McCain camp seizes on Mullen's remarks
Posted: Sunday, July 20, 2008 2:21 PM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
Security
From NBC's Mark Murray
While the Obama campaign has seized on Nouri al-Maliki's interview with Der Spiegel as proof that the Iraqi prime minister agrees with Obama's plan to withdraw troops from Iraq, the McCain camp is highlighting Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen's remarks this morning Fox News Sunday.
Per the Washington Post, Mullen argued on the show that withdrawing all US troops from Iraq over the next two years could be "dangerous." "I think the consequences could be very dangerous," [Mullen said]. 'I'm convinced at this point in time that ... making reductions based on conditions on the ground are very important.'"
VIDEO: TODAY's Meredith Vieira talks to presidential hopeful John McCain about Barack Obama's trip to the Middle East, economic policy and the situation in Afghanistan.
The McCain campaign quickly fired off this statement: "Barack Obama has said repeatedly that, if elected president, he would summon the Joint Chiefs of Staff and give them a new mission: get all U.S. forces out of Iraq within 16 months, regardless of the conditions on the ground. Today, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mike Mullen, the nation's highest ranking officer, made clear that he believes such an approach could be 'very dangerous.'"
Obama, however, has never said he would ignore the conditions on the ground or the advice of US commanders there. As he wrote in the New York Times on Monday, "As I’ve said many times, we must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in. We can safely redeploy our combat brigades at a pace that would remove them in 16 months. That would be the summer of 2010... In carrying out this strategy, we would inevitably need to make tactical adjustments. As I have often said, I would consult with commanders on the ground and the Iraqi government to ensure that our troops were redeployed safely, and our interests protected. We would move them from secure areas first and volatile areas later. We would pursue a diplomatic offensive with every nation in the region on behalf of Iraq’s stability, and commit $2 billion to a new international effort to support Iraq’s refugees."
