Obama's Iraq plan
Posted: Wednesday, September 12, 2007 6:07 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
2008, Obama
From NBC’s Andy Merten and NBC/NJ’s Aswini Anburajan
Obama laid out his four-point strategy for Iraq today before a packed crowd at Ashton University in Clinton, Iowa. It is comprised of: 1) Commencing in an immediate withdrawal of one or two brigades (3,500 or 7,000 troops) a month; 2) a pressing effort for political stability, with aid from a United Nations constitutional convention; 3) increased regional diplomacy, especially with leaders of Syria and Iran; and 4) humanitarian intervention and financial aid to help stem the effects of current and future sectarian violence.
Although the Obama plan calls for a remaining residual military presence to protect American diplomatic and military personnel and continue hunting al-Qaeda, the Illinois senator did not, in his speech or in an extended overview of his plan, reveal exactly how many troops would remain. In addition, the Edwards campaign, speaking with reporters on a conference call on Monday, called for a residual force but denied to give exact numbers.
Obama was introduced by an Iraq vet, who served in Fallujah, and spoke against backdrop of American Flags with a small sign on the podium that read, “Turning the Page in Iraq.” The crowd was made up of college students and senior citizens, some from Illinois.
Obama’s speech also included a few lightly veiled political digs at Clinton, invoking the term “conventional thinking” several times. In an unmistakable shot at Clinton, he said: “Despite -- or perhaps because of how much experience they had in Washington -- too many politicians feared looking weak and failed to ask hard questions. Too many took the President as his word instead of reading the intelligence for themselves.”
He also joked about the namesake of the city in which he was speaking, saying, “It was a happy accident, but we do hope that the headline after we leave is ‘Clinton endorses Obama.’”
