America Get Out??

Question

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Malaki has recently stated that he wants American troops to begin leaving Iraq and that he supports Barack Obama's plan for the phased withdrawal of all combat troops within 16 months.

Obama has stated that he will start redeploying troops to deal with the crumbling situation in Afghanistan. Currently, Hamid Karzai has little political influence outside of Kabul, and the Taliban are making a huge comeback, garnering support amongst the majority ethnic Pashtun in the eastern parts of the country.

Obama will launch major offensives against Al-Qaeda and Taliban strongholds in rural Northern Pakistan, a position he has been ridiculed for by the Republicans, and, unlike Bush, he will make apprehending Osama bin Laden, Ayman al Zawahiri, and Mohammed Omar a priority.

Why won't the Republicans and John McCain respect the Iraqi

Government’s wishes and stop occupying their country? Why won't they go after Al-Qaeda, like Obama will, in Afghanistan?

Answer 1

I honestly don't think it is possible for a republican to have any sort of compassion, much less any regard to abide by anyone else's wishes but their own.  Republican's are incapable of respect...they have their own selfish agenda.

Answer 2

Maliki's comments on Obama's 'plan' are interesting, considering that WITHOUT the surge, WITHOUT the continued funding of the war, WITHOUT the selection of General Petraeus, and WITHOUT continued local presence of American and Coalition forces, there would be no talk of timetables.  

Obama never supported the surge, suggesting with proposed legislation that all US troops be removed from Iraq by March 31, 2008.  A CLEARLY ridiculous stance and one counterintuitive to anyone with a l**k of sense regarding military operations.  

Obama's rolling forward of his 16 month plan as the situation improves due in no part to his support or ideals or leadership, is irresponsible and hypocritical.  He can't have it both ways, being against the surge, then proposing a hasty withdrawal now that the country is in some sort of tentative equilibrium due in large part TO THE SURGE.  

Iraq is a long-term engagement, and those calling for hasty redeployments don't have any idea what the repercussions of that action would be on their lives and the lives of Iraqis, or they simply don't care.

The Afghanistan campaign is SUPPOSED to be a NATO engagement, yet NATO is too busy thumbing its nose at America's foreign policy and keeping the heroin flow fluid into Europe and lands beyond.  European 'partners' have no interest in sending more troops to Afghanistan, so the USA is forced to consider redeploying Iraq-based troops to Afghanistan.  Obama's original plan was to bring the troops home, now he wants to send them to Afghanistan?  WHICH IS IT?  What soldier finds confidence in a C-I-C who promises a trip home then a trip over to Afghanistan and oh by the way, a trip into Northern Pakistan, where the neophyte Obama mused about a bombing or two if requisite anti-terror support was not noticeably observed.

This type of 'diplomacy' is more lunacy than pragmatism.  Obama will not launch any major offensives because the wars aren't 'plug 'n play', no wars are.  And his base of far-left liberals would crucify him for committing more troops to that part of the world and ratcheting up any foreign conflict, which the far-left base that handed him the nomination opposes outright.

The Iraqi government doesn't view the US forces in-country as an occupation, and nor can it.  The Iraqi forces are years away from being able to uphold the sovereignty of that nation without internal and external aid.  YEARS.  Any other notion is denying the reality of the situation.

As for Obama going after Al Qaeda in Pakistan, should he choose to stir that beehive, he will have a much larger uprising on his hands that will cause a major conflagration involving hundreds of thousands of troops on the Afghan/Pakistan border.  There is spotty support for Al Qaeda in Iraq, there is rampant support for Al Qaeda within the Pakistani armed services, and especially in the areas Obama believes he can launch major offensives.  It is not a wise position nor a feasible one, given the situation on the ground today.

Then again, wise and feasible are two adjectives rarely associated with Senator Obama's presidential aspirations and proposed initiatives.