Cross dressing on Iraq catching up with Obama

The Caucus/NY Times:

Last week Senator Barack Obama indicated his willingness to “refine” his plans to withdraw troops from Iraq. Republicans immediately pounced, calling it a reversal. In an interview published in the Military Times on Monday — but conducted last week — Mr. Obama said he would take into account the situation on the ground when setting a timetable for withdrawal.

“If current trends continue and we are at a position where we continue to see reductions in violence and stabilization and continue to see some improvements on the part of the Iraqi army and Iraqi police, then my hope would be that we could draw down in a deliberate fashion in consultation with the Iraqi government at a pace that is determined in consultation with General Petraeus and the other commanders on the ground,” Mr. Obama said in the interview. “It strikes me that that is something we could begin relatively soon after inauguration. If, on the other hand, you’ve got a deteriorating situation for some reason, then that’s going to have to be taken into account.”

Again, the Republicans sought to portray Senator Obama’s comments as inconsistent with his previous statements on Iraq.

“How can Barack Obama claim to have a consistent Iraq policy? It’s clear Obama is rightly trying to reverse the central premise of his campaign: his pledge to immediately withdraw troops from Iraq,” said Alex Conant, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee.

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It is clear that Obama could not have sold his current position on Iraq to MoveOn and the other so called anti war groups. What he should be judged on though is the position he took on the new strategy in Iraq including the surge. On those positions he was dead wrong and would have delivered victory to our enemies in Iraq and made the war with al Qaeda much longer and much more costly.

That is where he is still vulnerable and it is where Republicans should be concentrating their fire. Obama's current position is not that different from President Bushes. This should make it harder for him to make the case that McCain is running for Bush's third term, when he is too. Another point of vulnerability for Obama and the Democrats is to take them at their word on their new embrace of the Bush Iraq policy and point out the bad faith arguments they have made over the last 18 months as well as their votes to do just the opposite.

When Obama says, “I believe that I have a better grasp of where we need to take the country, and how we should use the power of, again, not just our military, but all of our power in order to achieve American security,” you have to look at where he would have taken us 18 months ago and his willful blindness to the success of operations in Iraq over much of the last 18 months.

If you do that it is clear that his statement is not supported by the facts. McCain has got it right during this time and Obama got it dead wrong. Obama should pay a political price for being that wrong.