Presidential candidate vs U.S. Senator
Reno Gazette-Journal | September 13, 2007
By Anjeanette Damon
Well, if there's not room in the paper-and-ink edition, at least there's the Internet. Here's a story I wrote yesterday on how U.S. Sen. Barack Obama is parsing his Iraq policy:
On the presidential campaign stump Wednesday in Iowa, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., renewed his call to empty Iraq of American combat troops by the end of the year.
But as Senate leaders, including U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., craft new Iraq legislation with an eye toward compromising with moderate Republicans, Obama said he would be willing to vote for a bill that falls short of his presidential campaign promise.
In a conference call with early state reporters, Obama said he would support legislation that may not call for an immediate withdrawal of combat troops as long as it "moves the ball forward."
As an example, Obama named U.S. Sen. Jim Webb's proposal to require that troops coming home from Iraq be given adequate time to rest between deployments.
"That would be an example of legislation that I would support," Obama said. "Even though it fell short, it would at least advance the ball."
On Wednesday, Reid told reporters the Democrats have crafted proposed legislation that would "change the course of the war in Iraq." He would not comment on the specifics of that measure.
Last week, Reid and other Senate Democrats signaled they would support a proposal for a moderate troop withdrawal if it would attract enough Republican support to override a presidential veto.
That's in contrast to calls for an immediate end to the Iraq War by most Democratic presidential candidates, many of whom sit on the Senate's Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees.
Unveiling his campaign's new Iraq policy, Obama called for a "surge" in diplomacy and a new constitutional convention to force political reconciliation among Iraqi leaders. He also called for $2 billion in U.S. aid to alleviate the "humanitarian crisis" unfolding in the country.
"We cannot rely solely on the military to solve this problem," Obama said. "What has always been clear is the military alone cannot create a Democratic Iraq."
Obama's proposal would bring one or two brigades home a month until all of the combat troops were back by the end of 2008. Troops would reside in Iraq to protect the embassy and to be available for counter-terrorism operations when necessary, he said.
"The best way to protect our security and to pressure Iraq's leaders to resolve their civil war is to immediately begin to remove our combat troops," Obama said according to the prepared text of his Iowa speech. "Not in six months or one year. Now."
Read the full article at the Reno Gazette-Journal.
