Jophiel wrote:
gbaji wrote:
in what way is that different then "When the Iraqi's can maintain their own security we'll leave"?
Planned timetable. Lack of the open-endedness. Planning to have the combat troops out in 16 months and then needing 18 or 20 months is leagues different than nebulous conditions for troop withdrawal which never seem to occur.
Yes. Because the first is an honest statement about what is actually happening and what the actual conditions will need to be before the troops can come home. The second (Obama's method) is essentially a lie in that it makes it appear as though the "goal" is to get the troops home, but it effectively places the same limits on when they'll actually get back.
Personally, I'd much rather have a president who says that our troops are going to stay in theater and in strength until they've accomplished a specific goal, than one who says that his goal is to bring them home, but not until they've accomplished that same goal. Do you seriously think that Bush's intent is to keep hundreds of thousands of troops deployed just for the heck of it? Both are essentially using the exact same criteria for troop numbers. The only real difference is that Bush told you what that criteria was up front, while Obama would rather kinda hide that until it happens.
Does it make you feel better if we have troops in Iraq because the president wanted to send them home, but couldn't because conditions on the ground don't allow for it? At the end of the day, the same exact number of troops will be there. Assuming he's being honest about his criteria for withdrawal. There's always a chance that he'll feel forced to do so ahead of time and ***** up the whole process.
The problem with Obama is that you can't really be sure what he's actually going to do. He's told the folks on the left what they wanted to hear in order to get the nomination, and now he's telling the folks in the middle what they want to hear. Um... Which is it? Do you know? Are you sure? I'll repeat my earlier statement that if he doesn't pick some positions soon and stop trying to please everybody on all sides, he's going to lose this thing by even more then I thought he would.