Evening News: ‘The World Beyond Iraq’
Earlier today Barack gave an important speech to mark the five year anniversary of the Iraq war, titled “The World Beyond Iraq.” Barack called for a turn away from the path of “unending war and unilateral action” and an end to a politics based on fear and division.
From the New York Times:
In an address delivered to an invitation-only audience at a community college, Mr. Obama praised the military’s service, specifically singling out those based at nearby Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base. Yet he said the war had not been worth the toll taken on military families and the nation’s security. He amplified his call to remove one to two brigades a month with a goal of having combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months.
… Mr. Obama appeared at the Fayetteville Technical Community College, where a handful of uniformed soldiers were in the small crowd for what the campaign billed as a major policy address on Iraq and national security. The address was designed to mark the official starting date of the war.
… “The lesson of Iraq is that when we are making decisions about matters as grave as war,” Mr. Obama said, “we need a policy rooted in reason and facts, not ideology and politics.”
From the Associated Press:
In a speech not far from North Carolina’s Fort Bragg military base, the Democratic presidential hopeful told military families and local officials that the war has emboldened al-Qaida, the Taliban, Iran and North Korea.
“Ask yourself,” Obama told the crowd, “Who do you trust to end a war: someone who opposed the war from the beginning, or someone who started opposing it when they started preparing a run for president?”
… “What we need in our next commander in chief is not a stubborn refusal to acknowledge reality or empty rhetoric about 3 a.m. phone calls,” he said. “What we need is a pragmatic strategy that focuses on fighting our real enemies, rebuilding alliances and renewing our engagement with the world’s people.”
… “This is why the judgment that matters most on Iraq - and on any decision to deploy military force - is the judgment made first,” Obama said.
From the CBS News:
Calling the war in Iraq the product of a “failed ideology” and a “fundamentally flawed political strategy,” Barack Obama sought to outline a clear differentiation between not only himself and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, but Republican nominee John McCain as well.
“The way to win a debate with John McCain is not to talk, and act, and vote like him on national security, because then we all lose,” said Obama. “The way to win that debate and to keep America safe is to offer a clear contrast, and that’s what I will do when I am the nominee of the Democratic Party – because since before this war in Iraq began, I have made different judgments, I have a different vision, and I will offer a clean break from the failed policies and politics of the past.”
… Repeating his assertion that he will immediately begin withdrawing troops from Iraq as soon as he takes office, his plan is to remove one to two brigades a month, which would have all troops out of Iraq in 16 months. “After this redeployment, we will leave enough troops in Iraq to guard our embassy and diplomats, and a counter-terrorism force to strike al Qaeda if it forms a base that the Iraqis cannot destroy,” he said. “What I propose is not – and never has been – a precipitous drawdown.”
Stabilizing Iraq, according to Obama, will require the Iraqis taking a bigger role in running their own country. “It is precisely this kind of approach – an approach that puts the onus on the Iraqis, and that relies on more than just military power – that is needed to stabilize Iraq,” he said.
From the Washington Post:
“In 2002, when the fateful decisions about Iraq were made, there was a president for whom ideology overrode pragmatism, and there were too many politicians in Washington who spent too little time reading the intelligence reports, and too much time reading public opinion,” Obama told an audience of military and community leaders, in a speech titled “The World Beyond Iraq.”
…. He noted that McCain yesterday had mixed up Sunnis and Shiites while discussing the terrorist threat in Iraq, during the Arizona senator’s trip through the Middle East. “Maybe that is why he voted to go to war with a country that had no al-Qaeda ties. Maybe that is why he completely fails to understand that the war in Iraq has done more to embolden America ’s enemies than any strategic choice that we have made in decades,” Obama said.
From the Chicago Tribune:
Noting that the war in Iraq now has lasted longer than either of the World Wars or the American Civil War, Obama argued that the Iraq War in addition to the lives lost and treasure spent has opened a “security gap” for the United States by weakening its strategic position.
“There is a security gap in this country – a gap between the rhetoric of those who claim to be tough on national security, and the reality of growing insecurity caused by their decisions,” Obama said.
You can read Barack’s full plan, and then sign on to show your support for a safe and responsible end to the Iraq War.
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