WASHINGTON, Sept. 11, 2008
Obama And McCain On How To End The War
CBS Evening News: Breaking Down The Candidates' Proposals For Withdrawing Troops From Iraq
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Play CBS Video Video Where They Stand: Iraq War Americans get to voice their opinion of U.S. troop presence in Iraq with their vote for president in November. Lara Logan reports on the candidates' positions in "Where They Stand."
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(CBS)
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Photo Essay Barack Obama The junior senator from Illinois is making his name known.
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Photo Essay John McCain Some call him a hero, some a maverick. Will Americans call him Mr. President?
Iraq Exit Strategies
The second installment of the series examines how each candidate proposes to end the Iraq War.
The second installment of the series examines how each candidate proposes to end the Iraq War.
Obama's Plan:
- Proposes to withdraw or redeploy all troops in phases within 16 months.
- Would leave behind a small, residual, force.
- Opposed the troop surge strategy.
McCain's Plan:
- Supports the drawdown of troops but is opposed to timelines and says conditions on the ground should dictate the pace of withdrawal.
- Supported the troop surge strategy.
The Issue
Green Beret Tim Brigham is lucky to be alive - and walking - after his spine was shattered during an ambush in northern Iraq, CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan reports.
"A guy from the left side of where I was came around the corner and shot," Brigham said.
It was May 11, 2005, and his Special Forces unit had just been attacked when Master Sgt. Brigham was shot.
"[It] entered my left side and exited my right side," Brigham said. "Fell from the back of the vehicle onto my head and it knocked me kind of senseless at the time."
Brigham's life was hanging in the balance when his wife, Andrea, got the call at home.
"I said ya know, is he going to be OK?" Andrea Brigham said. "And he said, well this is going to be an important night."
Making it through the night was only the beginning. Brigham was told he may never walk again. During a routine surgery, he reacted badly to the anesthesia and his heart stopped on the operating table.
"They cleared out the waiting room and I thought, OK, he's dead; they're just gonna say he's dead," Andrea said.
For eight minutes, as the surgeon massaged Tim's heart back to life, no oxygen went to his brain.
"I didn't even know my family; I didn't even know my wife's name. I didn't know my kids' names; I knew their faces," Brigham said.
In the long months that followed, he reclaimed his memory piece by piece, learned to walk again, and then, incredibly, re-qualified for duty as a Green Beret.
And in 2007, he returned to Iraq.
"Any long endeavor, of course, there's a price to pay," he said.Learn more about Tim Brigham's struggle at Couric & Co. blog.
The Candidates
For the candidates, that price - and how to honor that sacrifice - is at the core of one of the great challenges confronting the next president: How, and when, to get America's 146,000 troops out of Iraq.
The withdrawal has already begun with President Bush's announcement that 8,000 troops would return home by next February - but that will still leave about 138,000 on the ground as the next president takes office.
"My first day in office, I will bring the Joint Chiefs of Staff in and I will give them a new mission," Barack Obama said in July. "That is to end this war."
And John McCain said on Memorial Day in New Mexico: "As long as there is a reasonable prospect for succeeding in this war, then we must not choose to lose it."
The candidates started out seemingly far apart - with Obama basing his plan on timetables, and what he calls a phased withdrawal.
In March, in Fayetteville, N.C., Obama said: "Fighting in a war without end will not make the American people safer."
McCain argued that the conditions on the ground had to drive the U.S. pull-out.
"The same people that are saying we have ... to set dates for withdrawal are the same people that said we would fail in Iraq," McCain said in Kansas City, Mo., in July. "They were wrong then and they're wrong now."
But it wasn't long before the gap between them narrowed, especially after the Iraqi government endorsed Obama's timetable and the Republican administration began negotiating their own withdrawal plan.
"We will be able to reduce our forces next year and our forces will be out of regular combat operations - dramatically reduced in number - during the term of the next president of the United States," McCain said in Denver in July.
And Obama said just days earlier: "We can safely redeploy our combat brigades at a pace that would remove them in 16 months."
McCain supported the surge last year that together with the peace agreement with Sunni tribes is credited with bringing Iraq back from the brink. Obama says the same factors that led him to oppose the surge still hold true.
"Iraq is not going to be a perfect place, and we don't have unlimited resources to try to make it one," he said.
And McCain says: "Our defeat in Iraq would be catastrophic, not just for Iraq but for us. I cannot be complicit in it."
The Impact
What it means for soldiers like Tim Brigham is simple: He will follow those orders, no matter what is decided.
"Would you keep serving in Iraq as long as there was a need?" Logan asked Brigham.
"Yes, I'm doing it for everybody who's out there," he said.
Since the beginning of the war, more than 4,100 U.S. troops have been killed and more than 30,000 wounded. Military families like Tim and Andrea - like many Americans - fear pulling out too early may undermine those sacrifices, and the work that has been done.
"I'd be upset, because we ... want to see them move forward and not back," Tim said.
Andrea added: "I think there's been too many great sacrifices from family members, from soldiers."
Even if Obama wins and follows through with his 16-month withdrawal plan, what he calls a residual force would remain behind for counter-terrorism missions and to protect diplomatic personnel.
That's much like John McCain's policy, which also envisions a sharply reduced force in Iraq, by 2013. Neither candidate will predict the size of the force they'd leave in the region - both say that'll be based on the conditions on the ground.
Five and a half years after the invasion of Iraq, the decision to go to war - for many Americans - has come to define the Bush presidency. For the next president, the hard decisions about how and when to get out - may well define his.
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The secrets of tennis legend 
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See all 73 Comments1. WAR HERO/PATRIOT?
In his own book, McCain states he began collaborating after 4 days. It was not %u201Cname, rank and serial number ------or kill me,%u201D as specified by the military code of conduct.
Obama ALMOST enlisted.
2. MAVERICK?
Voted 90% of the time with presidork. (Is he for or against off shore drilling this week?) McCain, the political weather vane.
Obama voed 100% of the time with the Left.
3. ON REMAINING A POW
It was mandated by military law that all prisoners were to refuse early release. McCain was no exception here. He could have faced courts martial had he done so.
So? He followed orders or he wanted to stay with his men. Makes no difference, he REMAINED a POW.
4. EXPERIENCE?
%u201CThe truth is that McCain%u2019s largely untested and untried. He%u2019s never been responsible for policy formulation. He%u2019s never had leadership in a crisis, or in anything larger than his own aircraft carrier.%u201D General Wesley Clark, ret.
Obama has NO EXPERIENCE. NONE, NADA.
5. EMPERMENT, MATURITY, FITNESS?
%u201CBomb, bomb, bomb Iran%u201D sound presidential? Graduated near bottom of NA class. Described tensions on the %u201CIraq/Pakistan border.%u201D Called wife Cindy a c*nt in public.
Obama and the 57 states. Attended an anti-America/anti-white chuch for over 20 years. Associates with a known terrosist. Unsure if he ACTUALLY IS AN AMERICAN CITIZEN. Only thing on resume is ''community organizer.''
nuff saud.
McCain = Win.
nuff said.
I can''t believe that Obama actually finally agreed that the surge worked in Iraq. John McCain and Joe Lieberman were the lone voices calling for the surge and it has turned that conflict around. Obama was adamantly opposed to it from the beginning and said we should pull out now. As for troop withdrawels, President George W. Bush has been working on that for quite some time now and we will see it happen. It''s laughable to see Obama taking credit for this. I wonder when he is going to say that the surge was his idea? What a bufoon! No wonder he is going down in the polls.
THE %u201CMCMYTHS:%u201D
1. WAR HERO/PATRIOT?
In his own book, McCain states he began collaborating after 4 days. It was not %u201Cname, rank and serial number ------or kill me,%u201D as specified by the military code of conduct.
2. MAVERICK?
Voted 90% of the time with presidork. (Is he for or against off shore drilling this week?) McCain, the political weather vane.
3. ON REMAINING A POW
It was mandated by military law that all prisoners were to refuse early release. McCain was no exception here. He could have faced courts martial had he done so.
4. EXPERIENCE?
%u201CThe truth is that McCain%u2019s largely untested and untried. He%u2019s never been responsible for policy formulation. He%u2019s never had leadership in a crisis, or in anything larger than his own aircraft carrier.%u201D General Wesley Clark, ret.
5. EMPERMENT, MATURITY, FITNESS?
%u201CBomb, bomb, bomb Iran%u201D sound presidential? Graduated near bottom of NA class. Described tensions on the %u201CIraq/Pakistan border.%u201D Called wife Cindy a c*nt in public.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZmPS0X
meBw
Obama/Biden 2008 Hillary 2012
Here is the main point: America has to eliminate its need to import oil from petrol-dictators from unstable countries. Failure to do this will mean future wars, terrorist attacks, and huge outlays for imported fuel, now $700 billion annually, that will bankrupt our country. Sweden, Japan, and Brazil all have comprehensive energy policies that have reduced or even eliminated their need for imported oil. Many other countries have similar policies vastly reducing their oil consumption. The US needs to spend $3 trillion on getting off of oil via Al Gore or T.Boone Pickens style plans rather than wasting our resources in hopeless stupid wars. Vote Democratic if you want any of this to change because Republicans are too ignorant to care about taking care of the needs people in our own country.
General Petraus: There is no way I would use the word "victory" to describe the ending of conflict in Iraq.
Bottom Line: You can''t "win" an occupation and the great American General knows it. Why doesn''t McCain?
Posted by edabel2 at 03:47 AM : Sep 13, 2008"
It''s not supposed to end but to be sustained to satisfy the greed of Bush, Cheney and such.
Palin''s plan for ending the war ...
"Pulling out before the job is done".
No we have McBush, who will have us try to kill a billion Muslims because they are not Christian Fascists like Bush and Palin. Wow.
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Posted by noloyalisti at 02:30 PM : Sep 12, 2008
The Islamofast bastwards shouldn''t have come over here and killed 3,000 of people!
Had they not done that, they could be living their little Sharia law lives...
Maybe next time they''ll THINK before they kill Americans!
ALL OF THEM!
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