Obama Goes Globetrotting
Iraq PM likes Obama's withdrawal plan; McCain says pullout depends on progress.
July 19, 2008— -- As Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama began his globe-trotting tour in Afghanistan today, he faced shifting sands in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
When the presidential race field narrowed to two major candidates, both of them staked out clear positions.
Obama said the troop surge in Iraq would fail to cut violence or improve political reconciliation, calling Iraq "an impediment" to success in the war on terror, which he said should be focused on Afghanistan.
John McCain, Obama's likely Republican opponent, called Iraq the center of the war on terror, and famously speculated that the United States could maintain a presence there for as long as 100 years.
In political campaigns, as in war, the sands shift over time. Both candidates pointed that out -- about their rivals -- this week.
On Tuesday, Obama said pointedly: "The central front in the war on terror is not Iraq, and it never was."
In his radio address today, McCain fired back, saying, "We all remember quite well that he said the surge would fail, and today we know that he was wrong."
With the situation in Iraq improving, and Afghanistan mired in a worsening insurgent fight, Obama's trip -- one of the most high-profile job auditions in history -- will give him a high-profile opportunity to seize on the changing calculus of the war on terror.
"In Iraq, he's playing defense; in Afghanistan, he's trying to profit from an opportunity," said Michael O'Hanlon, a military analyst with the Brookings Institution.
Iraq's government presented one opportunity by endorsing Obama's position. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told the German magazine Der Spiegel in today's edition, "Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes."
The White House inadvertently advertised Maliki's praise for the Democrat, sending out a Reuters story by mistake on the subject to White House reporters.
But McCain's campaign issued a response, sticking to his guns in his criticism of the Illinois Democrat.
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