ''SENATOR!'' - Reply to this comment
- It''s funny how Obama is so sensitive about this, but had no qualms about insulting an entire group of people by calling them bitter people who cling to guns and religion.
OBAMA does not know his own mind- He will change his viewpoint each step of the way- THIS IS NOT A LEADER_ THIS is an INEXPERIANCED SENATOR. - Reply to this comment
- Yeah! it worked, about as well as FEMA''s Katrina response, or Bush''s economic stimulus, or Bush''s greenhouse gas policy, or Bush''s Small pox innoculation program, etc etc.
When we are out of there and no more US Soldiers die there, then we will cease to pay for a classic blunder! - Reply to this comment
- As soon as we reduce the troop levels, the people will take their country back from the invaders. As it should be. The reason the surge never worked is because it was a military solution to a political problem. But with Bushoccio as Commander in Thief, what could we expect? Obama was right even without considering the additional costs of this fiasco.
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