Woke up early - caught that the markets were collapsing in Asia and Europe. Popped over to Drudge and caught this leader headline from the Washington Times coming out today!
Barbara Slavin, in an exclusive Washington Times article is reporting today that Senator Obama, shortly after clinching the democratic nomination urged Iraqi leaders to not sign the Bush agreement to keep troops in their country.
To quote from article:
Some of the specifics of the conversations remain the subject of dispute. Iraqi leaders purported to The Times that Mr. Obama urged Baghdad to delay an agreement with Mr. Bush until next year when a new president will be in office - a charge the Democratic campaign denies.
Mr. Obama spoke June 16 to Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari when he was in Washington, according to both the Iraqi Embassy in Washington and the Obama campaign. Both said the conversation was at Mr. Zebari's request and took place on the phone because Mr. Obama was traveling.
However, the two sides differ over what Mr. Obama said.
"In the conversation, the senator urged Iraq to delay the [memorandum of understanding] between Iraq and the United States until the new administration was in place," said Samir Sumaidaie, Iraq's ambassador to the United States.
He said Mr. Zebari replied that any such agreement would not bind a new administration. "The new administration will have a free hand to opt out," he said the foreign minister told Mr. Obama.
I don't know if this will have any legs, considering the worldwide stock crash fallout, but we need to stay ahead of this nonsense! McCain will jump on this like a fly onto *#@!.
Any potential leader who may be working within international agreements such as this, would be irresponsible to not state their concern over such an action by the Bush administration to hamstring the next President to Iraq. If anything, the attempt by this White House to forge an agreement that would tie our troops within Iraq should be the topic for debate, not the other way around!