Iraq politics
Posted: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 1:28 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
2008, Security, McCain, Obama
From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro
The McCain campaign is trying to put Iraq front and center in this campaign -- now hitting Obama surrogate Sen. Claire McCaskill for saying the presumptive Democratic nominee would not change position on Iraq.
VIDEO: NBC's Andrea Mitchell talks with The New York Times columnist Bob Herbert about Barack Obama and John McCain's positions on the war in Iraq.
“I think that raises questions as to his sensibility given what’s happening on the ground there now,” said Rep. Eric
Cantor (R-VA). “What sounded sensible a year ago -- at least to some” is not necessarily what’s right now or reflective of what’s happening on the ground, he continued.
Cantor, who has had his profile raised by mild rumors of his consideration as VP, warned, as have other Republicans, that pulling out at the wrong time could end up in a regrouping of insurgents or lead to an emboldened al Qaeda.
“He’ll have to change it,” Cantor said of Obama’s policy, calling it an “ideological commitment” and pandering to the Left.
Asked by a reporter if the war is going so well, doesn’t it make sense to start withdrawing some troops now, Cantor replied this way, “Look, the decision on troop levels is the decision of the Commander in Chief. … That’s why I raise the question on Barack Obama’s intransigence on his Iraq policy.”
“He needs a plan based on sustaining and improving” the situation, he said.
*** UPDATE *** The Obama campaign responds: "Throughout this campaign, Barack Obama has been clear and consistent in saying that we need to responsibly end the war in Iraq so that we can restore our military strength, finish the fight in Afghanistan and focus on the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11," Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement. "Today, eleven months after Barack Obama called for more troops in Afghanistan, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff supported that position while pointing out once again that the war in Iraq is shortchanging our effort in Afghanistan. Instead of questioning Barack Obama's consistent call for a new direction in Iraq and Afghanistan, John McCain should explain why he is offering nothing more than four more years of a failed foreign policy that has asked nothing of the Iraqi government, overstretched our military, failed to finish the job in Afghanistan, and failed to bring Osama bin Laden to justice for over six years."
