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Obama Rewrites Iraq Plan - In Other Words - Flip Flops!!!!!!

Mike

Well-known member
Obama Rewrites Iraq Plan
By MIKE ALLEN | 7/3/08 4:16 PM EST Text Size:



Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) promised primary voters a swift withdrawal from Iraq, in clear language still on his website: “Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months.”

Not anymore. Heading into the holiday weekend, Obama and his advisers repudiated that pledge, saying he is reevaluating his plan and will incorporate advice from commanders on the ground when he visits Iraq later this month.

A top Obama adviser said he is not “wedded” to a specific timeline, and Obama said Thursday he plans to “refine” his plan.

“I am going to do a thorough assessment when I'm there," he told reporters in Fargo, N.D., according to CBS News. "When I go to Iraq and I have a chance to talk to some of the commanders on the ground, I'm sure I'll have more information and will continue to refine my policies."

But he went on to maintain: “I have been consistent, throughout this process, that I believe the war in Iraq was a mistake.”

David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist, went even further during remarks Wednesday on CNN’s “Situation Room,” telling guest host John Roberts that Obama has actually advocated “a phased withdrawal, with benchmarks for the Iraqi government to meet, that called for strategic pauses, based on the progress on these benchmarks, and advice on the commanders on the ground.”

“He's always said that he would listen to the advice of commanders on the ground that that would factor into his thinking,” Axelrod said. “He's also always said that we had to be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in. So he's been very consistent on this point. ...

“I think he will take the advice, not just the advice of the commanders on the ground but his general assessment of conditions on the ground, in calibrating that withdrawal. He said he thought we could get one to two brigades out a month. But he's not wedded to that in the face of events. No president would be. And he's always said that he's never said that this withdrawal would be without any possibility of alteration based on events on the ground. That would not be a prudent thing to do for any president.”
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Lets see- McCain has supported opposite policy on immigration, Roe vs Wade, torture, Bush tax cuts, Oil company subsidies, ethanol, drilling off the coast, etc. etc. etc.-- which are then all referred to as a well thought out change-
BUT
When Obama changes his mind as the times change- its a Flip Flop :???:

Mike- soon you'll be eligible for FOX News :wink: :lol: :lol:

To me they both are "PANDERING"......
 

Mike

Well-known member
Flip Flop on top of a Flip Flop or........Back to back Flip Flops :lol:

Barack Obama battled charges that he was reinventing his plan for withdrawal from Iraq Thursday, carving out a nuanced military policy after saying earlier in the day that he might “refine” his Iraq approach.

The earlier statement was widely interpreted as a willingness to revise his long-stated plan to withdraw all brigades within 16 months of taking office, and opened him up to Republican attacks.

But the backlash led Obama to call a second press conference in Fargo, N.D., where the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said he was not talking about refining his 16-month timetable.




“I have not equivocated on that position, I am not searching for maneuvering room with respect to that position ,” he said. “I’m just puzzled …I think what’s happened is that the (John) McCain campaign primed the pump with the press to suggest that somehow we were changing our policy when we haven’t, and that just hasn’t been the case.”

GOP criticism Thursday initially came from the Republican National Committee, which in a statement said: “There appears to be no issue that Barack Obama is not willing to reverse himself on for the sake of political expedience.”

But his second press conference touched off a new round of recriminations.

The RNC repeated its charge, and McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said Obama has “reversed” his position.

“Now that Barack Obama has changed course and proven his past positions to be just empty words, we would like to congratulate him for accepting John McCain’s principled stand on this critical national security issue. If he had visited Iraq sooner or actually had a one-on-one meeting with General Petraeus, he would have changed his position long ago,” Rogers said in a statement.

Obama seemed to struggle Thursday in explaining how his upcoming trip to Iraq might refine, but not basically alter, his promise to quickly remove U.S. combat troops from the war.


In Obama’s first press conference of the day, the long-time opponent of the Iraq war said his coming trip to the Middle East would be a chance to assess his military goals, and suggested he would not jeopardize Iraq security in pursuit of a timetable.


“I have always said that I will listen to commanders on the ground. I’ve always said that the pace of withdrawal would be dictated by the safety and security of our troops and the need to maintain stability,” Obama told reporters.

“That assessment has not changed, and when I go to Iraq and I have a chance to talk to some of the commanders on the ground, I’m sure I’ll have more information and will continue to refine my policies.”

During the Democratic primary, Obama said repeatedly that he would end the Iraq war in 2009.

Obama’s Web site says he would immediately begin removing troops from Iraq upon taking office. It says he would remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all brigades out of Iraq in 16 months.

Obama said Thursday afternoon that’s still the plan. He said that the only refining he was talking about had to do with training for Iraqi military and police, and troop presence for counter-terrorism strike teams.

He promised to summon the Joint Chiefs of Staff on his first day in office “and I will give them a new mission and that is to end this war, responsibly and deliberately, but decisively.”

The campaign sent around a list of past Obama statements to show that he has been consistent in saying he would listen to commanders on the ground and that he is open to tactical adjustment.

But it was unclear how much wiggle room he was giving himself with the 16-month timetable.









Earlier in the day he said: “My 16-month timeline … was always premised on making sure that our troops were safe … And I’m going to continue to gather information to find out whether those conditions still hold.”

And at his second press conference, he said: “If it turned out, for example, that we had to, in certain months, slow the pace (of withdrawal) because of the safety of American troops … of course we would take that into account.”


There have also been mixed messages coming out of Obama’s supporters.

Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, a campaign co-chair, told MSNBC Tuesday, “No. No, he will not (change his Iraq policy) … Now is the time that we need to carefully and reasonably withdraw.”

Obama foreign policy adviser Susan Rice told the same network on the same day that the 16-month plan was a “timetable,” not a deadline, and that Obama would listen to commanders to devise his Iraq strategy.

Republicans seized on McCaskill’s statement. Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor said on a McCain conference call Wednesday that McCaskill “demonstrated his unwillingness to change direction.”

“I guess the question is, if … he’s going to go to Iraq and nothing that he sees will change or impact his decision-making on this, then why is he going?” Rogers said. “And if it’s just to check a box, politically, then it, sort of, represents … the kind of cynical politics that most people … are pretty sick and tired of.”

Obama has scheduled a trip to Europe and the Middle East that includes stops in Jordan, Israel, the United Kingdom, Germany and France. Obama’s campaign announced recently that he also plans to head to Iraq and Afghanistan over the summer as part of a congressional delegation, answering complaints from McCain and other Republicans that he has not visited the region since January 2006.

“I’m going to do a thorough assessment when I’m there,” Obama said.
 

fff

Well-known member
What's funny is McCain trying to claim he and Obama now have a similar plan for Iraq. :lol: :lol:

This is the same as Obama birth certificate: throw crap against the wall and see if anything sticks. The birth certificate didn't, but McCain supporters got lots of mileage out of it.

He's going to "refine" his plan. That's a pretty good idea, one would think, considering he's not been privvy to the same briefings and information that the president gets every day. Personally, I will be glad to see a president who can learn and change his mind when presented with facts and recommendations from professionals. I don't see that happening with McCain. He's stuck in the same old Bush rut: Why not 100 more years in Iraq? For one thing, where are the money and troops going to come from? Tax cuts? Hey, they obviously have done wonders for our economy. :roll: We went from a record budget surplus to a possible record deficit. Record homeownership? No, it's record foreclosures all around the country. A strong dollar? Wrong again.
 

aplusmnt

Well-known member
fff said:
I will be glad to see a president who can learn and change his mind when presented with facts and recommendations from professionals. I don't see that happening with McCain.

Then why is McCain changing his mind on drilling for oil? Bet you have called him a flip flopper on that one, while slapping Obama on the back for his flipping :roll:

Can you say Kool aid drinker, pass the Demonande flavor please! :roll:
 
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