Michael Crowley: Barack in Iraq
As a candidate for president in 1968, Richard Nixon ran on what is (apocryphally) remembered as a "secret plan to end the war" in Vietnam. We now know, of course, that Nixon had no such intention. Today, Barack Obama's campaign is largely based around a promise to "end the war" in Iraq by withdrawing troops within 16 months.
But some Washington foreign policy mandarins insist this isn't possible--that a total U.S. withdrawal isn't achievable and Obama knows it. That Obama, like Nixon, in fact has a secret plan not to end the war. "The classic storyline is that everyone wants to get out, but we're not going to get out, and everyone's going to be disappointed," says Derek Chollet, a former foreign policy adviser to John Edwards. Or, at least, that Obama's speeches overstate the feasibility of a near-term Iraq exit. "Close to a pipe dream," says the Council on Foreign Relations' Leslie Gelb. "I regard that as campaign rhetoric rather than serious policy." "Wildly unrealistic campaign rhetoric," scoffs The Washington Post editorial page.
Not helping matters for Obama was his now-departed foreign policy adviser Samantha Power's recent concession that his withdrawal plan amounted to a "best- case scenario" subject to substantial revision when he takes office. Most recently came a provocative report in The New York Sun that the leader of the Obama campaign's working group on Iraq had authored a think-tank paper proposing to leave a whopping 60,000-80,000 American troops in Iraq through 2010. Yes, that pop you just heard was Dennis Kucinich's head exploding.
The truth is Obama has no secret plan for Iraq. Interviews with nearly two dozen foreign policy and military experts, as well as Obama's campaign advisers, and a close review of Obama's own statements on Iraq, suggest something more nuanced. What he is offering is a basic vision of withdrawal with muddy particulars, one his advisers are still formulating and one that, if he is elected, is destined to meet an even muddier reality on the ground. ...
Read entire article at New Republic
But some Washington foreign policy mandarins insist this isn't possible--that a total U.S. withdrawal isn't achievable and Obama knows it. That Obama, like Nixon, in fact has a secret plan not to end the war. "The classic storyline is that everyone wants to get out, but we're not going to get out, and everyone's going to be disappointed," says Derek Chollet, a former foreign policy adviser to John Edwards. Or, at least, that Obama's speeches overstate the feasibility of a near-term Iraq exit. "Close to a pipe dream," says the Council on Foreign Relations' Leslie Gelb. "I regard that as campaign rhetoric rather than serious policy." "Wildly unrealistic campaign rhetoric," scoffs The Washington Post editorial page.
Not helping matters for Obama was his now-departed foreign policy adviser Samantha Power's recent concession that his withdrawal plan amounted to a "best- case scenario" subject to substantial revision when he takes office. Most recently came a provocative report in The New York Sun that the leader of the Obama campaign's working group on Iraq had authored a think-tank paper proposing to leave a whopping 60,000-80,000 American troops in Iraq through 2010. Yes, that pop you just heard was Dennis Kucinich's head exploding.
The truth is Obama has no secret plan for Iraq. Interviews with nearly two dozen foreign policy and military experts, as well as Obama's campaign advisers, and a close review of Obama's own statements on Iraq, suggest something more nuanced. What he is offering is a basic vision of withdrawal with muddy particulars, one his advisers are still formulating and one that, if he is elected, is destined to meet an even muddier reality on the ground. ...