Obama Opens Door to Altering Iraq Policy

Obama Opens Door to Altering Iraq Policy
Obama says his Iraq trip could alter his 16-month timetable for withdrawing troops
By JENNIFER LOVEN | ABCNews.com

Democrat Barack Obama opened the door Thursday to altering his plan to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq in 16 months based on what he hears from military commanders during his upcoming trip there.

"I am going to do a through assessment when I'm there," he told reporters on the airport tarmac here. "I'm sure I'll have more information and continue to refine my policy."

During his presidential campaign, Obama has gone from the hard-edged, vocal opposition to Iraq that defined his early candidacy to more nuanced rhetoric that calls for a phased-out drawdown of all combat brigades that, at a rate of one or two a month, could last 16 months. He has said that if al-Qaida builds bases in Iraq, he would keep troops either in the country or the region to carry out "targeted strikes."

Responding on Thursday, Republican National Committee spokesman Alex Conant said, "There appears to be no issue that Barack Obama is not willing to reverse himself on for the sake of political expedience. Obamas Iraq problem undermines the central premise of his candidacy and shows him to be a typical politician."

But Obama insisted that his position has not changed at all.

He said he is saying now what he always has: The war was a mistake and needs to be brought to "a responsible end," but "we need to be as careful getting out as we were careless getting in." This means, he said, that his 16-month timeline was always premised on troops being safe and Iraq being stable.

"I'm going to continue to gather information to see whether those conditions still hold," he said. "My goal is to end this conflict as soon as possible."

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What George Bush Sr. and Barbara Said in Heat of Passion

"we need to be as careful getting out as we were careless getting in."

They should have had an exit plan.

So should Obama.

I sure as hell wish they'd had an exit plan

prior to the conception of son "W"!

How about a new slogan ...

Refinement We Can Believe In

New Slogan:

"Refinement We Can Believe In"

OB-a-a-a-h, B-a-a-ah, B-a-a-a-h ma!

Obama: "My goal is to end this conflict as soon as possible."

From a politician's mouth to the sheeple's ears.

This is the same thing Bush told the world when he first invaded Iraq.

Sheeple

"Sheeple". A term that expresses our anger at all the people who don't listen to us and let themselves be manipulated by the Republicans and right-wing Democrats and their lies. A term that represents our own failure of analysis, one that expresses a facile reactionary view of the American people, disguised as radical critique. (Yes, I've used it too, it's tempting to express our frustrations this way, and the term is "out there" in the ongoing conversation on the Web.) But what is the reality we are labeling with this term?

The people are being led like sheep. Are they like sheep? Do they have critical thoughts, ideas, a latent will to do something? Are they responsible for the sad state of American democracy? The people I meet at truck stops, convenience stores and campgrounds as I travel around are without exception skeptical and concerned. Few belong to unions but most wish they could. Some support Bush's policies but all are skeptical of his motives. Some spout hate-radio slogans and libertarian fantasies and some sound like Wobblies. Some are involved in politics, many are detached. (Apathetic is the wrong word. What is a good word for "detached, bitter and actively refusing to get involved"?) But they are terribly misinformed. Most have a sense of being misinformed and mistrust the media, but still, as is our nature, take pride in what they think they know and understand. The most confused are often the readers of the New York Times and listeners to NPR and the BBC - I was one of these - who think they are getting the news denied to the others, and can't imagine that all those reasonable, responsible, intelligent and educated journalists are participants in a coordinated propaganda operation that is denying them access to essential news stories on almost a daily basis.

So what do we mean when we call the people "sheeple"? Are we blaming them for Bush and Pelosi, for Enron and Haliburton, for CitiCorp and Karl Rove? Are we blaming them for tuning out the news broadcasts that they rightly perceive as dishonest, and the incoherent stories and lists of facts that passes for "history" in the public school curriculum?

Should we not rather be looking at how we can meet their urgent need for good information and honest news, information and news that will support their urge to combine and act for the common good?

Let's excise this slur, sheeple, this symbolization of the blaming of the victims (including ourselves) for our oppression, exploitation and manipulation - from our vocabularies, and let's start calling out anyone who uses it! Because the people are treated like sheep does not make them so!

Obama Better Be Careful

War opponents can always vote Green if he keeps up this crap.

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