Barack Obama says President George Bush’s plan to withdraw 8,000 troops from Iraq by February, and to redeploy a faction of them to Afghanistan to fight Taliban forces, is categorically not enough.
Barack Obama says President George Bush’s plan to withdraw 8,000 troops from Iraq by February, and to redeploy a faction of them to Afghanistan to fight Taliban forces, is categorically not enough.
Campaigning in Riverside, Ohio today, the Democratic nominee was clear and forceful in expressing his mounting concern that the next, incoming president will be forced to inherit the status quo—in effect the havoc of extremists’ infighting and instability in the region. "It is not enough troops, and not enough resources, with not enough urgency," Obama insisted
Obama voiced his concerns during an impromptu press gathering hastily convened to respond to Bush’s announcement at Washington’s National Defense University (in follow-up to Gen. David Petraeus’ suggestion) to pull over 7,500 armed services officers, among them support and combat troops, from Iraq.
On the surface at least, any move seemingly aimed at curbing the war would strike many as a positive, but in this instance, some are also quick to point out that Bush’s plan still defers much of the duty ultimately needed for mass troop reduction to the future administration.
In labeling the effort, a "McCain-Bush" type of initiative, Obama again effectively linked chief rival John McCain to the 8-year-dark cloud that remains the effect of the Bush administration. McCain, recently purporting to be an agent-of-change, will offer up more of the same.
Again Obama argued the U.S.’ answer to the war in Iraq must involve "a more comprehensive agenda." The Chicago Senator’s strategy includes military redeployment in Afghanistan, in addition to building coalitions aimed at eliminating terrorism and ridding them of their weaponry.
Looking every bit the forceful commander-in-chief he hopes to be formally introduced as within the next two months, Obama boomed: "What President Bush and Senator McCain don’t understand is that the central front in the war on terror is not in Iraq, and it never was – the central front is in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the terrorists who hit us on 9/11 are still plotting attacks seven years later... Yet under President Bush’s plan, we still have nearly four times the number of troops in Iraq than Afghanistan."
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