Iraq backs Obama, irks White House
Baghdad, senator agree on troop pullout plan
WASHINGTON — The White House expressed unhappiness Monday about Iraqi leaders’ public backing for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s troop withdrawal timetable.
It said Baghdad may be trying to use the U. S. election as leverage in talks about the future of America’s military presence and obligations in the war.
The United States and Iraq probably will miss a July 31 target for reaching an agreement on continuing the U. S. troop presence in Iraq, said White House press secretary Dana Perino, characterizing the negotiations as “hard-driving.”
“We don’t think that talking about specific negotiating tactics or your negotiating position in the press is the best way to negotiate a deal,” Perino said after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was quoted in a magazine article supporting the 16-month troop withdrawal timeline proposed by Obama.
“However, we understand that they’re a sovereign country and they’ll be able to do that. We’re just not going to do it on our end.”
Al-Maliki’s spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, initially appeared to try to discredit the magazine report, but on Monday he expressed hopes that U. S. combat forces could be out of Iraq by 2010, the timeframe proposed by Obama.
“We are hoping that in 2010 that combat troops will withdraw from Iraq,” he said after Obama met with al-Maliki.
Iraq’s Sunni vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi, said after meeting Obama that Iraqi leaders share “a common interest . . . to schedule the withdrawal of American troops.”
The Iraqi statements suggested that Iraqi officials were setting the agenda on the timing of U. S. troop withdrawals and forcing President Bush to make concessions. “Let’s squeeze them,” Al-Maliki was quoted by the Associated Press as telling his advisers.
Bush last week reversed course and agreed to set a “general time horizon” for bringing home more U. S. troops, based on Iraq’s ability to take care of its own security.
“The key issue,” Perino said, “is that they understand it will not be arbitrary; it will not be a date that you just pluck out of thin air; it will not be something that Americans say, ‘We’re going to do — we’re going to leave at this date,’ which is what some have suggested,” she said.
The White House acknowledged the Iraqis might be trying to use the election for leverage.
“I think that a lot of other people look through the lens of a 2008 presidential election,” Perino said. “Might they be? Sure. I mean, it’s possible.”
In Iraq, Obama said almost nothing to reporters as he walked to and from his meetings, but he promised fuller impressions after he finishes his Iraq visit today and heads to Jordan and Israel.
He released a statement late Monday noting that Iraqis want an “aspirational timeline, with a clear date,” for the departure of U. S. combat forces.
“Prime Minister Maliki told us that while the Iraqi people deeply appreciate the sacrifices of American soldiers, they do not want an open-ended presence of U. S. combat forces. The prime minister said that now is an appropriate time to start to plan for the reorganization of our troops in Iraq — including their numbers and missions. He stated his hope that U. S. combat forces could be out of Iraq in 2010,” Obama said in a statement with Sens. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., and Jack Reed, D-R. I.
The senators also acknowledged a significant decline in violence in Iraq and said that while there has been some “forward movement” on political progress, reconciliation and economic development, there has not been “nearly enough to bring lasting stability to Iraq.”
Earlier Monday, Obama told ABC News that military leaders have “deep concerns” about a timetable that doesn’t account for changing conditions.
“I don’t think that there are deep concerns about the notion of a pullout per se,” he said in the interview. “There are deep concerns from their perspective about a timetable that doesn’t take into account what they anticipate might be some sort of change in conditions.”
Obama also told ABC that knowing what he knows now he still would have opposed the surge that sent more U. S. troops to Iraq last year.
During his visit, the Democratic presidential contender also got a military briefing — and a helicopter tour — from the top U. S. commander in the region, Gen. David Petraeus, and met with troops.
Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate John McCain said he hoped Obama’s visit would open his eyes to the danger of withdrawal timetables. “When you win wars, troops come home,” he said.
He also said he hoped Obama would “have the opportunity to see the success of the surge.”
