Oomph and Distraction
August 7th, 2008The Iraqi government claims that it is close to a deal with the United States on a troop-withdrawal timetable. More here:
Iraq and the U.S. are near an agreement on all American combat troops leaving Iraq by October 2010, with the last soldiers out three years after that, two Iraqi officials told The Associated Press on Thursday. U.S. officials, however, insisted no dates had been agreed. The proposed agreement calls for Americans to hand over parts of Baghdad’s Green Zone — where the U.S. Embassy is located — to the Iraqis by the end of 2008. It would also remove U.S. forces from Iraqi cities by June 30, 2009, according to the two senior officials, both close to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and familiar with the negotiations.
If this goes through, it will essentially remove the war in Iraq as a major issue for discussion in the campaign except for the times when John McCain says that he supported a policy (the surge) that helped us “stabilize” that country. Obama will claim that this is his idea being adopted but McCain will charge that Obama would have never put us in a position to “win” the war, which, he’ll claim, we are doing now. I can not see this being a positive development for Obama’s campaign if it goes through, although it would and will be great for this country which always comes before politics.
It has also been announced, on a different note, that Bill Clinton will be addressing the Democratic Convention on the third night right before whoever-the-Vice-Presidential-nominee is speaks. This does not make a lick of sense unless Hillary is going to be the nominee because Clinton will simply remind the crowd that Hillary is not on the ticket and that a new leader has taken over, further dividing the party and taking attention from Obama as reporters wonder whether or not the Clintons have “gotten over it.”
At least we know that it’ll be an entertaining speech, if Bill’s the man.