Bush, McCain following Obama's lead?
Posted: Friday, July 18, 2008 2:42 PM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
White House, Security
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones
President Bush and
McCain are playing catch-up with
Obama when it comes to Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama advisers said on a conference call today.
The aides were responding to news that Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki had agreed that any new agreement regarding US-Iraqi relations after the UN mandate expires at year-end should include “a general time horizon" for withdrawing American troops from the country.
Senior foreign policy adviser Susan Rice said the presumptive Democratic nominee had been a leader on issues regarding Iraq and Afghanistan -- having long-called for a strategic redeployment of US troops from the former, and for increased efforts to deal with the national security threats presented by the latter.
VIDEO: Presidential hopeful Barack Obama hopes to bolster his foreign-policy credentials in a five nation trip to the Middle East and Europe. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports from Baghdad.
“[Obama] has made the prescient point that we ought to put more US brigades into Afghanistan to step up our effort there; that we ought not to put all of our military eggs and political eggs in Pervez Musharraf’s basket; and that our Pakistan and Afghanistan policies need to be adjusted,” Rice said. “We are now seeing Sen. McCain come gradually and belatedly around to that position. And today, we see the further evidence -- not only from the Iraqis, who have asked for a timetable for US withdrawal -- but from the administration, acknowledging that indeed a time horizon is desirable and necessary and is moving in that direction.”
She argued that McCain was trying to raise questions about the Illinois senator’s judgment on issues of foreign policy “to deflect attention from the fact that despite his claims to be the expert on national security, when it comes to critical issues he and President Bush are following Barack Obama’s lead.”
The comments came during a conference call held to preview Obama’s trip abroad next week. The trip -- during which he plans to meet with leaders in Jordan, Israel, Germany, France, and Great Britain -- is likely to be watched closely watched by journalists and voters. While Obama leads McCain in many national polls, a recent poll showed voters to be more comfortable with the Arizona senator in the area of foreign policy.
Obama plans to visit Iraq and Afghanistan this summer as well, but no details regarding those trips are being released.
Obama foreign policy adviser Denis McDonough noted that the Bush Administration’s decision to send Undersecretary of State William Burns to what he called “high-level direct talks with the Iranians in Geneva” was another sign that Bush and the McCain campaign were coming closer to Obama’s positions. Obama has been calling for direct engagement with Iran on its nuclear program.
On Iraq, Ben Rhodes -- a foreign policy adviser and senior speechwriter -- said Obama continued to believe that a timetable was important to urge Iraqis to step up to their responsibilities, saying of the agreement between Bush and Maliki: “This would have been more effective had it been a timetable that really put the pressure on the Iraqis to step up and take responsibility.”
*** UPDATE *** NBC's Bethany Thomas, who's traveling with the McCain campaign, reports that McCain senior adviser Nicolle Wallace came to the back of the plane to brief reporters on this "time horizon" news: "Conditions-based withdrawal has always been something Sen. McCain has supported. And the conditions are only something that we can talk about being met because of the success of the surge. Now that the surge has succeeded in Iraq, we can actually talk more ... about this aspirational conditions phase."
"Voters are going to have to draw their own conclusion about who would do what next. Who knows what Barack Obama would do next? He's managed to be on seven sides of every two-sided debate about the way to go forward in Iraq. So voters are going to have to decide what each man would do next. But Sen. McCain is certainly, without dispute, the leader on putting forth a policy that would lead to success and security so that we can have these discussions about a conditions-based withdrawal."
