Some Quotes

Here's National Review on Barack Obama's plan for Iraq last week:

We haven’t won the Iraq war, of course, which is why the debate over it is so consequential. Obama took to the pages of the New York Times Monday to explain, “My Plan for Iraq.” He reiterated his support for a 16-month pullout. We think — and certainly hope — that somewhere deep inside Obama realizes how unworkable and risky this timeline would be.

And here's the Prime Minister of Iraq:

U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes [...] The Americans have found it difficult to agree on a concrete timetable for the exit because it seems like an admission of defeat to them. But it isn't.

This barely seems to be getting any play in the American press thus far, but at a minimum it deserves to dominate tomorrow's Sunday shows.

Comments

Hopefully Joe Biden's 6 clones will be on all tomorrow's shows making just this point.

Posted by lampwick | July 19, 2008 10:25 AM

This barely seems to be getting any play in the American press thus far, but at a minimum it deserves to dominate tomorrow's Sunday shows.

Right, which means we'll get a solid second serving of the New Yorker cover, followed by discussion of whether Obama takes himself too seriously, followed by a replay of John McCain's latest attack ad.

Ezra Klein has it right - if Maliki had stated precisely the opposite, everyone would be talking about Obama's "Iraq problem". The piles of stupid that is the MSM analysis of this race is unfuckingbelieveable.

Posted by Jake | July 19, 2008 10:36 AM

I can honestly say that even before a single vote has been cast in November, Barack Obama has had a positive impact on the course of this nation.

Posted by dannity | July 19, 2008 10:37 AM

Well it is progress to see the left taking Maliki seriously. When he visited the US, big newspapers and television news ignored him, and folks on the left laughed at him. Democrats boycotted him. He's walking a fine line though--this talk about withdrawal is good, but if he starts talking about withdrawal not being defeat, well, that may be going too far for the left, which needs the withdrawal to be defeat.

Posted by Thomas | July 19, 2008 11:09 AM

At the end of the "16 Month Withdrawal," there will still be about 50k American troops in Iraq as trainers, guards, and special forces to protect the O-I-L, oil, Israel, logistics (airfields, megabases). These troops will be augemented by more mercenaries from Blackwater and other contractors.

To all the fantasy land liberals, Obama will not completely leave Iraq. Rahm Emmanuael, Joe Lieberman, and the rest of The Israel Lobby would cut his nuts off if he did so.

Posted by del | July 19, 2008 11:11 AM

Thomas: When he visited the US, big newspapers and television news ignored him

Jesus Christ on a crutch that's stupid.

But seriously, we ignore to our peril the degree to which people like Thomas exist in a mental universe than has almost nothing to do with reality.

Posted by 23456 | July 19, 2008 11:19 AM

#s, it's a fact. His visit was ignored. Go to your library and pull the newspapers. Pull the weekly newsmagazines.

Posted by Thomas | July 19, 2008 11:23 AM

Hilarious. I just wrote a post with links to about 1% of the stories in "newspapers" and "weekly newsmagazines" on Maliki's visit.

You know what happened, Thomas? The site software held it because it included so many links.

What really interests me about your complete bugfuck insanity is where it originated. Did you hear about this from Rush Limbaugh, in between him telling you about the WMD being found in Syria and Vince Foster being strangled by Hillary Clinton?

Posted by 23456 | July 19, 2008 12:06 PM

the left, which needs the withdrawal to be defeat.

Huh?!?!? what are you talking about?

It's the Republicans who want to equate withdrawl with defeat. Maybe you've noticed that they don't want to leave, so they have been saying that "leaving" equals "losing". But that's only been happening for about 4 years now, so it's understandable if you missed it.

Posted by Notorious P.A.T. | July 19, 2008 2:42 PM

As long as we remember that when Maliki speaks about US withdrawal, he's talking from the Iranian perspective.

Iran wants the US out, along with the Iraqi nationalists. Maliki, Dawa (which is now split in two, part of which wants the US out) and ISCI, not so much, because they're afraid of what happens to them personally when the US is out. But Iran, the senior clerics in Iraq, the Iraqi nationalist parties and most of the Iraqi population want the US out sooner than later.

The only question of the provincial and parliamentary elections next year is how much of a coalition will be formed that is willing to accept Iranian support for the Iraqi government as opposed to US support, because that will affect how stable such a coalition will be. The Sunnis don't want Iranian influence, while Sadr's group is willing to deal with Iran if not accepting control. The Kurds are also a problem, as they are virtually the only group that wants continued US presence to protect their asses against Turkey, Iran, and the Sunni and Shia Iraqis.

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | July 20, 2008 10:12 PM