If Al-Maliki endorses Obama’s plan for a 16-month-withdrawal, that at least has the great merit of making Bush and McCain look like the assholes they are.
I assume that Al-Maliki’s endorsement is really for domestic consumption, since the Iraqis, too, have an election coming up, and — I know this will come as a surprise to some — our occupation of Iraq is not popular among Iraqis, so who knows how any of this will play out in reality? (Especially since the malAdministration just punted on a status of forces agreement (via).
And, who knows, we may end up moving the Long War over to Afghanistan, anyhow. Maybe Obama could hold some hearings on whether we can really afford the empire, instead of tinkering round the edges?
Still, nifty maneuver! (And a lot niftier than fucking with your opponents foreign policy in private, like the Republicans do. This is right out there!)
Front page
I think that this...
…was done with the acquiescence (if not the approval) of Bushco — and ultimately doesn’t hurt McCain at all.
Keep in mind that yesterday the administration announced that it had agreed “in principle” on a timeline for troop withdrawal. In other words, Maliki and Bush decided to make it possible to play the “16 month” announcement as being consistent with the ’timeline’ that had already been negotiated.
And McCain can do so political ju-jitsu here, affirming that he has always been committed to respecting the sovereign rights of Iraqis, and now the question for voters is ’who do they trust to manage the troop withdrawal — the guy who first said that the surge wouldn’t work, and then said it wasn’t working — until he flip-flopped and said it did work, or the guy who was right all along on the deployment of additional troops?”
Whatever -
Most media mavens are saying there can be positive results for BO on this trip but there are also risks.
How can that be with nearly every news outlet and pundit in the bag for him? Risk, my ass.
Anny gaffe will be papered over with gold and ermine to match his robes; any criticism silenced with crys of “racist”.
Well done Obama
I am beginning to warm to him.
Maliki is Bush's puppet--
and he already made an “agreement” for “time horizons” or whatever…
this is purely a Global Photo Op—nothing more. Obama needs to “appear” presidential.
of course it is
that is what campaigns are, it is well done.
also, is Maliki Bush’s puppet or Iran’s puppet?
"Barack Obama To Play Lollapalooza"
http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/20…
—not a joke—it’s the next stop on his world tour.
Maliki is Bush’s puppet, and that’s why he has no respect there.
CNN said it's a catch-22 for him--
McCain goaded him into going in the first place and the talking heads said that if he goes and changes his policies, it proves McCain/Bush was right re: the surge —and if he doesn’t, then it proves it was just a photo op and theater.
related-"Obama keeps returning to Reagan"
— http://www.politico.com/news/stories/070…
“… Looking back earlier this week on Obama’s previous praise of Reagan, Mario Cuomo asked, rhetorically, “What did Reagan transform?”
He answered: “It wasn’t morning in America. If you are saying he transformed Americans toward a new hopefulness, hopefulness doesn’t buy peace, it doesn’t buy jobs.”
“What [Obama] is trying to do obviously is look big, look important, the way Reagan looked big,” Cuomo said. “Having 80,000 people in an auditorium is probably a way to do that, it’s huge,” he added, referencing the arena scheduled for Obama’s convention speech. “And now the Brandenburg Gate.” …”
Maliki's on very shaky ground there--
Spiegel— “… SPIEGEL: Critics have accused you of striking harshly against the Mahdi army of Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, while going easy on his rival Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim’s Badr militia. …
(Maliki lies here about it)
… SPIEGEL: In southern Iraq, where you come from, you have been compared with Saddam Hussein when it comes to harshness.
Maliki: That’s the sort of thing that people say who don’t understand how urgently Iraq needs stability — or these people prefer instability. We don’t want to spread fear and terror in Iraq. We have, for example, given the militias several deadlines to hand over their weapons. Their resistance was tremendous, so we had to oppose them with tremendous force of our own. …” — http://www.spiegel.de/international/worl…
Related - "Obama is Satan"
Wait, I’m sure there’s a link somewhere….
nope-just a Republican
— and don’t knock Cuomo — he’s done more for us in each and every month of his service to us than Obama has ever ever done.
Let's be fair, amberglow
It’s the whole Democratic leadership that decided to sell out the base, not just Obama.
[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
we don't vote for the entire leadership--
we can only vote for the person they’ve handed the entire party organization to, and wholeheartedly supported — and for our own Senators and Reps.
Hillary and Nadler didn’t sell me out—altho Schumer needs to retire and/or lose his seat immediately —primarily bec. he’s the one in charge of picking and supporting Senate candidates nationwide—he wasn’t pushing Obama on me, and still isn’t tho.
2 hours in Kuwait--
“… During the two-hour visit, Nutter said, the officers gave him an overview of operations. Obama shook hands, answered questions, posed for photos and played a little basketball during the visit. …” — http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080719…
He’s doing 8 countries in 1 week. — “…Obama also arranged to visit Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and England, traveling aboard a jet chartered by his presidential campaign, before his return to the United States. The weeklong trip …” + Kuwait, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
yup-they don't "accidentally" release things
—ever.
It shows that Bush is coopting the “withdrawal” (lying) messages, and reminds that they’ve already discussed “timelines” with Maliki, so Obama’s plan is nothing new or special or different from official Administration policy.