Marathon Pundit: Obama back to supporting immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq

Friday, October 19, 2007

Obama back to supporting immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq

Just three weeks ago, Barack Obama at a Democratic candidates debate in New Hampshire couldn't make a guarantee about whether there would still be U.S. troops in Iraq at the end of a first Obama presidential term in 2013, saying, "I think it's hard to project four years from now."

But two weeks before that debate, Obama said this:

Let me be clear: There is no military solution in Iraq, and there never was. The best way to protect our security and to pressure Iraq's leaders to resolve their civil war is to immediately begin to remove our combat troops," Obama said in his speech. “Not in six months or one year -- now.

Since the New Hampshire debate, Obama, who's been losing ground to Hillary Clinton in most opinion polls, has been delivering the message unlike HRC and John Edwards, he's always been against the war, way back in 2002--when almost no one had heard of him.

Throw this in the mix: In August, Obama said as president, he'd be willing to attack al Qaeda forces in Pakistan. To put in kindly, that comment was not well received by the Pakistani government.

Back to Iraq. Obama was in Tempe, Arizona Friday afternoon, and in a speech in front of 5,000 supporters, it appears that Obama has made up his mind what he would do there. Associated Press is reporting that Obama would immediately order U.S. troops to leave Iraq once he is president. Here's another report on his speech, which I found on the Obama campaign site.

This comes from the East Valley Tribune:

He called for withdrawing U.S. troops from the Iraq war, and said that if elected his first course of business will be to call for a meeting of the joint chiefs of staff to order them to remove Americans from the Middle East. He also promised to provide health care to every single person in the United States that is as good as health care U.S. senators receive.